Of Film Footage and Animals

I'll never forget my family's first video camera. My dad purchased it 30 years ago from an electronics store in Salt Lake City called Stokes Brothers. When I got that thing, I went around shooting movies everywhere: in the backyard; at family picnics; in the basement rec room. You name it, I shot videos. Now I look back and watch them and they're documents of a happy time - of laughter, of family getting together, of memorable moments, of days long past but never forgotten.

Video cameras - or camcorders or movie cameras or whatever they're referred to in the parlance of the times - have been an extraordinary invention, used to capture histories both personal and on a grand scale. The 20th Century was the first "filmed" century - cameras existed from one end of the century to the other - and the film footage we have of those one hundred years is nothing short of incredible. Some of it, such as the 1945 Victory in Europe celebrations across America or the 1969 moon landing are incredibly inspiring. Other films, such as war footage, or the shooting of a Viet Cong prisoner during the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam, or the '89 Tiananmen Square protests, or the Rodney King beating, or the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

And then there is the issue of animals and videos. What will historians say 100 years from now about the movies we shot of animals? How will the ways in which we film animals be remembered?

The answer to that question depends on the films of animals that survive our times. Certainly, Hollywood has churned out lots of sentimental films, especially movies about dogs such as Lassie Come Home (1943) and Marley and Me (2008). Hollywood films about other species of animals also abound, including horses (The Black Stallion, Seabiscuit), cats (That Darn Cat, Harry and Tonto), pigs (Charlotte's Web, Babe). The list goes on and on.

But I'm not really talking about Hollywood films here. I'm talking about films used by animal rights activists that depict the treatment of animals in our society, often showing a darker side to how human beings interact with animals.

Example 1: Recently, there were two big developments around the issue of filmed animal footage that are worth noting. The first occurred on April 22 when U.S. District Court Judge Sim Lake in Texas decided that so-called "animal crush videos" - showing the torture and killing of animals - are protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Judge Lake dismissed charges against Ashley Nicole Richards and Brent Justice, who allegedly made films showing all kinds of animals - chickens, puppies, mice and kittens - being tortured to death. Judge Lake conceded "the acts depicted in animal crush videos are disturbing and horrid," yet they are "still considered protected speech."(Source)

Example 2: Salt Lake City, Utah. My hometown. In February, Amy Meyer, standing on public property, used the video camera on her cell phone to film the brutal treatment of cows at a slaughterhouse in Draper Utah. She was charged for committing a crime under Utah's new Ag-Gag laws. Thankfully, the case was dismissed when Meyer received a lot of nationwide attention. At the time she was charged, in late April, Meyer issued the following statement:

I visited the Smith Meatpacking Slaughterhouse in Draper, Utah because I have heard numerous reports that any bystander standing on the public thoroughfare could witness the horror of cows struggling for their lives as they were led to their violent deaths. What I saw was upsetting, to say the least. Cows being led inside the building struggled to turn around once they smelled and heard the misery that awaited them inside. I saw piles of horns scattered around the property and flesh being spewed from a chute on the side of the building. I also witnessed what I believe to be a clear act of cruelty to animals – a live cow who appeared to be sick or injured being carried away from the building in a tractor, as though she were nothing more than rubble. At all times while I documented this cruelty, I remained on public property. I never once crossed the barbed wire fence that exists to demarcate private and public property. I told this to the police who were on the scene.  I am shocked and disappointed that I am being prosecuted by Draper City simply for standing on public property and documenting horrific animal abuse while those who perpetrated these acts are free to continue maiming and killing animals. It is my understanding that the Mayor of Draper co-owns this slaughterhouse.  

Amy Meyer (Source)

I am convinced the only reason Amy Meyer's case was dismissed was because she was getting lots of nationwide attention. Had she been sentenced to jail time, she would have become a martyr for the anti-Ag-Gag Movement.

But take a good look at these two cases. One in Texas, the other in Utah. What do they say about our species? Taken together, they are a damning indictment of the human race. On the one hand, filming the torture of animals for some sort of perverse thrill or pleasure is protected under the United States Constitution. On the other hand, filming the horrific treatment of animals in slaughterhouses and factory farms is prohibited by Ag-Gag laws, which - shockingly - are not regarded as violations of the First Amendment.

There are dangerous and potentially very horrifying precedents being set here. Both of them show a callous - one might even use the word "psychotic" or "evil" - disregard for the well being of animals. The message that these cases convey is abundantly clear: The lives of animals do not matter. Worse, in destroying their lives, it is perfectly acceptable to torture them to death in unbelievably horrific ways, the way a serial killer might torture a human being to death. If that torture is being captured on film to educate and mobilize people to act to change this treatment, then filming is banned. By contrast, if that torture is being filmed to satisfy the twisted fetish of sick, perverted, psychotic individuals, then filming such scenes is perfectly acceptable.

The time has come to get militant about animal rights. No more fucking around (excuse the foul language). War has been declared, not by animal rights activists, but by the institutions that are put in place to justify, sanction and use coercion to maintain the mass murder of these beings. Make no mistake: We are living in times that will be remembered in history books as the Dark Ages for Animals.

But this does not need to be the case. Imagine creating the kind of society where the videos and films we shoot of animals show beings living happy, blissful lives. Such videos and films do exist! Look at any film shot inside of a farm sanctuary and you'll see happy animals, living the way animals are meant to live. Leave it to human beings, who have shown us the worst sort of depravity imaginable, to also teach us the noblest ways imaginable to treat our fellow sentient beings.

Therein lies the contradictions, the paradoxes, of our species. We are the most brutal and violent of all animals, yet we have the potential within us to be the kindest and gentlest of all animals. Remember when you were five or six or seven or eight, and you used to visit the petting zoo, and you loved animals and you could never dream of hurting these wonderful personalities?

We need to reclaim that beauty and that innocence. The price of not reclaiming it was revealed in late April, when a judge ruled that filming torture for pleasure was OK, while a few states over, around the same time, a city laid criminal charges against a heroic individual filming animal torture in order to end it.

What does this say about our species?

This video speaks for itself...

... there's nothing really for me to add.

Fighting the Good Fight: SHARK is Shining the Spotlight on Animal Abuse

There are so many wonderful groups fighting the good fight against animal abuse and cruelty. One of those groups, which has been putting videotaping to its very best and most effective use, is Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (or SHARK for short). SHARK is a group that deserves our support.

SHARK maintains a highly effective Facebook and YouTube presence. SHARK's head, Steve Hindi, is an incredibly effective spokesman for the cause. A former hunter, Steve goes from place to place, camcorder in hand, documenting human brutality against animals. As Steve points out in the introductory video on YouTube, SHARK relies on volunteer efforts and operates with a skeletal budget, so they need all the support they can get.

SHARK has been particularly effective in exposing the abuse at rodeos. Far too many animals have died extremely violent deaths in rodeos, which has tripped off warning bells among animal advocates. In one of SHARK's most recent videos, documenting the death of a Wyoming rodeo horse on July 30, 2011, thugs attempted to prevent Steve from filming the horse's painful death. This sort of scene has repeated itself over and over. No wonder the rodeo bosses - and all people who profit from the abuse of animals - fear SHARK's videocameras. Thee are modern-day video guerrillas, taking the best weapons imaginable - camcorders - into the belly of the beast.

SHARK is doing so much that is worthwhile. I urge you to support them. I'm going to be logging on to PayPal shortly to give a donation.

We're fighting an uphill struggle, but it's worth it.

From the "TOTAL SCREAM" File: YOU MUST SEE THIS VIDEO!!!

This video, about two close buddies - a Pit bull named named Spike and a kitten named Visa - shows their loving friendship mixed with epic clashes to the sounds of Guns N' Roses singing "Live and Let Die." Please take a few minutes to watch it. You won't regret it. The footage syncs perfectly with the music. It lifted my spirits right up and made my day. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Why Don't They Want Us to See It?

Time to start asking some difficult questions: What, exactly, are the manufacturers of animal-based products trying to hide? Why don't they want us to see the inside of factory farms and other production facilities that involve animals? Why are so many states trying to pass legislation outlawing videotaping inside of meat and egg and dairy factories?

So many "whys?", so few answers.

That's because powerful forces in our society understand the truth of what Sir Paul McCartney once said: "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian."

Many of us vegans have heard that quote again and again. But stop and think about McCartney's words. Though they may seem hackneyed due to overexposure, they retain a profound truth that speaks to our times.

Consider the following story from The Atlantic:

Next time you drive through Iowa farm country, you may want to put away your camera. Earlier this year, the state proposed a new piece of legislation, House File 589, that would make it a crime to videotape, audio record, or in any way document a crop or animal facility without the prior consent of the owner. Anyone who produces, possesses, or distributes an unauthorized recording would face hefty fines, jail time, or both. The proposed law, an amendment to Iowa Code 717A, passed the Iowa House by a wide margin. It recently stalled in the Senate, but it will most likely be taken up again months from now in the state's next legislative session: as Iowa Representative Jim Lykam recently noted, "I'm sure that somebody will try to see if they can resurrect it." Most importantly, the underlying issue—industrial agriculture's fear that activists will continue to expose its practices—hasn't gone away.

Once upon a time, when people took pride in their work, they weren't afraid to show off their talents on the assembly line. Archives across North America contain film footage of workers assembling cars, producing textiles, building airplanes. On the Science Channel, there's a popular TV show called How It's Made that takes you through each step in the production of everything from duvets to banjos.

You'll notice if you ever see an episode of How It's Made, there workers aren't the least bit reluctant to let the outside world see their craft. They're happy to let the cameras come in and film what they do. They take pride in their work. They actually want the outside world to see what it is they do to make a living.

It was the late, great Studs Terkel - social commentator and oral historian extraordinaire - who once wrote: "Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life, rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying."

Terkel's words are applicable to so many professions. But you'll notice this magical and endearing quality of work - specifically, taking pride in one's work - is missing in the production of animal-based commodities.

It is no accident that there has been a rash of efforts across North America to ban videotaping inside of factory farm facilities and other industries that use animals in production. Why? Because the people that run these businesses understand the truth of what Paul McCartney said about glass walls.

Too bad they don't understand about what Studs Terkel said about the human need to pursue "a sort of life, rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying."

When you're in a line of work that involves so much death - whether it's slashing the jugular veins and carotid arteries of pigs, cramming hens into battery cages, or stealing baby calves away from mothers to keep the milk and veal supplies flowing - how can you possibly find anything life-affirming about your actions?

Anytime a living being is turned into a commodity - whether that living being happens to be human or a non-human animal - don't be surprised when production itself becomes a stark and alienating and ultimately violent process. And don't be surprised when powerful forces, the bosses, owners, investors, distributors, etc. - in other words, the men and women that keep the gears of the system oiled - resort to draconian means to prevent us from learning the truth.

Make no mistake: Truth is the most radical thing imaginable. Radical simply means means root. To be a radical doesn't mean you're a fringe extremist or a member of Al Qaeda or an apologist for violence. On the contrary, to be a radical simply means that you're someone who wants to get to the root of the problem in order to fix it. There is something deeply liberating about tearing down the walls of denial and showing people the truth within. That is the nature of radicalism.

The process of freeing ourselves from the shackles of tyranny begins when each of us decides we're not going to buy into the lies anymore. We're not going to put fantasy above fact. We're not going to let dogma trump the pursuit of truth. And - most importantly - we're not going to let sentient beings continue to suffer.

If the producers of meat and dairy and leather and fur and other animal-based products really do take pride in what they produce, and aren't afraid of the truth, they should place large, panoramic windows in their factory farms. Let the sunshine in. Let the animals get a glimpse of the blue sky before their short lives end. And let people on the outside glimpse into the window to see the truth.

This will never happen. Instead, the managers and foremen and "facility coordinators" will triple and quadruple check job applications. They'll ask newspaper reporters that want to come inside whether they're vegetarians. They'll search people for micro-videocameras and, in some instances, install metal detectors. In short, they'll do everything they can to protect the secrecy of what it is they do.

Consider those two quotes I mentioned earlier:

"If slaughterhouses had glass walls..."

"Work is about a search for daily meaning."

What happens in the slaughterhouse is of profound significance. It has layers and layers of meaning. But it's a meaning that those who profit from this misery would rather that we - the folks outside the slaughterhouses - not try to understand.

Let Us All Praise Micro Camcorders!

Who'da thunk it?

In the arsenal of weapons for animal rights activists, the camera is mightier than the pen. And the mightiest camera of all is the concealed camcorder.

Our brothers and sisters at Mercy for Animals have been scoring one major coup after another with their hidden camera videos. MFA has sent their activists right into the belly of the beast: Ohio Fresh Eggs (Ohio), E6 Cattle Ranch (Texas), Willet Dairy (New York).

MFA's videos depict horrors that are so ghastly, so stomach-turning, so violent and savage, that most people would not believe such things happened on a regular basis if they weren't captured on video. Animals are mutilated in every way imaginable: Cut. Burned. Slashed. Slammed in the head with hammers. They have their heads whacked against the ground.

And at the end of the road, we all know what happens to these animals. It's called murder. And even in those facilities where cruelty is not the norm, death is.

MFA's successful campaigns underscore the vital importance of video in our day and age.

Videos and the Internet. These are our greatest allies.

Almost 30 years ago, my father came home from the store with a massive Sony video camera. It was a cumbersome, metallic-silver shoebox shaped object with an enormous, phallic-shaped (sorry for this imagery) microphone jutting out above the lens. In order to use it, you had to connect it to a huge VCR with a shoulder strap that had to be lugged around on the shoulder wherever you went.

No way could you have used one of these suckers to film an undercover animal abuse video, unless you went into the slaughterhouse disguised as Quasimodo, hiding the equipment inside of your hunchback.

Flash forward 30 years. New technology has given rise to camcorders no bigger than little packages of Wrigley's spearmint gum. Tiny wired lenses can be hooked up to sleeves, gym bag straps, coat zippers, shoelaces, pant cuffs, shirt collars, etc. There are tiny cameras built into sunglasses. There are cameras that can be made to look like buttons.

These cameras don't need big, bulky, multi-directional microphones, like that ancient, Paleolithic video camera my dad bought 30 years ago. Now the mics are not much more than threads, built into the wiring, as thin as the fiber-optics that surgeons use nowadays.

The new generation of brave, undercover investigators have a perilous job to do, as tricky as any operations performed by spies during the Cold War era. You can't just walk into a plant and start filming atrocities. You have to go through an elaborate process of concocting an identity, applying for a job, building trust over time, and taking part in activities that are heartbreaking.

But if done right, these videos find their way to the outside world, onto Websites like http://www.mercyforanimals.org, or they become a part of films such as Earthlings or HBO's horrifying and uncompromising look at a pig facility, Death on a Factory Farm.

The word gets out. People slowly discover the truth. Veganism wins new converts.

There are some abolitionist animal rights purists who insist that organizations such MFA that target individual factory farms are conducing ineffectual "single issue" campaigns that lull people into believing that these are the worst offenders and that, once the industry is cleaned up and reformed, all meat will become "happy meat."

But there are a lot of people like me who see these images and we're shocked out of our complacency. I was pushed over to veganism by Death on a Factory Farm. It was about one factory farm in Ohio (by the way, why the hell is it that Ohio seems to be home to so many of the worst of these places?). The factory farm in this documentary was actually a slightly smaller operation, run by a father and his sons, with a relatively small crew of workers.

I suppose I could've watched it and vowed not to buy pork or ham from that particular establishment. "I eat only humanely slaughtered meat." That sort of baloney.

But Death on a Factory Farm proved to be a startling smack in the face that I desperately needed. Rather than condemning one individual, family-run operation, I suddenly recognized that the whole racket is based on murder, and the only way of disengaging is to stop buying animal products. Not just meat. Eggs, too. Milk, too. Cheese, too. Leather jackets and shoes, too.

Videos and the Internet. The Internet and Videos. What a potent combination. No wonder so many big meat producers are lobbying for strict punishments against undercover investigators. These whistleblowers are true heroes and heroines. They're the Frederick Douglasses and Sojourner Truths of our times. They deserve our thanks, for doing the sort of work that earlier generations of muckrakers used to do.

New technologies have worked in our favor. It may be too early to say that Omnivorism's days are numbered. But Veganism is winning over new converts partly because the evils of animal mass murder are getting to be harder and harder to conceal. Back when Sir Paul McCartney said, "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian," it was much easier to hide these sorts of crimes.

The pilgrimage toward the fullness of our humanity begins when people can no longer look away from suffering. The new technology - especially hidden video cameras - haven't turned the walls into glass. But, when used properly, they have created portholes for us to glimpse inside of these deadly operations. They haven't eliminated the evils of denial and indifference. But they have transmitted powerful images of suffering through our televisions and computer screens. Those who decide to ignore these images do so at their own risk.

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.

Vegan questions put to music...

Here's a video that's both enjoyable and amusing, titled "Vegan Myths Debunked." It's performed by Jonathan and Ivory. In a very fun way, it addresses lots of myths and falsehoods surrounding the vegan lifestyle. And the music is actually quite catchy. After the video ended, the music kept playing and replaying in my mind, over and over again, in the same sort of way that those old Schoolhouse Rock videos from the 1970s would stick with me long after I was finished watching them. If you get a chance, watch the video and see what I mean. In three short minutes, Jonathan and Ivory manage to tackle a lot of issues. They do it in a way that's fun and inclusive, not in a dead-serious manner. Our struggle could use more wonderfully creative and vibrant souls like these two.

1984 May've Been 27 Years Ago, But We Still Have to Beware of Big Brother

In Iowa, the Republican-dominated state House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday making it a criminal offense to apply for a job on a farm with the intention of videotaping and exposing acts of farm animal abuse

The bill passed 66-27. Next the bill goes to the Senate for final approval, then to the desk of the Iowa's governor, Terry Branstad, to be signed into law. (Source) According to the Iowa Independent, the bill

would specifically target individuals who approach crop or animal facilities — excluding animal shelters, pet shops and commercial kennels — for the purpose of making audio or visual recordings. An individual found guilty of creating such a record, or of distributing such a record, could face felony charges and be subject to civil proceedings.

Sadly, Iowa is not alone. Other states are passing legislation imposing stiff penalties on videotaping whistleblowers. In Florida, a similarly draconian piece of legislation was introduced in the state senate. The author of SB 1246, Senator Jim Norman, proposed in his bill

[a] person who photographs, video records, or otherwise produces images or pictorial records, digital or otherwise, at or of a farm or other property where legitimate agriculture operations are being conducted without the written consent of the owner, or an authorized representative of the owner, commits a felony of the first degree. (Source)

There is no question that these bills being introduced across the United States are aimed at scaring away animal rights activists who have gone into factory farms to film the often horrendous treatment of animals in these massive and impersonal facilities. Thanks to developments in digital technology over the past decade, it is easier than ever to smuggle cameras - which are now cheaper than ever - into these massive death houses where the violence and mayhem are occurring.

It is not surprising that elected officials in states heavily dependent on agriculture - backed by powerful factory farming interests - are scrambling to pass laws forbidding undercover video filming. In recent years, documentaries such as Death on a Factory Farm and Earthlings have converted countless individuals over to veganism. In fact, one could argue - as I often have - that these kinds of films are the best recruiting tools out there.

Film footage doesn't lie. Paul McCartney was right when he said remarked that everybody (or damn near everybody) would be vegetarians if slaughterhouses had glass walls. Somebody very close to me, who was writing an article about a pig slaughtering facility, told me the first question the owners asked her was whether she was a vegetarian or vegan. At the time, she wasn't. Had she said yes, the alarm bells would've gone off and she never would've gotten inside.

That's what makes these anti-whistleblower laws now being introduced before state legislatures so sinister. Take away the right of the people to discover the truth and you've nudged the nation closer to the nightmarish society envisioned by George Orwell in his novel 1984. Orwell understood that the most profound and meaningful power of the state was its ability to sever access to the truth. Joseph Stalin understood this when he airbrushed his opponents out of photographs after he had them murdered. The Nazis understood this when they kept their conference on the "final solution" a secret at Wannsee in January 1942. And those who wish to slaughter animals by the billions, with impunity, also fully grasp this principle.

Stories of Hope (Dec. 4): Animal Videos Do Not Get Cuter Than This One...

I challenge you to find an animal video that is cuter that this one. It shows a dog, cat, bunny and guinea pig who are all close buddies. They hang out together and show great affection for one another. The video is both tender and touching. Once again, the theme of animals forming bonds with each other is very evident in these scenes. It is only a short video - about a minute and a half - but it packs a lot into those 92 seconds.

The video is also yet another reason to go vegan. The animals shown here are typically companion animals (although rabbits can often end up on dinner plates). Yet all animals that omnivores typically consume - cows, pigs, chickens, lambs, etc. - possess the same capacity to form bonds and show just as deep of affection toward one another.

If omnivores really want to live according to the spirit of Christmas, they'll stop killing these amazing creatures and instead celebrate all living things.

Stories of Hope (Dec. 3): Animals Helping Animals

This is truly one of the most amazing videos I've ever seen. It's from a couple years back (2008, I believe). It was shot in Chile and shows one dog rescuing another dog, an injured dog, on a busy freeway. The first dog shown in the video is hit by an oncoming vehicle, but this particular story has a happy ending: The second dog in the video, the hero of this story, saved the life of his injured comrade by - as the announcer points out - wrapping his paws around the dog and dragging him to safety. It is an astonishing video - and it shows what we already know: Animals are nothing short of incredible, to the point of being profound. They're intelligent. They form bonds with each other. And they have tremendous courage.

We didn't need this video to tell us that. Still, it's always meaningful to have our beliefs verified by something so harrowing and moving.

A deeply moving video worth watching

Pardon my absence for several days. I was knee-deep in marking papers and various administrative jobs that come with being an academic. Even when I'm away from this Blog for days, animals are constantly on my mind. I am about to celebrate the year-long anniversary of converting to veganism. The conversion came as a bit of a shock to me at first, because I went from being an omnivore to a vegan with no "vegetarian transition." Since then, there have been times when I miss certain foods with animal products. Not meat. Never meat. But I do miss cheese and milk and, from time to time, even fish.

Once you cross a certain threshold, though, it is impossible to go back to the old ways of doing things. Your eyes are opened. You become enlightened. And it is impossible to unlearn what you've learned. I think that's why, to paraphrase the great Paul McCartney, slaughterhouses do not have glass walls. When you go over the edge of Niagara Falls, you can't get back to the top of it again.

This video I'm posting today is a powerful and heartfelt declaration by a fellow vegan about her reasons for choosing that lifestyle. It is one of the best of these types of videos I have ever seen (and believe me, I've seen my fair share). Please watch it and share it with others if you get a chance. Animals deserve to live long lives of happiness, to form bonds with other animals and human beings, and they have a right not to live in darkness and fear and despair. And we humans have no right to murder them, to end their lives violently.

And unfortunately, on this issue, there is no compromise, no safe middle ground. Don't buy the bull about "happy meat" and "ethical" animal slaughter. Certain words just don't go together. Happy and meat, for instance. Ethical and slaughter, for instance. Humane and factory farming, for instance. Let's ditch the Orwellian terminology and see things as they really are. Once we take a good, hard look at the horrors of what animals experience, that's when we get our moments of clarity. That is when we know what needs to be done. And that is when we realize what, exactly, in this world is ethical and what is right.

Now that's my kind of kitty! Drinking Water 101

This video shows a beautiful cat with an innovative way of drinking water. Check it out. You'll love it! I thought about turning on the kitchen sink and giving it a try. It looks refreshing. I think this kitty has the right idea.

(Thank you to my friend Danny VeganBatman Nichols for bringing this video to my attention!)

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.

The Growing Influence of Facebook, YouTube and the power of video

I am on Facebook and I'm friends with various vegans and animal rights activists. Recently, a Facebook group was formed to protest a young Bosnian woman who allegedly posted a video of herself on YouTube tossing several puppies into a fast-flowing river. The video shows her in a red hoodie, reaching into a white pail, picking up newborn pups and throwing them into a nearby flowing waters.

The world went apeshit. New groups popped up on Facebook overnight. One group, "We Hate the Puppy-Throwing Girl," gained 6,582 likers in a few days. Friends posted the video on Facebook. I watched it and it made me squeamish. I'm not going to post it here. I know, I know. I have posted some pretty damn grim stuff here. But posting a video about the appalling conditions that chickens endure on a daily basis, or footage of calves been butchered for veal, seems to have an educational value. The video of the girl in the red hoodie tossing puppies feels more like exploitation.

Miraculously, Bosnian authorities claim they've captured the girl. The woman has been identified (allegedly) as Katja Puschnik. Apparently, she even - again, allegedly - posted a video apology on YouTube that was yanked off the Website due to use violations. Who knows if it's true? Let's face it - the flow of news out of that part of the world leaves a great deal to be desired. The plot thickened, though, when the girl's grandmother - who allegedly ordered her granddaughter to get rid of the puppies in the first place - came forward and claimed she waded into the river and rescued the poor animals. But, like I said, the news coming out of Bosnia is sketchy and difficult to verify. Some sources have even suggested the video is a hoax. (Source)

What is not difficult to verify is the firestorm this video has caused in the West. The Web has lit up like a pinball machine, with Facebook being one of the most active mobilizing outlets. A number of organizations offered rewards for the girl's capture. Director Michael (Transformers) Bay put up a $50,000 reward for "information leading to the arrest and successful prosecution of the woman in the red sweatshirt who threw the puppies and the person who videotaped this act of cruelty." (Source) And a website called 4Chan has also been receiving a lot of attention for promoting "Internet Vigilantism" in promoting the search for the puppy-throwing girl.

The video of the so-called "puppy-throwing girl" comes on the heels of a controversial video of a British woman named Mary Bale, who was filmed in August putting her neighbour's cat, Lola, into a dumpster. Like the puppy-tossing video, the video of Lola being tossed in a dumpster (she was heard meowing 15 hours later by her owner, who posted the video of Mary's nasty act), sparked a global outrage.

It would be easy to rant and rave about double standards. Why is it that cruelty to dogs and cats sparks so much anger, while the harsh treatment of factory farm animals fails to stir most people? But I am actually heartened by the rage triggered by these videos. It shows that people are becoming more and more sensitive about the treatment of animals. If we can figure out how to channel that rage, and teach the public that all animals deserve to be treated with compassion and kindness, then there is some hope of gaining new adherents to the animal rights movement.

Video is our greatest ally. Ten years ago, in the year 2000, these types of controversies were rare because there was no YouTube, no Facebook, and animal cruelty was difficult to verify. Now, thanks to the potent combination of improved video technology and the Internet, a new storm has been unleashed, one that is impossible to contain. The revolution is not very old (keep in mind, YouTube was started in February 2005, and at that point, not all computers could operate its Flash videos). We are still, in fact, in its infancy. This juggernaut will take us in interesting directions. It has already won many hearts and minds over to the cause of animal rights.

So as awful as these videos are (I cringed and looked away as the red-hoodied girl tossed those puppies), take heart. The truth will out.

Some Compelling Reasons to Steer Clear of Dairy & Veal

If you can spare two minutes and 17 seconds, watch this terrific Humane Society of the United States video about veal and baby calves.

This is actually a very mild video compared to another video about the slaughter of calves that I watched on YouTube. I am linking to the video, titled "Calves Slaughter," here because the imbedding has been disabled for it, so I can't post it on this Blog. Of the two videos, "Calves Slaughter" is much more difficult to watch. It's more graphic. It doesn't have narration. It relies on the power of the image to convince the viewer. If I could post it on this Blog, I would. But I can't. So you'll have to follow the link. Please. The video is three minutes and fifty seconds of brutality.

These videos are difficult to watch. No two ways about it. But I must confess: There are times I really miss dairy products, particularly cheese, ice cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese and whip cream. The other day, I yearned for something - anything - with melted cheddar cheese on top of it. That's pretty normal for a vegan who has spent most of his life as an omnivore. These are the foods we've loved our entire lives and giving them up isn't easy. It was easy to give up meat. It's flesh. I don't miss it one iota. But the cheese - oh the cheese! - was not easy to cut out of my diet.

Every time I get an itching to go back to eating cheese, I watch these videos. I can't say my craving completely goes away, but these videos remind me - in very emotional, primal, meaningful ways - what, exactly, is at stake here.

We shouldn't go vegan because it's the "politically correct" thing to do. We shouldn't go vegan because it will seem to cool to others. We shouldn't go vegan because loved ones are vegan and we want to be accepted by them. And while a healthier diet is a good reason to go vegan, it is by no means the only reason. For many of us, animals are the main reason we go vegan. There is not much in this world that I'm rigid about, but I am rigid in adhering to a vegan diet. I miss some of the foods I gave up. But these videos remind me that giving those foods up was the right thing to do.

A Beautiful (not grim!) Video about Cows Living Life to the Fullest

If you get a moment, please watch this moving YouTube video about cows and calves. These animals are incredibly affectionate and loving. You can clearly see in this video that they form bonds with each other, take care of one another and they love being on the receiving end of affection just as much as your or me. The film footage in this video is really quite extraordinary. And, unlike so many of the videos I post on this Blog, this one does not contain any scenes of violence or animals in distress.

The kinds of scenes like the ones in this video are so important because they help tear down the wall of denial. Long before I became a vegan, I stopped eating pork. Why? About four years ago, I was at the Royal Winter Fair, a huge farming and agricultural event held in Toronto, with my companion. We were able to spend time with the pigs and see just how human they really were. At that moment, we both swore off pork, bacon and all other products that come from pigs. That one fantastic afternoon of spending time with pigs did more to destroy our denial than anything else we had ever experienced.

For a long time, I convinced myself it was OK to eat fish, chicken, beef, etc., even though I didn't think it was OK to eat pork, ham, bacon, etc. The reason I was able to go on eating other kinds of meat was that my other walls hadn't quite been torn down yet. Now that I watch this video of these precious animals living, loving and enjoying life (and bonding with human beings, too), I see how wrong I was about those other animals. Cows, chickens, sheep, and all other creatures deserve to live happy and healthy lives as much as pigs.

Watch this video, especially if you're wondering about the ethics of eating meat. See how amazing these cows are. And ask yourself, "How can I go on eating them?"

The Brutality of the Dairy Industry Exposed by Farm Sanctuary

If you get a chance, please take a few moments to watch this superb video. It won't take you long. It's called "Behind the Mustache" (meaning milk mustache). It is a tragic video by the wonderful folks at Farm Sanctuary that shows, in an uncompromising way, the brutality of the dairy industry.

The day will come, I am certain, when good people will look back on this time in which we live and they will regard our treatment of animals as utterly barbaric. Generations from now, men and women, young and old, will gasp when they watch films such as this one, that show frightened and bewildered calves being reduced to mere commodities. Brutalized. Squirted down with hoses. Left to suffer in the dirt. And dragged off and turned into veal, without tasting the milk of their mothers. Because we human beings rob that milk from their mothers and drink it when we do not need it for our survival.

I watch films such as this one and regret that I was blind for so long. I regret I did not become a vegan 20 years ago.

But there is a wonderfully hopeful side to this video. Please keep watching it. Six minutes and forty-five seconds into the video, a caption comes on that says, "It Doesn't Have To Be This Way." And it shows calves who were going to be slaughtered and ended up in Farm Sanctuary's California shelter. These calves are happy. They're full of spunk and life and curiosity. They run and play and live the long lives that they were meant to live.

So a hundred years from now, future generations will speak of the barbarism that existed in 2010. But just as we today remember tiny pockets of abolitionists in the 1830s, 40s and 50s who resisted slavery, future generations will remember small groups of people living today who made a difference in the lives of animals. True, our numbers are small. But those who advocate for the rights of animals will be regarded the same way that we today regard abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

There is a lot of violence and malevolence in this world. There is a lot of cynicism and indifference, too. But one need not search hard to find inspiring examples of compassion, kindness, courage and hope. These wonderful qualities are as abundant now as they ever were in the past, and they will one day triumph over violence, indifference and the commodification of living beings.

THIS VIDEO WILL MAKE YOU SMILE!!! PLEASE WATCH...

I adore this video!!! My daughter Madeline sent it to me on Facebook and now I have to post it on my Blog. It's a video of a little collie puppy playing with a baby. It is a total scream! The dog keeps running around and the baby is cracking up like mad. The video really cheered me up. I post so many downer videos on this Blog that every now and then I have to put one up that is happy, like this one. Please, please do yourself a favor - watch it! You'll be glad you did...

Why We Need to Watch Troubling Animal Abuse Videos - Over and Over and Over

I regret to say that it is becoming pretty routine for me to post videos of the shocking treatment of animals on this Blog. This video is not only not an exception, it is deeply disturbing - as bad, if not worse, than the video footage of the abuse at Conklin Dairy Farms.

This video footage is of the horrific treatment of chicks at a hatchery in Santa Cruz, California. The footage was filmed by the group Compassion Over Killing (COK). COK sent an undercover person into the Cal-Cruz Hatcheries plant to film the ghastly treatment of chicks, which is standard operating procedure in the poultry industry.

COK's website outlined some of the abuses their investigator uncovered, including:

• A chick drowning in a bucket of liquid waste
• Birds entangled in machinery, their dead bodies mangled, decapitated, or missing limbs
• Sick or severely injured birds left to suffer for hours
• Unwanted hatchlings dumped down the egg shell disposal chute, then sprayed with a high-pressure hose
• Birds thrown five to six feet across the room into buckets where they often languished for hours

Why post these videos? Why post them day after day, week after week, month after month? I certainly don't need to see them. I've already been converted. I'm firmly in the vegan camp and I have no plans to leave it. Ever.

So why do I watch these videos over and over again?

Because it is not good enough - it is never good enough - to have a general sense of "what is happening." I could say to myself, "Hey, I already know what's going on. I don't need to watch this video to know."

But make no mistake, my friends: As long as animals are being abused, as long they're being scalded and trampled, skinned and gutted, tossed in grinders and hung up by the neck, kicked and beaten, and made to live in dark, cold, cramped conditions without ever seeing the outside world where they were meant to live, IT IS OUR BUSINESS. And we owe it to them to watch every minute of their suffering that we can.

Denial is our worst enemy. The more heavily armed we are as advocates for the animals, the more effective we'll be at tearing down the wall of denial.

Congratulations to Compassion Over Killing for making a difference. At first, the news coming out of Santa Cruz was discouraging. The stark and violent video footage of chicks drowning, quivering on factory floors, getting ground up by machinery, being smashed alive, and just about every other horrible way of dying you can imagine, failed to sway the proper authorities. In late April, the District Attorney's office in Santa Cruz decided not to take action against Cal-Cruz Hatcheries for violating the state's animal animal protection laws.

But somebody else took action, someone with the courage to stand up against this horrendous violence. The Santa Cruz County Animal Services Authority impounded 88 sick and weak ducklings from the production facility and brought them into protective custody. Many were too sick and frail and ended up dying. But more than two dozen of these beautiful creatures, pictured here, were given another chance at life.

Life is sacred and profound. But the food production industry has made a mockery of the sanctity of life by treating animals as mere commodities.

If everybody went vegan, Cal-Cruz Hatcheries would shut down tomorrow and this madness would stop. The best way to curtail supply is to end demand. Switching to a cruelty-free diet is a first step in the right direction. What happened at Cal-Cruz Hatcheries is not an isolated example. It is Standard Operating Procedure in the poultry industry.