A woman in Burlington, Wisconsin, found what she believed to be a nipple still attached to her strip of bacon. She posted a photo of the alleged nipple on Facebook with the caption “I was going to make blt’s for dinner until I realized my bacon still had a nipple on it.”

The image went viral and it has received nearly 2 million views after it was posted on Reddit. This incident reminds us that bacon—and all meat—is made from the body parts of a living animal who could feel pain, sorrow, and loneliness just like we do.

Because animal flesh is often processed, cut into strips, ground up, or formed into nuggets, patties, and other non-animal shapes, it’s easy to forget that we’re eating the decaying flesh of another being who once had a family of his or her own.

Pigs have unique personalities and feelings. They love to play, wag their tails, and can recognize their names—just like dogs! But in the commercial meat industry, mother pigs spend most of their lives in gestation crates that are too small for them even to turn around in. And baby pigs are castrated without painkillers and separated from their mothers when they are as young as 10 days old.

At the slaughterhouse, some pigs aren’t stunned properly, which means that they’re dumped into scalding-hot water—which is intended to soften their skin and remove their hair—while they’re still conscious. A typical slaughterhouse kills about 1,000 pigs per hour. The sheer number of animals killed makes it impossible for their deaths to be humane and painless.

What You Can Do

The good news is that you can make a rad vegan BLT without finding any nipples in your meal or hurting ANY pigs or other animals. Check out our favorite “bacon” products—guaranteed to be nipple-free!