Pig farmer turns to animal rights
HIGH ON THE HOG: The former
pork-raiser has dedicated himself to vegetarianism and animal husbandry since a
little piglet ‘convinced’ him that killing pigs was wrong
By Tsai Pai-lingand Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter, with
staff writer
Lo
Hung-hsien feeds his pigs at his farm in New Taipei
City
Photo: Tsai
Pai-ling, Taipei Times
A hog farmer from New Taipei City’s (新北市) Linkou
District (林口) has transformed his farm into a real-life “piggy paradise” where pigs are not raised for meat, after he was struck by
the woeful eyes of a piglet which was going to be slaughtered.
“Animals are our friends, not our
food,” said 34-year-old Lo Hung-hsien (駱鴻賢), the owner of the pig sanctuary, who is
also a vegetarianism advocate and a part-time volunteer.
In an effort to cover the huge overhead
costs of managing the non-profitable ranch, Lo holds down multiple jobs,
including working as a cargo driver, setting up temporary stalls at night
markets and running an online business selling dumplings.
Aside from his salaried jobs, Lo also
squeezes in time for his advocacy work to promote the benefits of a vegetarian
diet, volunteer at schools and give free speeches at the Tzu Chi Foundation.
Exhausting all his hard-earned money on
raising his family and “piggy friends,” Lo said that despite all the criticism
he has received for his decision to change how the farm was managed, he will
still hold on to his beliefs even if it left him penniless.
Before his change of heart, Lo said
that he had been a profit-driven pig farmer who inherited his family’s
large-scale, lucrative farming business from his grandfather.
Lo said that at the business’ peak, his
farm could accommodate 500 pigs and raked in substantial revenue that was far
more than he could spend.
Recalling the moment that transformed
him from a moneymaking pig farmer to a vegetarian who regarded his farm animals
as close companions, Lo said it was a piglet that was about to be butchered
that changed his perception of pig farming.
Lo said that at the time, a staff
member from a slaughterhouse had gone to his farm to single out a few hogs,
prompting the terrified animals to start wailing.
“Except for one piglet, which abruptly
quieted down when I took it in my hands and then it looked me right in the
eyes, as if saying: ‘How could you do this to me?’ That look in its eyes
shattered me and kept me awake all night,” Lo said.
“It was then that I resolved to convert
to vegetarianism and cut off cooperation with any butcheries,” he said.
Over the past few years, only forty out
of the hundreds of hogs survive, while the rest have succumbed to old age or
disease, but Lo still spares no effort in attending to his pig companions.
Lo starts his day at 4am each morning, driving to a number of vegetarian restaurants to
collect their leftovers, which are first cooked before being fed to his
treasured pets.
Afterward, Lo cleans up the pigpens and
washes and plays with the hogs attentively, as if they were his children.
He has also sprayed the slogan “animals
are our friends, not our food” on his truck because he wants to spread the
seeds of his beliefs wherever he goes.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/07/07/2003537184
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Til next Time,
Meggi
