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from the swine-version-of-the-universe-championships dept.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claims that Cambodian farmers are breeding "double-muscled" pigs. "Double-muscled" refers to a mutation in the myostatin gene (MSTN) which normally keeps muscle growth in check. Disruption of MSTN can lead to the abnormal proliferation of muscle cells in an organism:
Mutant pigs bred to grow to an enormous size just to be slaughtered and eaten? No, we aren't talking about the plot of the eye-opening Netflix sensation Okja—rather, this is the very real horror that seems to be unfolding on a Cambodian farm, where genetically altered pigs are being bred to develop heaping knots of muscle mass. Disturbing video footage and images captured on the farm have exploded around the web, sparking discussions about the many ways that animals suffer and are abused when they're treated as nothing more than "food."
[...] When South Korean and Chinese scientists created 32 double-muscled piglets in 2015, according to reports, only one was considered even marginally healthy. But pigs suffer even without this "Frankenscience"—on typical pig farms, their tails are cut off, their sensitive teeth are ground down, and the males are castrated, all without so much as an aspirin. Then, even though we have a wealth of nutritious plant-based foods to eat, these intelligent, playful, sociable animals' throats are slit and their bodies are turned into pork chops or sausages.
Breeders have exploited natural double-muscling, which occurs in Belgian Blue cattle, to create behemoth animals who suffer from a slew of health problems—just to yield slightly larger profits.
[Note: On Google News, only corroborating sources seem to be British tabloids right now]
Previously: "Double-Muscled" Pigs Created Using Simple Gene Modification
Scientists Create Extra-Muscular Beagles
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 02 2017, @06:34PM
Everything you're saying can be applied to every other group just as well. Everyone from Catholics and Muslims to Protestants have spotty allegiances they themselves have a hard time recognizing at times. e.g. The Protestant agenda has especially screwed the US in trade and industry by constantly reorienting foreign policy in favor of Europe. They compete against the US on everything except grain; They don't need American tech; They buy their fuel from the Arabs and Russians. And yet, when a US business talks about going global, they first look towards Europe and the UK. This is the result of decades worth of state department pouring resources into Europe despite the little value it presents to America. How many trillions went into keeping Europe out of German and Russian hands only to see them becoming a socialist common market regardless? If a fraction of that money would have been spent on a few Asian and African countries, maybe China wouldn't have owned the US now.