This morning the giant sculpture of a pig appeared on the Schuman roundabout

This morning, a giant pig appeared on the Schuman roundabout in Brussels. The gigantic sculpture, that is 4 meters high and 7 meters long, looks towards Berlaymont, because it has a message to send to the European Commission.

« Ode au Pig », this is the name of the sculpture, is the work of the Dutch artist Jantien Mook. Before arriving in Brussels, it had already been exhibited in 12 cities in the Netherlands.

The statue is part of the « Exit The Cages » campaign, organized by Gaia, an animal welfare organization. The aim of the campaign is to ask the European Commission to put an end to the cage farming system in Europe. This is the reason why the statue was placed in that strategic place. The sculpture also celebrates the success of the campaign, which has collected more than 1.5 million signatures in Europe. In Belgium, the petition has been signed by more than 90,000 people.

Gaia’s activists claim that the European Commission has the possibility to issue new directives in this area.  Michel Vandenbosch, Gaia’s president, states: “We needed a million signatures for our petition to be officially recognized by the Commission. According to the mandatory procedure, it must now address this issue. We hope it will be a big boost to end these terrible living conditions in a cage”.

In Europe, 300 million animals live in cages. The 170 organizations that support the action « Exit The Cages » claim their definitive ban. They hope that the new European Commission will listen and take this initiative seriously.