Grade School Sparks Outrage for Its Decision to Slaughter Pet Pigs Kept on Its Farm

Primary school headteacher has defended plans of butchering pigs raised in the school in order to teach children about the food chain. A petition said that the act would only teach the children that exploiting and killing animals is okay if it is justified by hunger. Farsley Farfield, a primary school based in Leeds, had been feeding the Gloucester Old Spot pigs at the mini-farm. The mini-farm also has vegetable patches and hens.

The school, that was awarded ‘healthy school of the year’ by the Times Literary Supplement in 2017, started keeping the pigs to teach children about the sources of their food and the issues of animal welfare. When the pigs were taken, the school headteacher said that the pigs would not be pets and they would only be there for nine months.

“The pigs will have life twice as long as modern commercially reared breeds and will have a truly free-range life.”

It seems the school was about to teach the children a very valuable lesson. However, their teaching methods just might have traumatized or disturbed the children in contact with the pigs. After all, the children in the school were 4 years and above.

A former student and animal rights activist whose mother works in the school, Ix Willow, has petitioned against the act and argued that the school is teaching the children that it is okay to exploit and slaughter animals.

“They (Pigs) are friendly animals that can live for about 12 years or so,” Ix said. “Yet in the livestock industry, they are sent to slaughter as young as six months old.” If the breeding chances look good, the lucky ones live for about 2 years. The activist pleads by adding that they are smart creatures that don’t deserve such a horrific fate for someone else's education. “It should be common knowledge that the amount of animal products we eat in the UK (and globally) is well above sustainable and healthy levels,” she said.

Since the school also teaches children of various ethnic groups, subjecting students who do not eat or associate with any form of meat to these acts against their faith is plain wrong. Ix also exclaimed that schools everywhere have to teach their students good values and support them. The case with Farsley Farfield is only traumatizing the students by introducing the pigs in their lives and declaring their death.