10 Things I Wish I’d Known About Bacon
Before I stopped eating meat in my teens, I – like many of PETA’s trolls – took great pleasure in shouting about how tasty bacon was, how much I enjoyed eating it, and how I could never give it up. I would regularly eat bacon sandwiches and cook it up for English Breakfasts on Saturday mornings.
Now, the chance of me eating bacon is the same as that of me eating dog, cat, or indeed parrot flesh: zero. Why? Because, just like dog flesh that most people in the UK would be disgusted by, bacon comes from someone who suffered, screamed in fear, and desperately wanted to live.
So before you ever say “but bacon tho” to a vegan, here are some things worth knowing – things I wish I’d understood during all those years I ate it.
All Bacon Comes From Suffering
Contrary to what many in the UK tell themselves, there is no such thing as a ‘good’ animal farm. Britain claims to have ‘high welfare standards’ and treat animals ‘humanely’ – but it’s impossible to breed, confine, and kill anyone in a kind way.
Most animals are not even raised on the disingenuously named ‘high-welfare farms’. At least 85% of pigs come from factory farms, and a growing number are kept in mega-farms that hold thousands of animals at a time. Even at the small number of farms where pigs are kept outdoors for most of their lives – which the animal agriculture industry often touts as the best of the best – pigs have been observed emaciated, dead, dying, cannibalised, and even beaten with metal poles by workers.
Animals confined on farms live short, miserable lives and they die violent deaths.
Mother Pigs Are Kept in Tiny Cages
Imagine being forcibly impregnated and trapped in a cage you can’t even turn around in before you give birth. You can’t do anything but stare ahead, desperately biting the bars of the cage in a futile attempt to escape. You are then forced to give birth in squalor, and never get the chance to take care of your babies.
This is the reality for mother pigs kept on factory farms. Just like us, they have a strong love for, and an instinct to nurture, their children. But they are kept in farrowing crates for up to six weeks and their babies are confined to an area beside the cages called ‘the creep’. Mother pigs cannot nuzzle her babies from the cage. All they can do is lie there hopelessly while her babies suckle.
Newborn piglets often get ill and die on factory farms. Farmers routinely kill sick piglets with a process known as ‘thumping’ – which entails bashing their heads against the wall or floor, often in front of their horrified mothers.
The piglets who survive are taken away from the cages after about four weeks, at which point the mother will be forcibly impregnated once more. She will never see her babies again.
Pigs Are Mutilated on Farms
Piglets are taken to ‘finishing pens’. Here, they are kept in crowded, dark, filthy barns. They may be forced to live on uncomfortable, slatted floors and offered minimal or no enrichment.
These pigs are just babies without their mothers to comfort and protect them. Imagine how frightened they must be. And the horrors they experience have barely even begun.
Pigs are routinely mutilated on farms without pain relief. They have their tails docked (cut off) to prevent them from biting each other’s tails and causing injury, which can occur due to the stress of their confinement. They also have their teeth clipped for the same reason.
The animal farming industry goes to desperate lengths to justify the mutilation of piglets, claiming it is for their own good to prevent injuries that only arise because of the unnatural conditions the farmer has imposed on them.
It’s difficult to fathom the cruelty of an industry that confines naturally peaceful animals into such horrific conditions that they’re driven to injure each other, then mutilates them so they aren’t able to, and then pats itself on the back for its ‘kindness’.
Pigs Are Babies When They’re Killed
Pigs can live up to 20 years naturally, but pig farmers cut their lives short – typically when they are just six months old. Most people reject veal because it’s the flesh of very young calves, but most pigs are killed at the same age, or younger. None of these babies wants to die.
Pigs Scream as They Are Gassed to Death
Around 90 percent of UK pigs are gassed to death with a high concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2). And, contrary to what the industry claims, there is nothing humane about it.
At the slaughterhouse, pigs are shoved onto metal gondolas and lowered into chambers filled with CO₂. This gas forms an acid on wet surfaces – including the pigs’ eyes, lungs, nose, and throats, causing an intense burning sensation. The pigs panic, screaming and thrashing as the gas sears their eyes and airways from the inside out. This agony can last for over a minute before they finally lose consciousness – after which, their throats are cut.
Other Methods of Killing Are No Better
The other common method of slaughter for pigs is stunning with a captive bolt gun to the head. They then have their throats cut and are plunged into a scalding tank of very hot water.
Pigs, however, have strong skulls – meaning it’s difficult to stun them correctly. It takes precision, which is not reliably achieved in a slaughterhouse that profits from killing quickly.
These animals may still be conscious when they have their throats cut or when plunged into scalding tanks, and will struggle and thrash in agony as they drown in extremely hot water.
Even if the UK used pain-free methods of killing (which it doesn’t), there is no humane way to slaughter someone who values their life and wants to live, as animals kept on farms do.
Pigs Are No Different From Dogs, Cats, and Humans – in All Ways That Matter
Does the idea of someone cutting off your dog’s or cat’s tail and dragging them into a slaughterhouse make you want to burst into tears? How would you like to experience what pigs endure on farms?
Pigs are no different from dogs, cats, or indeed humans in all ways that matter. We are all sentient beings with the capacity for joy, love, and desire for freedom. Crucially, we all feel pain and suffer.
If you love your friends, family, and animal companions, and can’t stand the idea of anyone hurting them, why are you paying for someone to do that to pigs?
Pigs Are Seriously Smart
No one should use and abuse anyone, regardless of their intelligence. But many people are unaware of just how clever the pigs on their plates were.
They can solve puzzles, play video games, recognise their own names, and work collaboratively. Studies have shown that pigs can work together to free themselves from pens. Their intelligence may exceed that of a three-year-old human child.
Contrary to popular belief, pigs are one of the cleanest animals in the world and naturally like to keep good hygiene. When given the chance, they urinate and defecate far away from where they sleep. They even like to decorate their homes with flowers!
Bacon Is Carcinogenic
Bacon isn’t just bad for pigs; it’s killing humans as well. It’s one of the unhealthiest ‘foods’ around – and is classified as a group one carcinogen by the World Health Organisation (WHO) along with other processed red meat like ham and salami. This is due to chemicals known as nitrites.
This classification means that bacon is known to cause cancer, in this case, colon cancer. Colon cancer cases are rising in the UK – so where is the government initiative urging humans to cut down on it? Most people have no idea that the WHO has classified it in this way – the same classification as tobacco smoking and asbestos.
In October 2025, a group of scientists called on the government to add cigarette-style warnings to bacon to alert the public to its dangers. They claimed that authorities were doing “virtually nothing” about the significant health risks of processed red meat consumption.
Animals Are Not Ours to Eat
The main issue with bacon is the fundamental fact that animals are not ours to eat. Even if, hypothetically, a pig were raised in the most idyllic conditions, and was loved and cared for before being painlessly killed (which is not the reality for any pig killed for their flesh) we still would have no right to eat the animal.
Animal lives are their own. They do not belong to us.
So now if I’m ever craving the taste of bacon, I grab some vegan bacon for my sandwiches and fry-ups.
How to Go Vegan
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Animals Killed for Meat
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