What the Ag Gag Laws Don't Want You to See

If you get a moment, please watch this graphic video footage of life inside of a Wyoming pig factory farm. The clip above contains only a few scenes from the actual footage, which was shot by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) inside of a factory farm that supplies Tyson Foods. Most of the video above contains a discussion on the lefty Young Turks Network about the violent practices of factory farming and the rapid proliferation of these death houses around the world. The discussion is an superb one.

Below is the ENTIRE HSUS VIDEO (and it's quite graphic). If you're not vegan, I beg you - beg, beg, beg you - to watch the video below. Find out what you're paying other people to do for your eating habits. Please do not look away! These are the very types of videos that Ag Gag Laws are trying to ban. These are Orwellian laws, designed to punish people who tell the truth and reward those who allow the worst sort of savagery and cruelty in the name of profits.

The day will come when future generations look back on these times as the Dark Ages in the treatment of animals. If Ag Gag Laws prevail, the times will get darker and darker. Is this really what we want? Is this really a way to build a civilization that we wish to pass down to future generations?

Please Take 1 Minute Out of Your Day to Help These Abused Pigs

All it takes is one minute. One minute to help animals who need your help. Please visit this URL:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/500-pigs-starved-to-death--those-involved-need-to-be-prosecuted

I beg you to take a moment to sign this petition and let the authorities in Manitoba know that the horrifying abuse of thousands of pigs at a farm in Notre Dame de Lourdes, which resulted in the unspeakably awful deaths of well over 600, will not be tolerated. (See my Blog entry here on the subject.)

The very barn that became a ghastly pig torture chamber burned last Wednesday in a fire, not long after authorities raided it and found hundreds of dead pigs and countless others suffering. Luckily, the authorities saved 2000 of the beautiful creatures.

Our animal friends need our help right now. These are extraordinary creatures who all - each and every one - deserve to live much better lives than the awful existences they have lived up until this point.

Time to punish the offenders. And punish them hard.

Even though this case is an extreme form of animal abuse, we should not lose sight of the violence inherent in the factory farm system. Combating awful cases of abuse such as this one should be our Number One priority. The poor pigs who suffered so terribly deserve justice.

Surely, this is a cause around which omnivores, vegetarians, vegans and anyone else with a healthy respect for the sanctity of life can rally.

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.)