June 2, 2026
This little piggy sparked outrage
The way we treat pigs is a sin
Readers are furious over pig ‘torture cages’ and roasting Congress for even thinking about protecting them
TLDR: The article says millions of pigs are kept in tiny crates for most of their lives, and a federal bill could make it harder for states to fight that. Commenters were furious, with many calling it torture, urging veganism, and mocking the politics with sharp one-liners.
The internet did not take this one quietly. Noah Smith’s piece calls pig crating a flat-out moral horror: millions of female pigs in factory farms spend most of their lives in cages so small they can’t even turn around, often standing or lying in their own waste. He argues this isn’t just bad farming — it’s torture — and commenters basically stormed in yelling, “Yes, obviously, and why are we still doing this?”
The strongest reactions were raw and personal. One commenter said pigs are among the smartest animals and there’s no real human need for pork, just habit and taste. Another went full life-change testimony, saying Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation helped turn them vegetarian 15 years ago. And then came the classic comment-section shove: one reader questioned the article’s economics around vegetarianism, arguing meat demand doesn’t work that simply and ending with the internet equivalent of grabbing you by the shoulders and shouting, “Go ahead, become vegan! You already know you should!”
But of course, this being the internet, the policy angle turned into drama too. A proposed federal bill nicknamed the Save Our Bacon Act drew eye-rolls and sarcasm because it could stop states from banning meat based on how animals were raised elsewhere. That triggered a mini constitutional cage match over whether one state should be able to shape another state’s rules. The funniest jab? A dry little grenade of a comment: “State’s rights, amirite.” Brutal, bleak, and very online.
Key Points
- •The article states that 73 million pigs in the United States are kept in concentrated animal feeding operations, or factory farms.
- •It says female pigs are commonly confined in gestation crates during pregnancy and farrowing crates while nursing.
- •According to the article, these crates are so restrictive that sows cannot turn around and may spend most of their lives in them.
- •The article cites research indicating pigs are social animals that exhibit emotional contagion and may be as smart as or smarter than dogs.
- •It describes confinement-related behaviors and practices such as bar-biting and tail docking, and presents the system as a moral problem tied to pork consumption.