Hog slapping?
There exists a device known as a "hog slapper". That's literally what it's called. It's a device made by Ketchum Manufacturing and its purpose is to tattoo livestock - primarily pigs - for identification prior to slaughter. It's a simple device resembling a hammer into which metal blocks are loaded. Each metal block is adorned with spikes spelling a letter or number. The device is soaked in ink and then slapped into the animal, forming a tattoo.
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| A hog slapper loaded with metal letter blocks and covered in tattoo ink |
This device is... janky. It's janky as fuck. There's no other word for it, it's a janky fucking thing. The spikes on each of the metal blocks are crooked, the metal is obviously cast and what it's cast out of is anyone's guess but you don't have to be a metallurgist to figure out that they're not exactly building this thing out of high grade stainless steel.
What did I do?
My friends and I bought a hog slapper, a bunch of metal blocks to spell out kinky words and phrases, some tattoo ink, and smacked each other to give ourselves janky as fuck tattoos.
Why? Because it was hot, it was kinky, and it was queer as fuck. Just like us.
So what's this got to do with factory farming?
This device is made for tattooing livestock for slaughter. This slapper is extremely typical of how we treat livestock: not a care in the world for their welfare. The design of this device makes that incredibly clear. The jank of this device makes it pretty hot when used with consenting humans but raises some concerns when talking about its use on animals.
Let's look at some specifics:
- The device is somewhere between difficult and impossible to disinfect. There are internal corners and recessed pockets all over the place. This was a concern for us when using it that we decided to overcome as best we can by an excessive application of Cavacide prior to use.
- The spikes comprising the letters in each block aren't straight, many are crooked. This is obviously going to make it more painful to use.
- The metal this device is made out of isn't stainless steel it's made out of what I suspect is some kind of zinc alloy.
- The ink pad sold with this device is entirely impossible to disinfect, or even clean. It's supposed to be used like an ink pad that you'd use for a rubber stamp: you push the spikes into it in order to cover them in ink. Its porous nature means that pathogens could be easily trapped within. It was for this reason that we never seriously considered using it when slapping ourselves.
- The promotional video for this device shows a man using the device to tattoo multiple hogs one after the other, re-using the ink pad and spikes for each one. Clearly, blood borne pathogens aren't a concern for that application. Again, we never seriously considered sharing the spiked blocks for exactly that reason.
I'm not sure why exactly hogs get tattooed before slaughter. It clearly has to do with identification, but why slaughter houses need each hog individually marked is beyond me. Do they lose hogs inside the slaughterhouse on a regular basis?
Conclusion
Slapping hogs with a janky tattoo hammer is hardly the worst thing that industrial meat production does. The internet is full of documentation about this and the animal liberation front has been around for decades because of those issues. But I've never heard or read about this topic specifically. I didn't go into this expecting to examine animal welfare through kink, but it was a very welcome detour.
As for factory farming, it's something I've hated for a very long time. I'm not vegan or vegetarian, but there's a world of difference between believing that eating other animals for sustenance is morally justifiable and mistreating animals on an industrial scale while promoting a wholly unsustainable industry for the sole reason of making money. Factory farming is obscene in every way possible and it should be abolished in its entirety.
