Santa visits some pigs at Christmas in Germany

The way farmed pigs, chickens and dairy cattle are treated is totally unacceptable. The only way I can see an end to this is when humans get themselves back in proportion, numerically with the rest of the animal kingdom. This is not the direction we are going in, rather we continue to increase our numbers. It will get worse for other species before it gets better, unfortunately. Whilst animal welfare activists will win some battles along the way I just see the screws tightening more and more on animals who provide humans with food. It's great that Father Christmas visited the pigs that night and the music lends a real poignancy to the film. Originally posted on Jan 2, 2012 but lost due to site damage. Reposted by Editor on Jan 6th.

{Reposted by Editor on Jan 6 2012 due to original having been lost to site damage.) On January 2nd, 2012 Vivienne Ortega says: Sixty billion farm animals are already used to produce food annually, the majority in industrial-scale factory farms. Citizens in developed countries eat four times more meat than those in developing countries, a far greater difference than that which exists for grain consumption. In the United States alone approximately 10 billion animals are slaughtered every year. Due to the increase in human population and the high demand for meat products at a cheap price, there is now a system of 'extensive' farming. But instead of producing ‘goods‘, animals are reared in the quickest and cheapest possible way before being slaughtered. The fate of millions of future factory farmed animals is a bleak one indeed. Rising incomes, populations and demand for meat has resulted in the global poultry population quadrupling since the 1960s to about 18 billion birds in factory farms today. The pathogenic H5N1 form of avian flu does not usually develop in wild birds or backyard poultry because their populations are too spread out and diverse. Thus we have bird flu, swine flu and mad-cow disease. These horrific places are tinder-boxes for disease, with monocultures of animals crammed together reliant on antibiotics. A report from United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management says: "Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth increasing consumption of animal products". Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has also urged people to observe one meat-free day a week to curb carbon emissions. Why not 7 days a week? We wouldn't need a carbon tax if we all avoided livestock products. A veg*n/vegetarian diet is not only kinder on the planet and animals, but more people can be fed.

On January 2nd, 2012 Tigerquoll says: Now at 7 billion and exponentially breeding, humans have become Earth's Pathogen. It is our sheer numbers that are the root cause driving ecological harm across the planet - deforestation, salination, pollution, climate change, wildlife extinctions, sprawl - all compounded by decadent consumerism since the Industrial Revolution. We have become a rat race. To curb human overpopulation we need human-sterilsation in global drinking water. Add it to the fluoridation globally. It's a simple cost effective solution to curb humanity's pathogenic impost on the planet. Wait three generations and until there's about half a billion of us humans left. Then adjust the sterilisation treatment to maintain the half billion threshold with each nation a quota. That was our global number pre-'Industrial Civilisation' circa 1700, before our exponential ecological carnage. Half a billion humans globally may be thought of as our 'healthy equilibrium capacity'. The planet and its inhabitants will breathe anew! Melbourne would be like leafy quiet Suggan Buggan - paradise! While it's not politically correct, it sure beats China's cruel one child policy. What are the alternatives to Earth's Pathogen? 17,000,000,000 by 2050 and 35,000,000,000 by 2300 as predicted by the United Nations? How else can current exponential human population growth be reversed and reduced substantially and quickly? GM water sterilisation sure beats famine, plagues, genocides, nuclear holocaust, etc. - and no-one gets hurt, just 'clucky-frustrated'. I'd award the inventor the Nobel Peace Prize and the planet will thank them. :) Tigerquoll Suggan Buggan Snowy River Region Victoria 3885 Australia