Frat Members Charged With Pig Abuse

**aglio412** · 04-30-2002, 10:52 AM

man, i can't understand why fraternities get bad reputations...

The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 30, 2002; 10:34 AM

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. –– Members of a Wake Forest University fraternity were charged with animal cruelty and abandonment after a drunk, dehydrated and sunburned pig was found unconscious in a park.

Wake Forest spokesman Kevin Cox said the university's dean of students is investigating and could impose fines or suspensions against the fraternity.

The 23 members of Sigma Phi Epsilon could be sentenced to 90 days in jail if convicted on a misdemeanor such as animal cruelty.

County officials said the fraternity members rented a picnic shelter at Tanglewood Park for a party thrown April 20 by newly initiated members in honor of more senior fraternity members.

Animal-control officers were called the next morning after the nearly 200-pound pig was found in the woods by a couple walking their dog. The pig was missing its tail and was unable to stand. Park officials said the animal was drunk.

"It reeked of alcohol," said Barbara Cassidy, the director of Forsyth County Animal Control. "That pig could have easily died. I don't understand how someone could think it would be fun to abuse an animal like that."

The dehydrated hog had patches on its skin where it was burned while being exposed to heat lamps used as props at the party, Cassidy said.

Animal control officers took the ailing animal to the county animal shelter, where it is recuperating.

© 2002 The Associated Press

**whitak24** · 04-30-2002, 10:58 AM

man, the things frats do.....it's really the stupidity of group-think

i mean, i had a few friends in frats, but most of them were the ones who didn't really get along with their frats b/c they never wanted to go along with the "group".

what a bunch of idiots.

**WhiskeyPapa** · 04-30-2002, 11:06 AM

Animal control officers took the ailing animal to the county animal shelter, where it is recuperating.

Ok, the frat boys were dumb, but this is just as stupid.

Every time some cow escapes from a truck and wanders around on the highway, they capture it and take it to an "animal shelter" or a "petting zoo". C'mon, just take it to the slaughter house, that's where it was going in the first place.

Several months ago, some kids were outside on the lunch break at a local high school. They saw a squirrel so a couple of the guys started chasing it. Mind you, they never caught it, they just chased it around a tree (like boys are likely to do.) Well, some tree-hugging teacher saw this, and reported it to the principal. The group of boys was detained, their parents were called, and they were punished for "terrorizing a squirrel"! They were required to attend "counseling sessions" with their parents AND A MEMBER OF THE CLERGY! For chasing a squirrel!!!!

**Wizard** · 04-30-2002, 11:18 AM

You know what would have been really Cruel??? If they would have cooked and eaten the pig. Oh wait no that wouldn't be cruel that would have been a BBQ. Man I really think the US Government and animal rights groups go too far sometimes. So what if they had fun with a Pig, it's an ANIMAL. People EAT pigs... bah. Next time they should remember to just butcher the pig when they are done having fun with it so it won't be animal cruelty.

**welfareloser** · 04-30-2002, 11:25 AM

there is something wrong with ppl who inflict pain for their own amusement. period. yes, pigs get killed and eaten. bust most bacon-eaters and butchers don't remove body parts, intoxicate, burn, and abandon a pig, allowing the slow agony to continue.

chasing a squirrel seems pretty harmless... i mean, c'mon, that's akin to walking up behind someone and yelling "boo!"

**welfareloser** · 04-30-2002, 11:28 AM

Originally posted by kb0wwp

Ok, the frat boys were dumb, but this is just as stupid.

i know it seems stupid, but have you ever seen an abused animal? it's horrifying. and it makes you feel better to know that you have done something about it. it's really hard to say, okay, now fulfill your destiny as bacon to an animal that's been abused. i know it's dumb, there are thousands of animals heading toward the same fate every moment, but emotions are not logical, and an abused animal can evoke some pretty strong emotions in even the most "get off my back you stupid vegetarian" types (like me.)

and what's the harm? petting zoos need animals. no big deal.

**topane** · 04-30-2002, 11:31 AM

Originally posted by Wizard
So what if they had fun with a Pig, it's an ANIMAL. People EAT pigs... bah.

Torturing an animal isn't fun. Yes, we eat pigs. In fact, I had some bacon for breakfast. But all that crap? That's twisted. I say shoot the a$$holes; they'll probably end up in jail for some violent crime against people down the road.

**Wizard** · 04-30-2002, 11:38 AM

Originally posted by topane
Torturing an animal isn't fun. Yes, we eat pigs. In fact, I had some bacon for breakfast. But all that crap? That's twisted. I say shoot the a$$holes; they'll probably end up in jail for some violent crime against people down the road.

Hmm pig is sunburned? That would be a normal occurance from being outside. Reason pigs roll around in mud is to keep from being sunburned. I am sure though that you would have considered that the sunburn would have been a normal occurance.

Getting the pig to drink, quite frankly I assume that is quite amusing to watch, kinda like making your cat dizzy by spinning them around.

Well hmm you ate a pig for breakfast, who knows one day you might end up in jail for eating some human. Come on saying that because someone did something that you consider improper to a pig has nothing to do with the way they treat people.

Furthermore you like eating pig meat, do you know how the pig farmers treat the pigs they have? I am sure you didn't know that Pig Farmers in the US receive money from the government to help supplement their income, they receive the money based on how many pigs they breed and have, not on how many make it to market. It has become a huge problem that pig farmers just get a bunch of pigs and basically mass kill them and feed them back to other pigs just so that they can get more government funding. Hmmm cruelty? Yeah definately a lot worse than what the frat boys did.

**Wizard** · 04-30-2002, 11:42 AM

Originally posted by DarkFury

Yup... now that the Animal cruelty folks are goin' after them that's one more group of folks on their backs.

BTW... even though my "fraternity" has it's own share of controversy... I've never heard of any kinds of incidents like this happening by it. I guess the White frats have a different perspective on what's "entertaining" huh?

**topane** · 04-30-2002, 12:08 PM

Originally posted by Wizard

Hmm pig is sunburned? That would be a normal occurance from being outside. Reason pigs roll around in mud is to keep from being sunburned. I am sure though that you would have considered that the sunburn would have been a normal occurance.

Yes, normal if the pig lived in the park.

Getting the pig to drink, quite frankly I assume that is quite amusing to watch, kinda like making your cat dizzy by spinning them around.

Not really, unless getting your cat dizzy involves feeding him some sort of alcohol/drug. Spinning your cat is very temporary, and he'll recover in a few minutes. Your cat probably won't be suffering the effects of too much alcohol. Here's some more animal torture stories

Come on saying that because someone did something that you consider improper to a pig has nothing to do with the way they treat people.

Really?
Link between animal and human violence
Correlation between domestic violence and animal abuse

Furthermore you like eating pig meat, do you know how the pig farmers treat the pigs they have? I am sure you didn't know that Pig Farmers in the US receive money from the government to help supplement their income, they receive the money based on how many pigs they breed and have, not on how many make it to market. It has become a huge problem that pig farmers just get a bunch of pigs and basically mass kill them and feed them back to other pigs just so that they can get more government funding. Hmmm cruelty? Yeah definately a lot worse than what the frat boys did.

And I'm sure the farmers are all standing around laughing at all the pigs. It's no secret that animals raised for food are living in less than ideal conditions. But they're fed and watered, and their deaths are quick.

**Merlin** · 04-30-2002, 12:11 PM

So, just where exactly does one procure a 200 lb. pig for parties?

I bet if you look close enough in the bushes of that park you would find a couple of the perpatrators in similiar condition.

**Merlin** · 04-30-2002, 12:14 PM

Originally posted by topane
Torturing an animal isn't fun....

Torture - sounds like that pig had a better weekend than I did. Went out and spent some time in the sun, got liquored and passed out. Before calling this torture try going to the beach on the 4th of July.

**welfareloser** · 04-30-2002, 12:25 PM

Originally posted by Merlin

Torture - sounds like that pig had a better weekend than I did. Went out and spent some time in the sun, got liquored and passed out. Before calling this torture try going to the beach on the 4th of July.

pigs don't have 5000 years worth of their species consuming massive quantities of alcohol for recreation. our systems handle it relatively well after a bit of evolution. to them, it's just poison.

and nobody chopped off your ear. well, actually, a pig's tail is bony, so it would be more like getting a finger chopped off.

so, somebody held you down, chopped off a finger, stuck you under a lamp that burned your skin, fed you poison, and abondoned you. wooo! good times.

**Slutzy** · 04-30-2002, 12:37 PM

She just may be the only post in this thread that has any sort of conscience. Trying to make a connection between killing an animal to eat it and torturing an animal to amuse a bunch of drunks and leaving it for dead in teh woods is, well, about as dumb as torturing an animal to amuse a bunch of drunks and leaving it for dead in the woods.

**aglio412** · 04-30-2002, 12:43 PM

Originally posted by Slutzy
She just may be the only post in this thread that has any sort of conscience. Trying to make a connection between killing an animal to eat it and torturing an animal to amuse a bunch of drunks and leaving it for dead in teh woods is, well, about as dumb as torturing an animal to amuse a bunch of drunks and leaving it for dead in the woods.

i agree...

this isn't about eating animals, it's about torturing a defenseless creature.

**mojo** · 04-30-2002, 01:05 PM

ok, i won't point fingers here. welfare and topane brought up some good points. i know wizard will actually take a side he doesn't believe in just to make for interesting conversation (he admitted it in another thread, i believe

)

at any rate, let's remember that pigs are smart...often as smart as dogs (or smarter than...i dunno, but they're smart, ok). so if it's so great to do this to a pig just because it's a "dumb animal" then i guess it would be just as "fun" to do it to your dog. but you wouldn't do that, would you? i hope not (sicko

)

my guess is that the pig didn't consent to getting drunk. since it was sunburned, i'd also guess that it either couldnt find any mud to cool itself off, or it was too drunk. people may get drunk and get a sunburn, but the people that do it wanted to get drunk and (supposedly) knew the risks. as smart as pigs are, i doubt they read all the warning labels on the alcohol.

it doesn't matter if we eat these animals. animal torture is animal torture. saying that bad stuff happens behind the scenes doesn't make it ok in public life or away from "behind the scenes" in any way. if we're so civilized, then why should we resort to being barbarians by pretending that animals don't deserve to be treated humanely?

**WhiskeyPapa** · 04-30-2002, 01:17 PM

Originally posted by Wizard
Furthermore you like eating pig meat, do you know how the pig farmers treat the pigs they have? I am sure you didn't know that Pig Farmers in the US receive money from the government to help supplement their income, they receive the money based on how many pigs they breed and have, not on how many make it to market. It has become a huge problem that pig farmers just get a bunch of pigs and basically mass kill them and feed them back to other pigs just so that they can get more government funding. Hmmm cruelty? Yeah definately a lot worse than what the frat boys did.

That's a load of crap (pig crap to be precise). My family owned a large-scale hog operation and we never did/saw/heard of anything like that. It just doesn't happen.

Originally posted by mojo
i know wizard will actually take a side he doesn't believe in just to make for interesting conversation (he admitted it in another thread, i believe

Oh, that explains a lot.

**attgig** · 04-30-2002, 01:17 PM

hopefully, the animals we eat are killed less sadistically than what the frat kiddies did to this pig.

**molecularfire** · 04-30-2002, 01:21 PM

Ok, first off... despite the article saying that the pig was sunburned, it said that the pig got burned from heat lamps... not the sun, so I don't think the sittin in the sun thing would sit very well.

Secondly... I eat pork. I like pork. Pork is yummy. I also eat beef, chicken, frog, rabbit, fish, dog, etc... At some time or another in my life, I've eaten pretty much everything that has walked, crawled, swam, or flew on god's green earth. However, even I'm disgusted with the way they treated this pig. It's one thing to kill a creature, it's another to abuse it. Every animal deserves a quick, clean death. I don't think that this implies that they will torture people later in life, however, I do think that this implies that they are cold, careless, idiots. I'm not ragging on frats. in general... a LOT of my friends are frat. brothers (and NONE of them would find this funny in the least).

**attgig** · 04-30-2002, 01:46 PM

Originally posted by molecularfire
Every animal deserves a quick, clean death.

I guess you're pro youth in asia....errrrr, I mean..euthanasia?

**welfareloser** · 04-30-2002, 02:01 PM

Originally posted by attgig

I guess you're pro youth in asia....errrrr, I mean..euthanasia?

no, no, no... humans deserve THE BEST MEDICAL CARE MONEY CAN BUY, not a quick, clean dignified death.

we save those for the piggies.

**Wizard** · 04-30-2002, 02:26 PM

Alright I'll summarize how I feel about this:

1. Yes I do enjoy being the devil's advocate and quite frankly it does make for interesting conversation, how interesting is it if everyone just says "yeah I agree with that" and moves on.

2. I do feel that animal cruelty is a problem in the US, but it should not be more important than problems like the fact that more people go hungry in the US than in China.

3. I think that animal rights group have pushed to hard for too much, recently I remember hearing that some animal rights groups wanted the UN to try to stop people from eating dogs in certain Asian countries. The people that eat dogs do it as a form of nuitrition, the same way we eat cattle. There are many countries in the world that eating cattle is more evil than what we consider eating dogs to be.

4. I eat meat. Because I have chosen to eat meat I know that many animals that I eat throughout my life were terribly treated. If anyone has driven on Interstate 5 between SF and LA, they will know how wretched the living condition of cattle is. Do I like the way livestock is treated in US farms? No I don't, I think that it is a disgrace and dehumanizing to do it.

5. If I was at that party I would have quickly tried my best to keep the people from abusing the pig, I'd rather see them abuse themselves than abuse a defenseless pig. But I would much rather see them abuse the pig than abuse an innocent human.

6. Everyone needs to calm down. Life's too short to get your blood pressure up like that

**WhiskeyPapa** · 04-30-2002, 02:48 PM

I have a small farm, we have about 50 laying hens, 3 goats, 5 sheep and 4 lambs. Our eggs would definitely qualify as "organic" and "cruelty free" if we decided to sell them (but we just give them away.) In the summer we get about 150-200 chicks to raise as broilers. They are also fed organically. Not because I'm some kind of health nut, but because it's much cheaper to make your own feed out of raw corn, soybeans and oats than it is to buy bags of "super hormone chicken grower" at the farm store.

I would say all of my animals are treated very well. 'Cept for this last weekend when I docked the lambs' tails and cut off their, um, "machinery".

**Merlin** · 04-30-2002, 03:35 PM

Originally posted by mojo
at any rate, let's remember that pigs are smart...often as smart as dogs (or smarter than...i dunno, but they're smart, ok). so if it's so great to do this to a pig just because it's a "dumb animal" then i guess it would be just as "fun" to do it to your dog. but you wouldn't do that, would you? i hope not (sicko )

I know of a lot of people who have given their dog beer.

It just seems that there was more stupidity going on here than malicious torture. Look at it. They had heat lamps there for the party. Most likely nobody knew any better. As for getting drunk, I'm sure it went something like "I got me a beer, here little piggy want a beer." all night long. I doubt they got together and said "Hey, let's get a pig and burn it then see how much of our precious booze it will take to kill it" Just does not add up. Stupidity - yeah. Torture - that might be going a bit far.

The tail thing - well that DOES seem a bit odd. So who knows.

**mojo** · 04-30-2002, 04:19 PM

what's the legal drinking age for pigs, anyways?

**welfareloser** · 04-30-2002, 04:23 PM

Originally posted by Merlin

I know of a lot of people who have given their dog beer.

It just seems that there was more stupidity going on here than malicious torture. Look at it. They had heat lamps there for the party. Most likely nobody knew any better. As for getting drunk, I'm sure it went something like "I got me a beer, here little piggy want a beer." all night long. I doubt they got together and said "Hey, let's get a pig and burn it then see how much of our precious booze it will take to kill it" Just does not add up. Stupidity - yeah. Torture - that might be going a bit far.

The tail thing - well that DOES seem a bit odd. So who knows.

i'll agree that the lamps were an accident. the beer was probably more "i don't care what happens" rather than "let's deliberately hurt it..." slightly less damning.

the tail was inflicting pain, period.

abandoning an obviously injured animal is "let's cover our asses, even tho it involves more pain for the pig." ***holes.

**jase71** · 04-30-2002, 04:36 PM

Now come on here, folk... settle down. Y'all need to just take a step back and examine the facts here.

Let's keep in mind that these boys are from North Carolina. They went out 'n found themselves a pig, 'n got 'er good 'n drunk.

In North Carolina, that's not "cruelty to animals", that's FOREPLAY!

**i6s1** · 04-30-2002, 06:06 PM

LOL (in the library)

**brainsmile** · 04-30-2002, 09:33 PM

UC Berkeley just banned alcohol from frats for a semester.

**dbax791** · 04-30-2002, 09:48 PM

jase - dang that came out of nowhere - I just spit on my keyboard

Seriously though, I read a book a few years ago (fascinating read, BTW but I can't remember the title) about a guy that profiled serial killers. One of the common themes in the profiling is that there is an amazingly high correlation rate with a childhood history of cruelty to animals. Now obviously I'm not gonna even try to imply anything remotely similar in this case, but now whenever I hear about cruelty cases I kinda wonder about the psyche of the people doing it beyond just being jerks.

There was a case in my neighborhood a couple of years ago where a series of mutilated cats were found around my neighborhood over a couple of months. They couldnt completely rule out a coyote or javelina, but they suspected it was human cause, and were concerned that if it was a neighborhood kid that his folks needed to get him to the shrink, pronto!