Showing Humanity Toward Pigs

The Home Forum article ``Rescuing the Poor Pig From Its Filthy Reputation,'' Jan. 25, is timely not just because 1995 is the Year of the Pig in the Chinese calendar, but because international efforts to rescue pigs are gaining the support of those who know pigs best: family farmers. The Humane Society of the United States, the nation's largest animal-protection organization, is working with family farmers to ensure the survival of family farms and more humane treatment for pigs raised there.

The fate of corporate hog farming operations is linked with the demise of American and European sustainable family farming networks and rural communities. Seeing ``fields full of open-air pigs once again'' is more than ``some new fashion in agriculture.'' It's part of a humane agriculture revolution; and 1995, the Year of the Pig, marks its auspicious beginning. Michael W. Fox, Washington Vice President, Bioethics and Farm Animals, The Humane Society of the United States

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