[mg39]

I pray that you're opinion is in the minority if you believe that pigs not having toys equates with neglect or inhumane treatment. Or are you going to suggest a similar law for human children? If you research this story, you'll see that the farmers do not need to give their pigs toys, but only materials, like straw, etc., to allow them to play and thereby provide mental stimulation. I feel the same way about kids, i.e., children who are not provided with some form of mental stimulation, be it toys or a playmate, are in fact being abused. I know, from work as a volunteer advocate for abused and neglected children, that there are, sadly, children being raised in terrible environments in which the only mental stimulation, if you can call it that, is a blaring television. Having also volunteered at a wildlife rehab center, where we occasionally took in domesticated animals, I can report as fact that animals, particularly higher mammals like pigs, dogs, cats, etc., can suffer not only physical abuse, but mental abuse as well.

[babyface00]

Let me get this straight...

You believe that not providing pigs with things to play with (I'd call that "toys", but if you don't like that word, that's fine) is the equivalent of "mental abuse?

Furthermore, on the one hand, you believe that this "abuse" is so pervasive and objectionable that laws must be passed to force farmers to abide by your opinions but on the other hand, you don't believe that this is obvious enough that farmers, whose livelihood depends on the health of their livestock, would voluntarily comply?

Would it be too much of a stretch to suggest that possibly pig farmers, who spend much of their lives around these animals, know just a little more about them than volunteers, beurocrats, and the EU?