In the Netherlands most organic pig farmers are forced to castrate their boars, if not they cannot easily find a Dutch pork company willing to buy their pigs. This is very sad, as male piglets in the organic sector thus continue to be castrated, which causes long-term pain and trauma. In the Netherlands organic male piglets are often even rendered unconscious before being castrated by forcing them to lie on their back in a restraint device where their heads are in CO2. Breathing in carbon dioxide burns the mucous membranes and causes extreme panic due to a feeling of suffocating, and takes 10 – 30 seconds before they lose consciousness in this device. That is why we are stimulating the Dutch pork organic market to support pig farmers who wish to stop castrating their males. The Berkshire Butcher now offers a line called Vlees van Kees which comes from pigs raised by farmer Kees Scheepens. His male piglets are never castrated. He does not have agression issues due to all the space they have and natural behaviours they can express, and every day they get organic pellets from leftover food production plus fruits, vegetables and (plant-based or not) dairy leftover from a natural food supermarket chain. They have a great life. Farmer Kees and company Berkshire Butcher believe that if people insist on eating pork, that it at least comes from pigs that had a life worth living and were never in fear or pain.
