Tamara Kenneally - A Pig's Life

A Pig's Life shows the lives of factory farmed pigs, and is again influence by her interest in animal rights and animal welfare. The images show the daily lives of breeding sows and their piglets, who are killed at 4-6 months old.

"Pig factory farms are places where motherhood is denied. Sows are placed in small, metal barred crates called “sow stalls” during their pregnancies. They cannot move or turn around. They can only take one step forward and one step backwards and they can lie down. Nothing more. They are trapped here for 3 months until they are about to give birth, then they are moved to a crate called a “farrowing crate”. The farrowing crate restricts the sows movement just like the sow stall does. She cannot clean her babies. She cannot interact with them properly, she cannot comfort them and she cannot protect them. She is basically a trapped piglet breeding machine. She nurses her babies through bars whilst lying on a concrete floor. Once her babies are taken away, she is impregnated again and she goes through the whole miserable cycle again until she is no longer able to produce piglets or becomes ill. She is then slaughtered." 

The piglets have their tails docked, are castrated, and have their teeth filed without anesthetic. When they are old enough, they are taken from their mothers to be fattened up for slaughter in enclosures that are covered in excrement. 

"They never get to forage in the earth, wallow in the mud or see the sky. There is no happiness for these pigs. Ever. In these images you will see the pleading look in the eyes of trapped sows unable to care for their babies and the misery of young pigs imprisoned in sheds being fattened up to be eaten."

This project reminds me of a quote from Charlotte's Web that always makes me emotional: "Wilbur burst into tears. "I don't want to die," he moaned. "I want to stay alive, right here in my comfortable manure pile with all my friends. I want to breathe the beautiful air and lie in the beautiful sun." 

The project makes use of anthropomorphic expressions on the pigs faces, and by using this Tamara conveys the sadness, hopelessness, and fear that the pigs probably feel (or is that just me buying into the anthropomorphism?). It helps to highlight the horrible treatment of these intelligent animals, as do images of the pigs restricted by bars.