Kim.

I often feel total despair at the way people treat animals. So many people are selective with their compassion and because the animal is in this example a pig, somehow it is supposed to make the treatment and respect he/she is entitled to different to that given to a companion animal. Surely human decency should transcend this hypocrisy?  Sadly it doesn’t.

Animals’ Angels visited Queensland late 2006.  It was a hot and humid - around 35 degrees on the day we visited a small market at which people come to sell all sorts of household items as well as live pigs, ducks, geese, chickens, sheep and cattle.

In the car park, inside a car we found a very young pig. The buyer had just returned to his car and opened the back to find the pig he had bought earlier and left bound, inside the car had, basically cooked. The windows were up and the door locked; both of which ensured the temperature inside the car rose well above the outside temperature. The dead pig had turned a pale shade of blue.

Pigs do not handle heat well at all. They have no way of perspiring unlike humans or other animals and because they do not sweat through their skin like us, it is vital that they are protected from heat and the sun. Their skin burns very easily also just like humans.

There has been much fuss made in the media about leaving children or dogs in a closed car during the summer months. That is because the heat rises inside a car far in excess of the temperature outside and can cause brain damage or death in a very short space of time. A pig is no different…

This case is with the Queensland authorities for investigation.