After crazed and depressed crated pigs were shown on television earlier this year many viewers reacted with horror, rightly considering that this is no way to treat intelligent and sensitive creatures.

The pork industry is fighting back, using allies from the veterinary profession to give it an air of respectability.
The debate is being framed as one of science versus emotion, of weak willed sentimentality by well meaning but misguided animal lovers versus the knowledgeable and hard nosed veterinary profession, who know what is really best for animals.
Industry bosses and their tame veterinarians take great pains to assure the ignorant masses that pigs are really better off kept in conditions that – coincidentally – also maximise profits for the industry.
This ploy is clever marketing but it is not science. It is not honest. And it is not ethical.
To find out more about the ethics debate over animal welfare, read Dr Michael Morris' blog on SunLive.