Rotorua animal lover Carlie Mascelle with her new book 'I am NOT Bacon'.

The contentious issue of factory farming pigs has made its way onto the pages of a new children's storybook.

The book, I am NOT Bacon, written and illustrated by Rotorua woman Carlie Mascelle, tells the story of a little pig called Pedro who grows up in a factory farm.

"His quest is to make humans understand animals think and feel just as they do," Mascelle said.

AMY CHILDS/FAIRFAX NZ The book tells the story of Pedro the pig and his upbringing in a factory farm.

"It is the kind of story I hope will move children as well as their parents and grandparents who read the book to them."

And it's got an unlikely supporter in Te Puke pig farmer Ian Schultz who agreed people needed to know that supermarket meat actually came from an animal.

"People in cities are so far removed from their food there is just no connection any more."

AMY CHILDS/FAIRFAX NZ Images from new children's book, I am NOT Bacon.

He went as far as saying people had an "obligation to visit farms" if they were going to eat meat.

Schultz has farmed both free range and intensive and said his current farm sat somewhere in between with a large pen, sawdust floor and about 120 pigs.

But he doesn't like the term "factory farm".



"A factory farm is just a farm with a more intensive style of farming."



If people were unhappy with intensive farming they should buy free range pork, he said.



For Mascelle the book is a continuum in her campaign to help suffering animals.



Over the last year she has been helping to re-home pound dogs around New Zealand through her initiative Project Re-home, which involves filming heart-rending stories of dogs on death row at different pounds and posting them on social media in the hope of getting them adopted.

Mascelle wants to turn I am NOT Bacon into a series of books to educate children on where their food comes from.

She said it wasn't about trying to get people to stop eating meat, but rather helping people make the decision not to buy meat from factory farms where animals have suffered.

"I have written and illustrated the book as an educational source for young children. It is written in a very light-hearted and quirky way for little kids, but with a very strong message about the suffering of animals in factory farms," she said.

SAFE head of marketing and communications Amanda Sorrenson said as an animal rights organisation they applauded any effort, including the book, tomake New Zealand a kinder place for animals.

I am NOT Bacon can be ordered at http://www.stonewallproductions.co.nz/442914/

Any proceeds will finance her next planned books - I am NOT a Chicken Nugget and I am NOT Veal.