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From: Kinship Circle - kinshipcircle [at] accessus.net
Date: Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 2:01 PM
Subject: Piglets Of The Flood - Iowa Rescues Give Birth

KINSHIP CIRCLE PRIMARY - PERMISSION TO CROSS-POST

10/14/08: UPDATE: Piglets Of The Flood - Iowa Rescues Give Birth

DATE: 7/28/08…9/9/08
SOURCE: Midwest Flood Pig Rescue Blog, floodrescue2008.blogspot.com/
Images From A Flood, www.kinshipcircle.org/disasters/relief/08-07-03.html

PHOTOS COURTESY OF FARM SANCTUARY, www.farmsanctuary.org

FROM KINSHIP CIRCLE

When Iowa floods saturated nearly 80% of the state this summer, Iowa’s Veterinary Response Coordinator enlisted Kinship Circle Animal Disaster Aid Network to staff staging areas at Johnson County Fairgrounds in Iowa City and Lee County Fairgrounds in Donnellson, Iowa. By June 14, 2008 we were in daily conference calls with the state EOC (Emergency Operations Center). We contacted Best Friends Rapid Response Team and asked Iowa officials to form an agreement with them (MOU) for water rescue in Louisa, Des Moines, Lee, Johnson or Linn counties…. Over June and July, Kinship Circle volunteers traveled to Iowa for emergency pet sheltering, transport and rescue operations.

PHOTO: Molly Wald, Best Friends, www.bestfriends.org

IN THE MEANTIME, PIGS WERE EVERYWHERE…Adrift from flooded hog farms, some still encased in crates. While 40,000 were pre-evacuated, an estimated 4,000 (or more) pigs died. Some who’d scrambled atop levees were shot dead by officials concerned they’d ruin sandbags. Many more drowned. Kinship Circle contacted Farm Sanctuary to ask their Emergency Rescue Team to come to Iowa. KC volunteers Cheri Deatsch, Bob Rude, David Halperin and Craig Hill assisted Farm Sanctuary in initial pig rescues. Eventually “Operation Pig” grew so large, a coalition of Farm Sanctuary, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), American Humane Association (AHA), and Animal Rescue League of Boston recovered pigs from levee systems and treated many for severe sunburn, dehydration, etc. at a triage site in Iowa.

IOWA FLOOD RESCUE PHOTOS & TALES:
www.kinshipcircle.org/disasters/relief/08-07-03.html

FROM FARM SANCTUARY

More than 60 special needs pigs saved from the floods received critical care, treatments and surgeries… Safe at Farm Sanctuary’s New York Shelter, the first of the pregnant sows rescued from the Iowa floods have given birth! Bringing lots of little piglets into the world, the mothers, Rosebud, Mango and Mabel, are thrilled with the new arrivals…

After having the honor of knowing these sows, it is painful to think about what their lives were like at the factory farms they only narrowly escaped when the Mississippi River overflowed. But we must think about it because Mango, Rosebud, Nikki, and all the other bright, passionate, loving, and sensitive gestation sows rescued in Iowa are not anomalies in their ability to feel so deeply, and they need us to show the world what is at stake when factory farms treat sentient creatures like commodities.

FARM SANCTUARY: Rosebud, welcomed eight tiny piglets into the world! An event that lasted about 2 ½ hours, this emotional birth culminated in the safe delivery of a breech baby… The love between sows and piglets is remarkable, especially in moments piglets awaken from naps and run to reach their mothers’ faces, grunting excitedly into their ears as if to say, “thank goodness you’re still here!” One of Rosebud’s babies, Pepper, is so thrilled to see his mother that he sticks his entire nose into her ear.

One of the smallest piglets in the litter was too weak to nurse on his own. He was bottle-fed vital colostrum from his mother and then taken to a veterinary hospital for postnatal care. Meanwhile, caregivers kept vigil by Rosebud’s side, watching over her fragile babies…

Another pregnant sow, Mango, was settling into a birthing hut out in the pasture, and…she too gave birth to eight beautiful girls and boys!

LEFT: A piglet takes her first steps.

RIGHT: Newborns huddle together for warmth and comfort.

SEE MORE AT FARM SANCTUARY’S MIDWEST FLOOD PIG RESCUE BLOG:
floodrescue2008.blogspot.com/

PIGS AT FACTORY FARMS CANNOT MOVE

LEFT: Piglets nurse through the metal slats of a farrowing crate encasing their mother in a fixed position on her side.

RIGHT: Pregnant sows are immobilized in gestation crates.

Pigs, like dogs, are outgoing individuals who form social ties and navigate life through curious snouts. Each year roughly 100 million U.S. pigs are denied space, sunlight, straw bedding, mudbaths or any feature fundamental to pigs. At hog factories, 600-pound sows are immobilized in two-foot wide gestation crates and forcibly impregnated. After birth sows are wedged on their sides inside farrowing crates. Tiny piglets struggle to nurse through metal bars, but otherwise cannot touch their mothers.

At the November 4 elections, Californians have a history-making chance to ban cruel confinement crates that don’t let egg-laying hens, pregnant pigs or veal calves stand, lie down or turn around. Imagine spending your entire life in a single dark compartment, unable to move freely. This is how animals at intensive confinement farms live.

LEARN ABOUT PROP 2 / HELP IT PASS: yesonprop2.com

KINSHIP CIRCLE REFERENCES:

7/3/08: Images From A Flood + Rescued Pigs Need Homes
www.kinshipcircle.org/disasters/relief/08-07-03.html

6/26/08: The Lucky Ones… Iowa Flood Pigs
www.kinshipcircle.org/disasters/relief/08-06-26.html

6/20/08: IOWA FLOOD - Notes From The Water’s Edge
www.kinshipcircle.org/disasters/relief/08-06-20.html

6/15/08: IOWA FLOOD - Emergency Volunteers Needed
www.kinshipcircle.org/disasters/relief/08-06-15.html

6/13/08: Midwest Underwater - Rivers Still Rising
www.kinshipcircle.org/disasters/relief/08-06-13.html

FACTS: The Pig Industry
www.kinshipcircle.org/fact_sheets/FactsAboutThePorkIndust.pdf

FACTS: Poultry & Egg Factories
www.kinshipcircle.org/fact_sheets/FactsAboutPoultyEggIndustr.pdf

Facts: Dairy & Veal Farms
www.kinshipcircle.org/fact_sheets/FactsAboutDairyVealIndustr.pdf

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DISCLAIMER: Kinship Circle believes a vegan lifestyle is the ultimate way to end animal cruelty and other devastating impacts of animal agriculture. While suffering may be slightly reduced via more cage space, enforced anti-cruelty laws, “humane slaughter,” etc. — these upgrades cannot eliminate: Confinement, deprivation, drugging, manhandling, brutal slaughter, dismemberment, and consumption.

Action Campaigns I Literature I Animal Disaster Aid Networking
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www.KinshipCircle.org * www.kinshipcircle.org/disasters/

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