Weyts supports GAIA for a ban on castration of piglets without anesthesia
He thus responds to the images that animal rights organization GAIA has distributed of a farmer who castrates his pigs without anesthesia.
In Belgium, 5 to 6 million male pigs are bred every year, 80 percent of which are castrated. GAIA says this in a press release.
“almost always unsedated”
At 97 to 100 percent, that would happen without anesthesia. However, there is a drug that can reduce the pain: procaine. Meloxicam is administered to some 3.4 to 4 million piglets, because BePork, the Belgian quality label for pork, requires painkillers as a condition. Meloxicam does not have an anesthetic effect during castration, but it does treat the animal’s after pain.