These are the pigs that the police who raided Joshua Rockwood’s farm decided were being neglected and treated cruelly. They are one of the reasons for his arrest. The photo was  taken a couple of weeks after the police raid on his farm.

One pig has a tear in his ear, two others said there was gray matter on the tips of their ears that suggested frost-bite. The photograph was taken by me on Joshua’s farm several weeks after his arrest on 13 charges of animal cruelty and neglect.

I took these photographs to two different pig farms in my country. I e-mailed them to a third. None of the pig farmers say they saw a single thing to justify a charge of abuse or neglect. “Half of my pigs have gray matter on the tips of their ears,” one said, “animals in barns can get frostbite just as easily as pigs outside when the temperate hits the -20’s, as it did this winter. “These guys look fat and happy and healthy to me.”

One farmer also said the the hysteria over animal abuse had caused many authorities to lose all perspective. “These animals are going to slaughter,” he said, “you give them freedom of movement, shelter and good food. You make sure they don’t suffer and are killed quickly and humanely. You can’t do more than that. What do these people know about farms? You can’t call a vet every time a pig has gray matter on their ear, you would be broke in a couple of days, you’d have to triple your prices to justify that, and nobody would pay it.”

Two farmers said they would bet that the vet who came with the police was a small animal vet, nor a farm vet. They surprised me, that is true.

I am not a pig farmer, but I have seen sheep get ears like this if it gets that cold, it seems strange to me that many people demand that all animals be returned to the wild, but they arrest people when there is the slightest hint of it. These pigs had shelter – Joshua has been accused of inadequate shelter – that was hardier and more protected than any of the shelters I have seen on the local pig farms here.

I’ve lived with farm animals for more than a decade, I saw nothing about these pigs that would alarm or concern me. Neglected animals do not look like this, they are not as active or alert, they shy away from people and are slow to move or react to their environment. None of the farmers I showed these photographs to saw any signs of abuse or neglect, but I wanted to share them with you, you can make up your own mind. Joshua’s trial begins tomorrow, the 21st at 7 p.m. at the Glenville, N.Y., Town Court.