What does a pig saving himself from slaughter tell us about our attitudes towards non-human animals?
Milton the pig, who was lucky enough to have his sentience and agency recognised after his daring escape on the way to slaughter last week.
Last week, news emerged of a pig who after escaping during the journey to the slaughterhouse is now to be allowed to live out his natural life with his original ‘owners’. We take a look at the story in more depth and what it reveals about our conflicting attitudes towards non-humans.
Milton the pig’s story of his ‘dramatic escape’ on the way to the slaughterhouse, followed by a heartwarming news-friendly ending as the smallholders who raised him suddenly realised he was a sentient being deserving of life, is a classic example of what is revealed about our attitudes towards animals when we root for the ones who escape. This is something we’ve discussed at great length in a video from November last year and an accompanying article on famous cow escape stories, but Milton’s story - and in particular the comments from his ‘owners’ about their change of heart, further serve to illustrate the hypocrisy of raising and consuming animals.
From the BBC report:
A pig destined for the slaughterhouse is looking forward to a long life after a dramatic escape. Smallholder Sarah Allan, from Langtree in north Devon, had been driving three pigs to an abattoir 11 miles (18km) away in Holsworthy. But when she arrived she was astonished to find that one of the animals had jumped out of the trailer. It was later found in a field in Milton Damerel.
Ms Allan said: "I don't think I have it in me to send him back."
Allan was later quoted as saying:
"He doesn't like trailers anyway, he hates going in them. He even tried to get out again on the way home. And I really admire his determination to survive. He's back, and that's where he's going to stay."
Notice the language. Milton suddenly went from a nameless thing to a someone who even has likes and dislikes and a recognised determination. What we haven’t mentioned yet is the fate of Milton’s companions on that fateful journey, two other pigs who because they didn’t manage to escape, ended up dead. Milton himself was only named because he escaped and was elevated to the status of ‘pet’ and therefore somehow is more deserving of a name and his life than his friends.
We wouldn’t for one moment say that Milton should have shared the same fate as the others so that the Allan family could not be accused of being hypocrites, but moral consistency should certainly still be applied. In the same way that we ask what the difference is between dogs and pigs - the former being categorised as a companion animal, the latter as walking food, by society, culture and tradition only - we should also ask what the difference between Milton and his friends was. As Surge co-director Ed Winters says in his commentary on this phenomenon:
“Why must animals have to fight for their freedom to earn the right to live? Just because others are unable to make a break for freedom doesn't make their death anymore justifiable. And someone’s right to life isn’t based on their courage, we don’t view our own moral worth by that standard, nor do we hold other species of animals that we don’t farm by that standard either.”
Allan would not be the only person who felt Milton should live in peace for the rest of his life, doubtless readers of the BBC story would have had their hearts warmed at the news. But how many of them have rashers of sliced fatty pig flesh and sausages in their fridges, conveniently disconnecting the individual from the product through euphemistic labels like ‘bacon’ and ‘pork’? The inconvenient truth is that the same people who would have felt sadness had Milton not been allowed his life are also guilty of putting him in that situation in the first place.
Milton’s successful attempt at self-liberation reminded us that animals have agency, the sociological term for the capacity of an individual to act independently and make choices. In Milton’s case, he acted to escape from the trailer and chose to survive. Even if that choice was pure instinct, it is the same survival instinct to which we as a species owe everything. In that regard, humans are no different to non-humans, our base instincts underpin many of our everyday intellectual decisions. Consider that non-human animal sentience is generally accepted with the UK government having put out a statement in 2019 stating that it would continue to recognise animal sentience in regard to changes in legislation post-Brexit. If we accept sentience, we must also accept agency, in this case, the desire of an individual to choose to survive and not experience pain and death.
Unfortunately, most of us do not recognise this. We continue to support harmful industries that deny animal agency and their attempts to free themselves. We breed and raise animals in confinement, preventing self-liberation so that one day when they reach the right age and weight, we can send them to the slaughterhouse and run a knife across their necks.
We see ourselves as different when really we are all Milton.
Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager at Surge.
Your support makes a huge difference to us. Supporting Surge with a monthly or one-off donation enables us to continue our work to end all animal oppression.
LATEST ARTICLES
