Raising Pigs for Slaughter to Fund Class Trips

Since this story hit the wire on February 13, I have yet to read of any animal group that thought it was troubling.

Let’s deconstruct "Ore. Students Raise Pigs for School Trip:"

• I get that due to headline space, you can rarely tell the entire story. However, the huge detail that is missing, is that the students will sell the pigs, for slaughter, and use the proceeds basically for fun. For a class trip. Not for school supplies, not for shelter, food, or water, but strictly for fun.
• "It started off as a joke pretty much," said Ashley Conner, 17. Who are the parents of these kids? What’s so funny about raising a sentient being to slaughter it in order to pay for your vacation? Am I the only one who thinks that’s really twisted?
• Oh, wait, some of the kids are from families of farmers. BINGO. "I think it’s fun. We’re all pretty much farm kids," said Amber Brown, 18. Again, I’m profoundly disturbed by all this talk of "fun."
• Spending time caring for the pigs has clearly aided in the development of compassion for them. Or not. Said Cortnie Jones, "All that stuff, ‘You eat like a pig.’ Now I know why . . . Pigs are exactly what you think." I’ve never met anyone (that’s because I’ve never met George Clooney) who spent more than five minutes with a pig and didn’t come away swearing to never eat pig meat again. I’ve never heard of spending time with a creature and respecting her LESS by the end of that time.
• Science teacher Bob Pearson is the genius supervising this lesson in compassion, ethics, and responsible fundraising. Please note that almost half of my professional life is spent fundraising for worthy causes, and I find this entire scheme loathsome and embarrassing. For heaven’s sake, the final sentence of the article is, "Students don’t yet know where they’ll be going on their senior trip." They aren’t even claiming to have a legitimate reason for raising pigs for slaughter!
• It turns out that this fabulous idea "will be an ongoing senior project at the school."

I think Pearson and his students are cowards who obviously don’t have any ethics or morality in their curriculum. The children should, in my opinion, be required to either slaughter the pigs themselves, or follow them being transported to slaughter and be required to watch them meet their end like most pigs.

That . . . might actually teach them something meaningful that they’ll remember and incorporate into their lives.