Media Release

For immediate use Factory Farm Nativity Scene for Veggies’ Christmas Card A controversial new Christmas card from the campaigning vegetarian organisation, Viva!, shows the Virgin Mary confined behind bars in a barren pig farrowing crate, unable to reach baby Jesus to comfort him. Based on the theme of ‘if Jesus was born today’, the card highlights the ruthlessness and inhumanity of modern intensive farming and shows how things might be if there was a second coming. The disturbing image is based on the fact that farrowing crates are used for more than 70 per cent of all UK breeding pigs about to give birth. Sows are confined for an entire month every time they produce piglets - usually two-and-a-half times a year. The crates are so restrictive that the sows are unable to walk or even to turn around. Unable to fulfill their powerful maternal instincts, they suffer from acute stress and many show signs of going mad. The card is designed to raise support for Viva!’s campaign to ban the farrowing crate as a first step to outlawing all factory farming. It is one of the less publicised horrors of modern intensive farming. Like the chicken battery cage, the packed windowless barns in which turkeys are bred for Christmas and the barbarity of production line slaughterhouses, it shows that animals are treated worse today than they were in Jesus’ time. Viva! campaigner Alistair Currie says: "If Jesus was born amongst today’s farmed animals, these are the conditions He would endure. But let’s face it, the only thing holy on factory farms is profit. This strong image isn’t meant to offend people, simply to help them face reality. Christmas should be a time for compassion and concern for the weak. We don’t believe that Jesus would support the cruel exploitation of animals in farming today." For further information contact Alistair Currie on 0117 944 1000. E: info@viva.org.uk - end -