Des Moines sees controversial bus ads against crating pigs

From Josh Hafner's Register piece (emphasis ours):

A new ad campaign covering entire buses in Des Moines and Washington, D.C., aims to inform commuters about hog-raising practices and influence pork policy nationwide.

The wraparound advertisement, which will cover a Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority bus for the next six months, shows larger-than-life images of swine peering from behind metal bars against a black backdrop.

“How would you like to spend the rest of your life in a space as small as a bus seat,” reads text on the bus. “It’s what Big Pork wants for pigs.”

An estimated 80 percent of hog producers place female hogs in the 2-foot-by-7-foot stalls during their nearly four-month pregnancy period. [...] While the Iowa Pork Producers Association disputes the tone and message of the ad, it didn’t shy away from its images of pigs in skinny stalls.

“Well, yeah, we keep pigs in gestation stalls while they’re birthing,” said Birkenholz, the spokesman. “We’re happy it’s just one bus.”

Do the ads do the job? Well, maybe not:

DART regular Kasey Overton watched the pig bus roll out of DART Central Station on Friday. “I didn’t really understand what it meant,” said Overton, a 43-year-old south-sider who works downtown. “I knew it was about pigs and space or something like that.”