The Pigness of the Pig

I've got a question for you.  "If God meant for pigs to live their lives on concrete, or worse, on a slatted floor in a CAFO, why did he put a plow on the end of their noses?"  To steal some phraseology from Joel Salatin, "It's about respecting the pigness of the pig."  I'm no scientist.  Nor am I a well-studied theologian.  I am a Christian, and I do believe that the Earth and everything in it were created by an all-knowing, all-powerful god.  So then, the question must be asked again: "Why does the pig have a shovel on the end of his nose if he was never intended to use it?"  Certainly, God knew what was best for the pig when He designed him.  I am certainly not an animal worshiper, or a member of PETA, but I most certainly think that it is our duty as caretakers of God's creation to respect the "pigness of the pig" or the "chickenness of the chicken".  I take pride in the fact that to the best of our ability we try to allow the chickens to live like chickens and the pigs to live like pigs, not like prisoners in a concentration camp who are not healthy, but given an orgy or pharmaceuticals to keep them alive long enough to reach slaughter weight.  I believe that I am honoring God by respecting His creation.  Yes, ultimately our animals will be killed and eaten by us or our customers, but we must all remember that our food has a face.  Whether or not we want to look into that face or not, does not change the fact that the ham we are eating used to be a living breathing pig.  Did it live its life like a pig?  Was it allowed to express its pigness?  Did it have the opportunity to flip sod over looking for roots and grubs?  Did it get a chance to cool itself from the hot summer sun in a mud hole?  Or did it spend its life in a barn shoulder to shoulder and nose to tail with other hogs not allowed the freedom to do anything but eat?  Those chicken nuggets your eating: Did they come from chickens who were allowed to hunt and peck for bugs and eat fresh grass each morning?  Did it get to live like a chicken or did it simply survive the concentration camp long enough to become a Happy Meal?  We are what we eat and I guarantee you that there is a difference in taste and nutritional value in meat that comes from happy animals allowed to express their individual uniqueness that the God of Heaven and Earth instilled in them.  I don't know all of the reasons that God put that plow on that pig's nose, but I'll bet the farm that they are good ones.  Respect the pigness of the pig; buy meat from local farmers who know there is a reason for that pig's plow.