Horrific Brutality at Minnesota's Christensen Farms as Pork Producers Circle Wagons Around Extreme Abuse

Mercy for Animals has exposed yet another case of extreme brutality, this time at Christensen Farms in Hanska, Minnesota. Christensen is a pork supplier for Walmart. Bob (The Price is Right) Barker narrates the powerful Mercy For Animals video exposing the horrific conditions inside the Hanska facility. WARNING: THE VIDEO IS VERY GRAPHIC AND DIFFICULT TO WATCH.


Despite a recent post in which I said these types of violent videos leave me shaken and upset, I still watch them because I think it's crucial for animal rights advocates to know what we're up against.

And believe me, friends, this is as awful as it gets.

Not surprisingly, the Pork Racket is circling the wagons around this execrable horror show of savagery and abuse. David Preisler of the Minnesota Pork Producers Association (MPAA) insisted that Christensen is a humane producer, that it treats its pigs well, that it provides "quality pig care." To quote Preisler:

"Christensen Farms has a long history of commitment to high-quality animal care and the adoption of animal husbandry practices that enhance pig well-being." (Source) 

Reading Preisler's comments, I can't help but remember the words of the immortal Chico Marx: "Who are you going to believe? Me or your own eyes?"

If one believes the Mercy for Animals video posted above is authentic, which I do, then the Pork Bosses had better go back and consult with a dictionary about the definition of "humane," "quality" and  "standards."

How many more exposures like this one is it going to take? How many more pigs have to be live their short lives in pain and misery, only to be murdered and consumed by human beings?

Defenders of this sort of violence like to say that the abuses in the Mercy for Animals video represent a "worst-case scenario," and not all pork producers are so brutal and uncaring and violent.

The end result in all of these factories of death, whether they practice "humane" methods or not, is mass murder. We need to spread the message that pigs are not our property. They are not our meat. They are not our ham, our pork, our bacon. They are individual beings, who have as much right to live their lives as we do. Murdering them is a crime as heinous as killing a human being, whether that murder occurs in a place that embraces "humane" treatment or an outfit like Christensen, that is clearly engaging in the worst forms of abuse imaginable before stealing the life away from these poor beings.

'Nuff Said

What more needs to be said?

Heat and Animals: The Big Double Standard

Nowhere is the double standard about our treatment of animals more clear than when we're experiencing a heatwave, as we are right now. Newspapers, TV channels and the Internet perform an invaluable service by warning people - over and over again - about the dangers of locking pets in cars.

Sadly, despite these warnings, pets - especially dogs - keep perishing in the blistering heat from being locked inside of cars in the daytime sun.

But where is this public concern about animals that omnivores consume as food? Where is the concern for pigs and chickens, cows and other animals whose lives are cut short for the human dinner table?

Answer: It's not there. Well, maybe I shouldn't say it's nonexistent. After all, true animal rights advocates and vegans (typically, one and the same) point out that animals being transported to their mass-murder destinations are often traveling in sweltering heat, experiencing unthinkable misery in the final moments of their lives.

If you dare, watch this video (posted above) of pigs being delivered on an extremely hot day (July 12, 2011) to Quality Meat Packers in Toronto.

Here is the scenario, as explained by TorontoPigSave on Rabble.ca:

On Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at about 2pm, a local resident -- Teresa -- witnessed pigs that were very hot, dehydrated and wounded, including several pigs with bloody snouts in one transport truck. She was shocked to see about 10 transport trucks waiting in line in the hot sun to be unloaded at Toronto's Quality Meat Packers, including three trucks waiting on Wellington Street West. Distressed by what she witnessed, she ran into the plant and asked to speak to the manager. She demanded that they address the crisis. She was asked to leave.

Teresa texted her friends and various NGOs and through social media Toronto Pig Save was informed at about 4 p.m. We immediately visited the site.

The footage in this video is of one transport truck waiting in line at about 4 p.m.; most of the trucks had left the site already. The pigs are clearly in distress -- extremely hot, dehydrated, overcrowded, and many with wounds, including one with an open eye wound. The pigs are very vocal communicating to each other and perhaps to us as well, crying for help.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) has set up a media alert and aform letter you can send to your MP, but please personalize the letter and refer to this case of July 12 and this video.

Video footage: Anita Krajnc, Photo stills: Teresa Ascencao, Toronto Pig Save

How can any thinking, feeling human being watch this video and not feel a deep sense of shame in the human race? How is that we have reached a point where compassionate values have become so shrivelled up as to be nonexistent? How can any man or woman or child, young or old, look into the eyes of the pigs in the video above and not feel a sense of despair so profound, so heart-wrenching, that it is almost completely overwhelming?

The scenes you see in the video, of pigs crammed into trucks in the deadly heat, squealing with discomfort and pain and disorientation, should haunt every human being until his or her dying day. Imagine being inside of a piping hot, cramped space, no room to move, noses pressed so hard against the transport truck walls that blood is coming out. And all of this right before an army of human beings - probably most of them being paid just barely enough to survive themselves - swarm down on you, and herd you into a final dark place before your life ends?

When I was young, I liked to believe that goodness would triumph. Truth would out. Compassion would sweep into the hearts of people, like an unstoppable tidal wave. And justice would prevail in all corners.

Then I witness scenes like the one above, so painful as to break the heart. How can a race that pays a select few individuals low wages to do the sorts of things that we see in this video to sentient beings - and then collectively looks the other way at the suffering - possibly redeem itself?

Shocking Mercy for Animals Video Shows That Meat Isn't Just Murder, It is Pure, Serial Killer-Style Sadism

WARNING: DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO IF YOU ARE A SENSITIVE SOUL WHO CANNOT HANDLE VIOLENCE.

I consider myself to be one of those sensitive souls. And watching this video horrified me. It absolutely horrified me. Thank God that Mercy for Animals had the courage to expose this sick, twisted form of sadism that is standard operating procedure at E6 Cattle Co. in Hart, Texas.

And it is probably regular practice at a lot of other facilities, too.

These are incredibly sick acts of violence shown here. Mercy for Animals announced some horrifying discoveries coming out of its investigation of E6. These include (in the words of MFA):

Workers bludgeoning calves in their skulls with pickaxes and hammers – often involving 5 to 6 blows, sometimes more – before rendering the animals unconscious

Beaten calves, still alive and conscious, thrown onto dead piles

Workers kicking downed calves in the head, and standing on their necks and ribs

Calves confined to squalid hutches, thick with manure and urine buildup, and barely large enough for the calves to turn around or fully extend their legs

Gruesome injuries and afflictions, including open sores, swollen joints and severed hooves

Ill, injured and dying calves denied medical care

The budding horns of calves burned out their skulls without painkillers

Mercy for Animals has pointed out that these sorts of actions are the logical outcome of a system that commodifies animals and turns them into objects instead of sentient living beings. How right they are.

There are lots of things you can do. Donate to Mercy for Animals (which is what I'm doing). Write a letter to E6 Cattle Co. (1750 Country Road 628, Hart, Texas, 79043). Share the video on Facebook or Twitter or other on your Blog. Get the word out any way you can.

And if you haven't already done so, please go Vegan. The violence you see in this video is far more widespread than you think.

Oh, and please do not fool yourself into thinking there is a "humane" way of murdering living beings. You know what? There is not. The only "humane" way is veganism.

Not all videos are created equal...

A very well-intentioned Facebook friend of mine who is an ardent animal rights supporter from Malaysia posted a disturbing video on Facebook. It showed a man, presumably in China (it looks like a crowded city in China, and there are what appears to be Chinese characters on the bottom of the screen) carrying a yelping puppy toward a wall. The video started to give me the jitters just a few seconds into it. "This can't end well," I told myself.

It doesn't, either. The man holds the puppy by the back legs and begins slamming the poor animal against a wall. A crowd is starting to gather and, while the puppy is still quivering, the man cuts the puppy's throat open. My animal rights friend begged people to please repost the video. "The video shows pure evilness and cruelty," she wrote on her wall post.

I am not reposting the video here, even though I do post a lot of videos on this Blog. Certain videos, though, I just won't post. For example, I didn't repost the video of the young Bosnian girl throwing puppies into a rushing river that caused a recent global uproar. And I didn't repost the video of the nasty British woman pitching a poor cat into a dumpster in August that provoked a similar outcry. (A scene from that video is posted above.)

If I post a video, I insist that it have some educational value. Videos that show the cruelty that factory farm animals endure are educational. Videos that show appalling conditions in facilities that manufacture fur coats and other fur products are educational. Videos that show animals being abused on a large scale and in a systematic fashion are educational. All of these videos serve the same purpose. They show us what is happening behind the walls of industries - or, in some cases, private individuals - that exploit animals.

But videos that show individual human beings carrying out acts of random violence against animals feel more like exploitation. I have posted some videos of animal rescue workers finding large numbers of cats or dogs in appalling conditions, but these are also educational because they show us how far we need to go to take better care of our dog and cat populations.

Perhaps videos that show isolated acts of human cruelty are educational in some way. After all, it is helpful to know that there are insane people out there who harm human beings and animals. Oftentimes, though, my gut tells me these types of videos are exploitation and posting them on my Blog doesn't feel right. By exploitation, I mean sensationalist. Or videos that serve no other function than to shake up people or agitate or disturb them. When I was finished watching that awful Chinese puppy cruelty video, I can' t say I emerged from the experience enlightened. I simply felt shaken up and defeated. I don't know what happened to the heartless man in the video. Did he get punished? Did he walk away? Who the hell is he?

Some people might make the same argument about videos that show appalling conditions in factory farms or leather coat-making facilities or some other institutions that exploit and carry out violent acts against sentient nonhuman animals. What purpose do these videos serve? They're no good. Get rid of them. Quit posting them. That sort of thing.

And, as I said, there may even be those that insist that videos depicting isolated acts of human cruelty are educational. I guess it all boils down to one's own individual value system. Back in a 1964 Supreme Court case that had to do with pornography, Justice Potter Stewart - when pressed to define pornography, said, simply, "I know it when I see it."

In this instance, I'll fall back on Justice Stewart's simple definition. Please don't ask me to explain why one video feels more like exploitation than another. I just know it when I see it.

Saving Navarro

Americans were shocked to learn about a cat named Navarro who was narrowly saved from being eaten in New York state. Police stopped 51-year-old Gary Korkuc of Cheektowaga, New York, and found a beautiful black and white cat in the car's trunk marinated in oil, crushed red peppers, chili peppers and salt. Korkuc was planning to devour the poor cat. Korkuc told the police he planned to eat the cat because it had been "mean" to him. (He later denied plans to eat the cat, telling a local radio station "that's conjecture and that's an assumption.") Navarro is pictured here on the right. (Source)

Unlike so many of these gruesome tales, this story has a happy ending. Korkuc was caught before he could eat Navarro. Another resident of Cheektowaga, a cat lover, adopted Navarro and changed his name to Oliver and now he lives in a loving home. "Navarro spend the last night curled up on a bed in his wonderful new home," noted the SPCA. (Source)

You can probably predict what I'm thinking. "Cows and pigs and chickens deserve to live as much as cats..." - that sort of thing. But I'm also very thankful that this story has a happy ending. So many of these kinds of episodes end badly. Really badly. There's a wonderful friend on Facebook who is trying to stop a cat hoarder in Van Nuys, California (left). If your heart can stand the tragic video she made, please try to watch it below. This will give you some idea of the awful lives that hoarded cats live, cramped in unbearable conditions, living in the filthiest conditions imaginable.

So yeah, we do have a double standard to some degree. Cats are seen as more sacrosanct than, say, pigs or chickens or cows. But there are still a lot of cats out there who suffer. And I'm thankful than Navarro has a good home. Thankfully, there are still plenty of good people out there who care about animals.

Horror in Manitoba

In Manitoba, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is investigating a horrifying case of "severe neglect" at a farm (pictured above) in Notre Dame de Lourdes (southwest of Winnipeg).

The scene was straight out of a horror film. The owner of the farm, Martin Grenier, left 2,700 pigs in a barn without feed, water or proper ventilation.

Five hundred pigs died. Authorities were forced to euthanize another 160. The remaining 2,000 were placed in the custody of the chief veterinarian.

Grenier had plenty of food and water to provide for the pigs. Apparently, he simply couldn't be bothered to take proper care of his animals.

Even by factory farm standards, this is ghastly treatment. What is to be done to Grenier? Historically, these sorts of horrific cases of animal abuse have gone unpunished. At the most, the abusers get a slap on the wrist. Rarely are they banned from owning animals in the future. Most of the time, the Martin Greniers of the world get away with it.

Twyla Francois, the wonderful head of Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals, spoke out forcefully against the horrible treatment of these pigs. And farmers in the area are troubled by the terrible discovery on the Grenier farm. As a farmer who lives nearby put it, "We are all wondering how this could be? We don't even know how a person could ever think of doing that." (Source: See the Video of the Story here.)

The real test comes when authorities decide how to punish Grenier. Is he going to get away with it, as so many animal abusers have in the past? Or, for once in the long and sorry history of human mistreatment of animals, is the perpetrator going to receive an appropriate punishment?

We shall see.

(Thanks to Twyla Francois for bringing this to my attention.)

The King Kong of Cruel Food Production: Foie Gras, Canadian Style

You might not have the stomach to watch this video about the production of Foie Gras. Foie Gras means "fatty liver" - it is a "delicacy" made of the liver of a duck or goose that has been forcefully fattened just for this occasion. It is known as a rich and buttery food and is on the menu at many upscale restaurants.

And the making of Foie Gras is as violent, cruel and inhumane as food production gets.

Please watch this video of the making of Foie Gras in Canada.

It is one of the most painful documentaries on animal abuse that I've viewed, and I have watched a lot of these types of videos.

Good people have been resisting the production of Foie Gras for years. This includes a number of celebrities, including former 007 James Bond star Roger Moore. Recently, Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet has joined in on the anti-Foie Gras Movement.

This video shows - very explicitly - just how cruel the production of Foie Gras is. Female ducklings are thrown into garbage bags and then gassed with carbon monoxide, but many of them survive (as this video shows). Male ducks are force fed and the small ones are picked out and brutally murdered. This is pure heartlessness at its worst.

Human rights without animal rights is utterly meaningless. Either you stand for the rights of all sentient beings or none at all. This video is the greatest argument for going vegan. It is also a warning bell calling on all decent people to demand a halt to the production of Foie Gras.

Animal Abuser Registry Long Overdue

California may soon have an Animal Abuser Registry that publicly lists the names of men and women who abuse animals. Bring it on! This would set a much-needed precedent in the battle to reduce (and hopefully one day end) animal abuse. A bill was introduced last month by California's Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez to create the registry. Said Florez: "We think California is primed for this kind of a bill. We've progressed to the point where we as a legislature are moving in a direction of this bill, which is ultimately: How do we in essence prevent repeat offenses when it comes to cruelty to animals in the state of California?" (Source) The registry, according to Time magazine, would "make it easier for shelters and animal-adoption groups to identify people who should be allowed access to animals." (Source) California is on the right track. Let's hope other states move in a similar direction very soon.

Fighting the Good Fight: MP Mark Holland and Bill C229

In this Blog, I like to emphasize the wonderful people from all walks of life and every corner of the world who are fighting the good fight to help animals. There are a lot of them. Member of Parliament Mark Holland (right, with a constituent), a Liberal who represents Pickering and Ajax in the Canadian Parliament, is one such person. He has been fighting a long time for the passage of Bill C-229, which would toughen Canada's animal anti-cruelty laws.

They need toughening, too. In Calgary alone in recent days, there have been three court cases of men savagely treating dogs, including one who clubbed a dog repeatedly with a flashlight and another who beat a four-month-old puppy to death. Outside of the Calgary courtroom, members of Daisy Foundation - a group dedicated to fighting for tougher penalties against animal abusers - were making their presence known with demonstrations against animal cruelty.

Daisy Foundation is a terrific organization named after Daisy Duke, a dog who was tortured when two thugs put a bag over her head and beat her with a shovel. Then they dragged her behind a truck. She was so badly damaged by this incident that she had to be euthanized. The main perpetrator, Daniel Haskett, received 30 days in jail, which he was able to serve on the weekends. He was also slapped with a year's probation. Oh yeah, and he's not prohibited from being around animals. Real tough punishment for a sadist who loves inflicting cruelty on a defenseless creature. Sadly, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of him.

This is one of the reasons why what Mark Holland is doing in Parliament is so important. He is pushing through a bill so that the Daniel Hasketts of the world won't get off so easily. Mark is fighting a noble battle in Parliament and he can use all the support he can get. I'm going to do my part by writing letters to key members of parliament to show my support for Mark (the addresses of the members can be found on his Website). Check out his Website (http://markholland.ca/issues/animals.htm) to see what you can do to help. Harsh punishments against those who abuse and murder animals is long overdue. Mark is just one of many brave folks around the world fighting for stiffer penalties against animal abusers.

Not a Revolution, But a Step in the Right Direction...

Here's an interesting piece of news from China: There is currently a draft law under consideration by the Chinese government that would ban the consumption of dog meat and fine violators 15 days in jail and 5000 yuan ($735US) for individuals and 10,000 to 500,000 yuan ($1,470US to $73,529US) for businesses.

As ABC News notes:

The legislation was drafted by a team of Chinese experts who consulted with the U.S.-based International Fund for Animal Welfare and Britain's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.... An informal online poll in the popular Chinese Web site Sohu.com already attracted more than 178,000 votes as of today. Some 56.8 percent voted in favor of the ban on eating dog and cat meat while 39.6 percent were against it.

Apparently, wars of words are raging over the Internet in China as we speak. "Cats and dogs are our favourite pets," wrote a Beijing resident. "They are entitled to their own rights. Why should people eat them?"

There is a very good likelihood that this law will be adopted by the government, and if it is, it will be the first animal rights law ever passed in China. That alone makes it quite a remarkable achievement.

In some parts of China, especially in the southern regions, eating dog is still popular. As China Daily notes:

Eating dog meat in China is a risky proposition, given that the country has no specific regulations regarding the production and sale of the meat, experts say.

Eating dog meat is a traditional folk custom in winter in south China's Guangdong province. Shenzhen is one of the hubs for dog-meat processing.

The current price is approximately 24 to 40 yuan ($3.5-5.8) per kg. Kennel after kennel of dogs transported from other cities are slaughtered each morning in some butcheries in the outskirts of this metropolis.

However, no specific standard has ever been created in China to guarantee the hygienic conditions of dogs raised for slaughter and their meat.

Unregulated pork, beef, and lamb sales are banned in China. However, due to the lack of regulation, the bloody slaughter of dogs cannot be legally covered.

Rabies is the only circumstance requiring quarantine for dogs. Even more dogs are slaughtered outside the standard butcheries without any official supervision.

The relevant regulations on the logistics and sale of dog meat are also nonexistent. Numerous local supermarkets and restaurants are infested with dog meat that may not be safe, experts say.

According to Yu Jie, a local medic, eating dog meat is unsafe because of parasites. Also, workers processing the meat from a rabid dog can easily become infected with rabies.

Article 28 of the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China says, "It is forbidden to produce or engage in the business operation of meat that has not been quarantined by the animal health inspection institution or has failed the quarantine, or meat products that have not been inspected or have failed the inspection."

"If dog meat is not quarantined before entering the market, then processing and selling it should be considered illegal," Zhu Bin, a local lawyer, was quoted as saying by Nanfang Daily.

The passage of this law would be a tremendous triumph for the animal rights movement in China. Let's keep our fingers crossed it becomes the the law of the land.

If this law is passed, the next step of the Chinese animal rights movement - and animal rights movements in other countries - ought to be to convince people that the lives of factory farm animals - cows, chickens, pigs, sheep, etc. - are just as valuable and precious as those of dogs. Human beings can more easily identify with dogs, for obvious reasons. The thought of slaughtering dogs does not sit well with most people, even in parts of the world where that sort of practice is more traditional.

But those of us who believe in animal rights have a responsibility to teach others that the lives of all animals are precious, whether they're dogs, cats, factory farm animals, animals used in lab testing, animals used for fur and leather coats, and pretty much every other animal - and human being - that exists. This proposed law in China is a huge step. Yet it is also only the beginning.

Update: Wiseguy Joining in on the Hunt

Remember actor Ken Wahl, who won a Golden Globe Award for the CBS crime show Wiseguy? Well, the actor and animal rights supporter putting up his Golden Globe Award to help find the thugs who glued the beautiful cat Timothy to Interstate 90 in Minnesota last month. I blogged about Timothy a week ago. He has, sadly, died as a result of his ordeal. Since then, the reward money to apprehend the perpetrators has gone up to $12,000. Wahl is worried that the sadists who murdered Timothy will kill again, and he's probably right.

As Wahl put it:

Men who pick on cats are sick cowards that have control issues, since cats are half wild and independent. We’re not just finding a kitten killer, we are preventing this person becoming a serial killer. (Source)

Turning the Tide in Maryland

Kudos to two state senators in Maryland who are pushing for stronger animal cruelty laws. The two legislators are pushing to toughen the punishments in the state for anyone guilty of committing misdemeanor animal abuse. These senators want to increase the fine from $1,000 to $2,500, and the jail time from 90 days to one year.

Making the punishments more severe would "enforce the values" of Maryland's residents, says State Senator Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery County), "which are opposed to gratuitous cruelty and violence against animals." (Source)

The Animal Defense Fund ranks Maryland number 40 of all states and the District of Columbia in enforcing its animal cruelty laws. The increasingly responsive attitude of Maryland's politicians is due largely to the hard work of - you guessed it - animal rights advocates. As Carolyn Kilborn, chairwoman of the group Maryland Votes for Animals, put it: "We're sick and tired of the cruelty that's being unaddressed by our legislature." (Source)

Amen!

The Short, Sad Life of Timothy

On a freezing cold night just seven days before Christmas in 2009, a motorist in southwestern Minnesota made a horrible discovery. A beautiful, 7-month-old kitten (later named Timothy) was stuck in the middle of the highway. Some horrible sadist had glued his paws to the pavement.

Volunteers at Second Chance Rescue took him in, but he died a few days later. Apparently, the poisonous glue got into his system and killed him.

Timothy is gone, but not forgotten. He was the victim of a system in which animal abusers are seldom punished for their crimes. So many people have committed ghastly crimes against animals. And in the rare cases these thugs are brought to trial, they're almost always released with only a slap on the wrist - if that. This is because we live in a society that has looked the other way at animal abuse.

This sort of tragedy repeats itself over and over again, in a thousand different communities across North America.

But there is another side to humanity. A number of donors have offered rewards for information leading to the capture of the sadists who murdered Timothy. In fact, the reward has grown to $10,000. One anonymous donor contributed $1,000 toward the reward money. The outpouring of support and sympathy for Timothy has been nothing short of remarkable.

There is also a movement in Minnesota to push for the passage of more stringent animal cruelty laws. As the Morris (Minnesota) Sun Tribune noted:

Just two days before Timothy was pulled from the roadway west of Mankato, Minn., the national Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) released a report ranking the states on their laws concerning animal abuse.

Minnesota ranked 15th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and someone arrested in connection with the Dec. 18 incident could face a felony charge because it involved intentional cruelty and resulted in the animal’s death, according to Stephan Otto, an attorney and legislative director with the California-based ALDF.

“They would be facing penalties of up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine,” Otto said Monday.

Minnesota has a more severe felony animal abuse charge available for cases where the animal torture is done to terrorize another person. That carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Conviction on a misdemeanor animal abuse charge in Minnesota carries a maximum sentence of a year in jail and a fine of $3,000, Otto said.

Tougher laws to protect animals are long overdue. Humane people who love animals can only accomplish so much. They need the legal system on their side, so that there is actually a deterrent against this kind of cruelty. As it is now, the fiends who committed this crime will likely go on hurting other animals simply because they can. Time to change the laws so the bad guys pay and the victims receive the protection under the law they deserve.

Fighting the Good Fight Against Puppy Mills

Rather than always focusing on the negative, which is easy for animal rights advocates to do, it is also important to spotlight the heroic fight against animal abuse. Kudos to SPCA volunteers across North America. In Pennsylvania, SPCA workers in Lebanon and Lancaster counties are working to help abused puppies who are currently crammed into dark mills in a state with the reputation as "the puppy mill capital of the world." (Source) The conditions in the puppy mills are horrendous. It is worth quoting extensively from the article in the Mercury:

An Associated Press report in Monday's edition of The Mercury reported on one day in the life of an animal rescue worker driving through Lancaster County buying mistreated animals. The account described the horrid conditions inside high-volume puppy mills: "... an overwhelming stench of urine and feces. Ammonia fumes burn the nose and eyes. The simultaneous barking of hundreds of dogs creates a wall of sound that makes it hard to think, let alone converse.

"Lacking a bone or toy to occupy their time, some dogs go into a frenzy every time they see a human. Other dogs circle endlessly. Still others just sit there, staring, like a 'warm statue,' says Jessie Smith, special deputy secretary of dog law enforcement at the state Department of Agriculture.

"Breeders often act as their own vets, performing delicate surgical procedures — docking tails, "debarking" dogs by hacking at the vocal cords, performing Caesarean sections on pregnant females."

Thanks to a group of committed SPCA activists, these puppy mills are being exposed in the press as the profit-hungry, cruel factories that they are. "The corps of combatants" fighting against the abuse in puppy mills, notes the Mercury article, are "tireless." It is an uphill battle, to be certain, but when you see the horrible acts of abuse captured on tape (for example: a series of recent dog beatings in New York filmed on video), you begin to understand how crucial it is that animals receive better protection under the law. It is encouraging to see that many states, including Pennsylvania and Minnesota, are enacting much tougher anti-cruelty laws. This is a welcome move in the right direction. And the passage of such laws is largely because of the pressure being placed on legislators by animal rights activists.