Lily and Lizzie

In 2022, two pigs pigs named Lily and Lizzie were at the center of a significant legal case in the animal liberation movement.  In this case, two animal activists were put on trial, and ultimately acquitted, for rescuing two sick piglets from a Smithfield Foods’ farm in Utah. 

(originally aired 27 October 2022, this blog post has been slightly updated).

In season five of The Animal Turn, Camille Labchuck brilliantly highlighted the ways in which biosecurity rhetoric is often employed to justify ag gag laws;  it’s used to mark animal agriculture (and those who profit from it) as deserving of protection, while animal activists are painted as biosecurity threats, and meanwhile, farmed animals are understood to be commodities underserving of the most basic protections. 

In this context, animal activists offer crucial challenges to the misuse of biosecurity rhetoric that serves to devalue animals’ lives and maintain the systems that exploit them.  Activists frequently shed light on how animal agriculture itself is a biosecurity threat, inflicting harm on workers and animals, and generating the spread of infectious diseases. 

However, in practice, challenging problematic biosecurity rhetoric that upholds animal agriculture isn’t always straightforward or without complexity.  For example, in the trial involving Lily and Lizzie, the attorneys defending the animal activists actually employed biosecurity rhetoric arguing that the piglets were ill and risked infecting other pigs, making them a liability to Smithfield Foods.

The Smithfield Foods trial has significant implications for farmed animals and biosecurity, but in thinking about the bigger picture, it can be easy to lose sight of Lily and Lizzie, who are at the center of this case. So, I want to focus on them:

When animal activists entered Smithfield Foods’ Utah farm in 2017, they found adult female pigs who were confined to metal gestation and farrowing crates where they didn’t even have room to turn around, piglets who were covered in feces, and piglets who lay dead and rotting.

Amidst these horrific conditions, they came across an extremely sick and skinny Lily.  An activist described how “she was curled up against her mom and kind of teetering,” while “[t]he other piglets were trampling her and knocking her around, and she didn’t have the energy or strength to move."  Lily was also dealing with a painfully bloody and swollen foot, making her unable to walk.  Another piglet, Lizzie, was also very unwell.  She was about half the size of the other piglets and her face was covered in blood from her mother’s shredded nipple.  Both piglets had diarrhea from a contagious infection, which is unsurprising since infectious diseases thrive in crowded and unsanitary conditions.These deplorable conditions are so contrary to what kinds of environments fulfill pigs’ dynamic needs. 

Lyall Watson, ethologist and author of The Whole Hog, says that if he had to use just one word to sum up pigs, it would be gregarious. They are profoundly social creatures, who live in close-knit matriarchal groups that are marked by a level of social complexity similar to that of primates or dolphins. Pigs thrive on touch and communication and experience a wide range of emotions, similar to our own. For example, pigs are empathetic;  they are able to take the perspective of another pig and to experience emotional contagion, which essentially means that they feel the same emotional state as another pig in their presence. Given this, pigs are profoundly distressed in a factory farm environment where they are abused, neglected, denied loving touch and community, denied the guidance of their matriarchs, and forced to witness other pigs suffer.   

In addition to being highly social and emotional, pigs also possess cognitive capabilities similar to dogs and young human children. Lori Marino and Christina Colvin review scientific literature that shows pigs to possess self-awareness, to have a sense of time, to have excellent spatial memory, to form likes and dislikes, and to enjoy creative play.  In addition to complex cognitive capacities, pigs have acute sensory abilities. Famously, pigs have snouts with incredible olfactory powers that are filled with many nerve endings and muscles. Foraging is a crucial aspect of pigs’ lives, and they spend much of their time putting their keen senses, curiosity, and intellect to use as they root with their snouts in the dirt to explore a wide selection of foods. Unfortunately, barren factory farm environments are devoid of opportunities for pigs to indulge in sensory pleasures, to experience variety, to stimulate their minds, or to engage their curiosity. These cramped and confined conditions offer no room to move freely or explore, no soil to root in, and no nesting material to arrange.      

When Lily and Lizzie were removed from the traumatic conditions of the farm where they had been held captive, they weren’t expected to survive, but they did.  They were taken to Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary in Colorado.  Here, they had space to live free from exploitation and given the opportunity to enjoy rich lives where they could root and play in expansive pastures, roll in mud baths, bask in cool tubs of water, eat a variety of tasty meals, all while participating in a meaningful multispecies community.

In an environment where their unique, piggy needs are met, Lilly and Lizzie’s different personalities shone through. Lily was a bit shy, though she does loved getting belly rubs from volunteers. Lizzie, on the other hand, is much more outgoing and rambunctious, and she loves to play and roll around in mud!

Despite their different personalities, the two shared, spending most of their time together at the sanctuary. a very strong bond with each other and are inseparable!  Sadly, Lily died in May 2023 of cancer but her story, and her role in what was a watershed trial is not forgotten.  Lizzie is still at Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary

and she ha developed a special friendship with Felix, another pig at the sanctuary. Lizzie offered Felix companionship following the death of his best friend and later when Lily and Lizzie had to undergo skin cancer treatment, Felix made sure to greet them when they returned from the hospital. This below is an incredibly tender photo is of Felix and Lizzie gently touching noses after one of her hospital visits. The love and care between them is so palpable

Lily and Lizzie have been fortunate to experience richer lives. Unfortunately, the Utah facility that Lily and Lizzie were rescued from slaughters more than 1 million pigs per year. All of these pigs endure tremendous suffering.  They are all individuals who matter, and who, just like Lily and Lizzie, are capable of living dazzling lives if only they could live in circumstances that fostered their dignity.  Photo Credit: Luvin Farm Sanctuary              

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Amanda (Mandy) Bunten-Walberg was a PhD Candidate at Queen's University's School of Environmental Studies where her research explored more-than-human ethics in contagious contexts through the case study of bats and COVID-19. In particular, Mandy is interested in how more-than-human ethics, critical race theory, queer theory, and biopolitical theory might guide humans towards developing more ethical relationships with bats and other (human and more-than-human) persons who are dominantly understood as diseased. Learn more about our team here.