Animal rights group Animals Australia has launched a radio advertising campaign in the capital cities that slams the "horrific practices" of intensive piggeries.
The advertisements use a young girl to describe the conditions in which a pig lives.
The narrator then states that it is commonly accepted that pigs have the intelligence of a three-year-old human.
According to the Animals Australia website, the 'Lucy Speaks' radio campaign aims to alert "caring consumers to the truth about how over 90pc of pork, bacon and ham is produced in this country".
"Pigs are social and affectionate animals," the website states.
"They experience fear, pain and many emotions, not unlike the family pet.
"Yet most pigs raised in Australia are confined in factory farms, where they are denied any quality of life.
"What they are forced to endure in the name of profit would be illegal if they were instead a dog or cat."
Animals Australia says sow stalls trap female pigs in a "barren metal cage barely bigger than her own body" and should be outlawed in Australia, as they already are in some European countries.
"Trapped in a cycle of suffering, she is forced to give birth on a hard concrete floor; denied the ability to nurture her young; and will be continually impregnated until her body can no longer physically cope," they claim.
"Her piglets are subjected to painful surgical procedures—without anaesthetic."
They also argue for the need for labelling of pork products - similar to that used by free-range egg producers - to differentiate meat from pigs in intensive farming systems to that from free-range piggeries.
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