New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently vetoed a bill outlawing pig gestation crates in New Jersey. The crates are horrifically cruel, immobilizing pregnant sows for several months (the normal pig gestation period is 114 days). After the piglets are born, sows are moved to slightly larger farrowing crates until the piglets are weaned, after which the sow is impregnated again as soon as possible. A breeding sow spends almost all her life confined, most if it barely able to move. Pigs are at least as intelligent as dogs.

Yes, people also kill and eat pigs, and that’s not nice either, but is it really necessary to make their lives in the meantime so miserable just to shave costs by cramming more pigs into a factory farm?

Polls showed overwhelming public support for the bill in New Jersey, and it passed the legislature with strong bipartisan support. So why did Christie veto it? Apparently to appeal to farmers in Iowa, site of the first-in-the-nation presidential nomination caucuses.

Here’s one pig’s opinion of Governor Christie:

Link: http://youtu.be/O096hJgi27k

And here’s Jon Stewart providing some additional background, including video of just how horrific these crates really are:

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