While roundly condemning cruel pig farming practices last night on TV One News and Close Up, TV One then ran How the other half lives at 9.30 on hunting, seemingly in contradiction of their earlier stand on animal welfare.
We saw pig hunters and their dogs chasing, bailing up and sticking a large Captain Cooker pig, although Marc Ellis delicately turned the other way to avoid the awkward bit when the pig was dispensed.
Pig dogs have strong jaws which allow them to hold onto a pig until the hunter can get close enough to put the knife in. As anyone who has ever been bitten knows, dog bites are extremely painful. To die this way must be agonising and terrifying.
We appear to have contradictory attitudes to pig welfare. We hail pig hunters as heroes, while condemning local farmers for intensive farming practices, and continue to support imports of cheap, intensively farmed Canadian pork.
I don't agree with pigs being confined - either in crates or concrete pens - and I think the current media campaign has given the industry a big wake-up call. And let the public know that if it wants piggies gambolling in the meadow - and, as Claire Browning notes, pork for the Sunday roast - they're going to have to pay a bit more.
As a country that pushes the grass-fed angle when marketing lamb and beef, we have up till now ignored the plight of pigs.