I’m writing about the Lechón a la vara display– popular at Puerto Rico Christmas and Three King’s parties– and how it celebrates the infliction of suffering and death of an animal.
Most pigs that are bred for meat and display at Christmas parties are subjected to painful and unnatural existences. They are killed at only a few months of age in whatever manner is easiest and cheapest.
While most people in Puerto Rico choose to eat animals, we would all agree that the pig who is killed for a Christmas dinner has suffered immensely. Their ability to physically feel pain is at least equal to our own, and we would all accept that it is wrong to celebrate the infliction of unnecessary suffering and death. Ironically, the “lechón a la vara” serves to undermine the sense of kinship and kindness central to the holidays. Instead, it represents exploitation.
In 2019, local production accounted for only four percent of pork eaten in Puerto Rico. Therefore, there is a 96% chance that any pork eaten here is mass produced, frozen, and imported. Admittedly, this percentage supposedly goes up to 20% during the holiday months of November through January. However, even pigs that are killed locally are still raised in the same intensive, unnatural conditions.
This Youtube video of a pig farm run out of Cayey gives us a detailed look at female pig’s (or sow’s) living quarters during pregnancy and nursing. It also shows the pens her piglets are moved to when they mature. The farm’s owner describes how pregnant pigs are kept side-by-side in gestation crates. Gestation crates are roughly two-and-half-by-seven-foot stalls about the size of a refrigerator. The sow cannot walk more than one or two steps back or forward, cannot turn around, and cannot socialize. (Gestation crates that confine animals in such ways are illegal in some European countries and US states, but Puerto Rico does not set any standard for the crates).
The sow’s food is rationed, as more feeding will result in smaller litters and less profit. The video shows one of the pigs biting at the steel bars of her cage. This is one of the behaviors typically developed as a result of boredom and anxiety.
Once her piglets are born, the sow is moved to the farrowing crate, which is approximately five by seven feet long. The size does not allow her to build a nest, or interact with her piglets, who nurse through bars. A section of the farrowing crate will be heated to replace the warmth the piglet would naturally get from its mother. The piglets’ teeth are removed or clipped down to prevent damage to the mother’s utters. Their tails are docked to prevent tail-biting (another behavior developed by pigs in stressful, overcrowded environments). Males are routinely castrated for better tasting meat and to prevent mounting and aggression.
After three weeks, the piglets are separated from their mother and put in a large pen. Once they reach an initial weight of 50 pounds, the pigs are fed a special diet to accelerate weight gain. They are at the farm for only four months before they are sent to be slaughter, or to be used for their reproduction.
The second video features a farm in Guayama where sows are artificially inseminated. The manager of the farm explains how sows are impregnated again only 5 days after weaning. These same animals can be inseminated up to five times before they themselves are slaughtered.
Pigs are considered to be one of the more social and intellectual species. They can be as playful as a pet dog and as intelligent as a three-year-old human child. However, we would never consider putting another animal, such as a dog, in the place of the pigs either on either of the conditions of the farms shown above, or on a vara to be displayed dead. The idea would be horrific, but they generally have the same cognitive abilities to understand their surroundings and form connections each other and human beings as dogs do.
Continuing to eat pigs in spite of their conditions and having lechón a la vara can be justified if you believe culture and tradition trumps ethics. However, you would have to believe that for every tradition, and every ethical stance. No one I know does. Other traditions are readily let go when they are no longer morally justifiable.
Traditionally, women were expected to care for the home, have children, and otherwise serve her husband. She was prohibited from owning land, voting, studying and becoming a professional. This has now changed. Countries have traditionally placed animals in combat against each other—such as wild animals in the Roman Colosseums, and dogs in dog-fighting. Just because a practice has gone on for enough time to be considered a tradition, does not make it unchangeable. Continuing to display a “lechón a la vara” as part of the holidays is representative of unnecessary suffering repeatedly endured by animals.