July 30, 2012

Best mud pit for pigs in Buren

Filed under: Animals by Branko Collin @ 8:58 am

The Lekker Dier foundation, a farm animal welfare group, announced last Thursday that the best mud pit for pigs in 2012 is the one in the farmyard of the Van Leeuwen family in Buren.

“This pit is large, nice and deep, and muddy. Perfect for a lovely cool down in this warm weather.”

This year marked the eighth time the trophee was awarded. Only one percent of the 12 million pigs in the Netherlands have access to mud baths. Pigs use mud baths to regulate their temperature and to keep their skin clean from parasites.

Buren is a village near Tiel, in the largest province of the Netherlands, Gelderland.

Check the Stad Tiel article for some photos of happy (and even smiling) pigs.

(Photo of pigs in the USA by US Department of Agriculture / Lance Cheung, and therefore in the public domain)

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November 27, 2009

Some pigs are more equal than others

Filed under: Animals by Orangemaster @ 12:32 pm
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After giving birth to a total of 170 piglets, breeding sow ‘Fokzeug 1281’ (‘fok’ means ‘breed’ in Dutch before anyone asks) is getting a proper retirement instead of being turned into pork roast. Pig breeder Edwin Snoek from Heerhugowaard has decided that 1281 gets to spend the rest of its days at Het Beloofde Varkensland (The Promised Pigland) in Amstelveen with its last piglet, 170.

The picture here is of Caesar, a pig who had its own webcam at Promised Pigland.

(Link: vleesmagazine.nl, Photo: varkensgeluk)

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September 20, 2009

Made from pig

Filed under: Animals,Design by Branko Collin @ 11:34 am

Christien Meindertsma documented 185 products contributed to by a single pig in an exhibition at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam last year, and in a book (also available in a pigskin bound version, of course). Pig 05049 won her one of the five 2009 Index design awards in August.

The list of good things coming from a pig includes bacon of course, yoghurt, pudding, paints, enamels (bone china!), cigarettes, brakes, bullets, and washing powder. The distinct smell of crayons is pig.

The Index Award prize money, 100,000 euro, will go in part to making the book available on the web, but if you want print copies you can buy them via Amazon and so on. The print version shows all the products life-sized.

(Via Jason Kottke. Source photo: Indexaward.dk.)

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January 11, 2008

Pig saved from death has own webcam

Filed under: Animals by Orangemaster @ 9:22 am
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Caesar the pig didn’t want to go quietly into the abbatoir and was bought by pig farmer Dafne Westerhof who now has him on display through a webcam. The 315-kilo pig, raised by a bio farmer, simply refused to walk into the abbatoir. They both tried to transport him in a trailer, Caesar just wouldn’t go. He rammed so hard against the side of the trailer that he knocked out the side panel. Westerhof then decided to buy the pig for 2,000 euro. Caesar now lives on Westerhof’s farm Het Beloofde Varkensland (The Promised Pigland) in Amstelveen.

Check out Caesar’s Palace, the webcam. He is cute.

(Link: vleesmagazine.nl, Photo: varkensgeluk)

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November 27, 2007

Vegetarians don’t know the half of it

Filed under: Animals,Art,Religion,Science by Orangemaster @ 10:13 am
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Anyone who reads the book PIG 05049 by Rotterdam designer Christien Meindertsma gets to read all about the things made using pigs. Matches, lotions, desserts, beer, lemonade, car paint, pills, bread, sweets and even green energy should be entirely avoided by any real vegetarian or vegan and anyone whose religious beliefs has an issue with piggies. Chances are, they barely know any of this, as PIG 05049 has discovered 187 uses for pigs in quite unusual places. I’m sure I’ve seen a vegetarian use a match or a Jew drive a car…

PIG 05049 will be on sale as of December, and in the summer of 2008, Meindertsma will have a warehouse full of pig products in the Rotterdam Kunsthal during an exhibition called ‘Kunsthal Kookt’ (‘The Kunsthal is cooking’).

(Link: vleesmagazine.nl)

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