The Horrors of Broiler Chicken Factory Farms

If you get a moment, please - please - read Leah Graces' troubling article "Why We Haven't Seen Inside a Broiler Chicken Farm in a Decade" in Food Safety News. It is a must-read for those of us who are concerned about the fate of factory-farmed animals, especially chickens, who live in the worst conditions imaginable and are killed by the billions around the world each year. Early in the article, Graces quotes New Yorker writer Michael Spencer, who visited a broiler chicken factory farm back in 2003. At the time Spencer wrote:

I was almost knocked to the ground by the overpowering smell of feces and ammonia. My eyes burned and so did my lungs, and I could neither see nor breathe….There must have been thirty thousand chickens sitting silently on the floor in front of me. They didn’t move, didn’t cluck. They were almost like statues of chickens, living in nearly total darkness, and they would spend every minute of their six-week lives that way.

According to Graces, ever since Spencer's article, animal rights activists not been able to penetrate the dark and secretive world of broiler chicken factory farms. As Graces notes:

Most photos and video from factory farms come from undercover investigators who manage to get hired to work within the farm and then secretly gather images for an external organization.  This is next to impossible in a broiler factory farm.   There is hardly a ‘job’ involved in raising broilers in factory farms anymore. Often there are only one or two people, usually the farm owners, overseeing multiple houses, each house filled with tens of thousands of birds.

This article is essential reading because it sheds light on a world we so seldom see. Broiler hens live short lives full of despair, horror and anxiety. With states across America toughening Ag-Gag laws, and with laws such as the Orwellian-esque Animal Facilities Protection Act and the Federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act making it a felony (and act of terrorism) for a person to enter an "animal facility" (read: slaughterhouse, factory farm, fur farm, etc. etc.) under false pretenses, the Animal Murdering Machine has moved into high gear to prevent the public from seeing what happens inside of these ultra-violent charnel houses.

The way to combat such abuses is to increase our awareness, to bring these institutions out of the darkness, and to shed light on the horrors that exist within the walls. This is what Leah Graces has done, and she is to be commended.

A Must-See Video: PIG VISION - The Journey of Two Brothers

This video should be mandatory viewing, especially among anyone that eats pork and other pig products. This is one more appalling chapter in a very, very long book full of atrocities that humans commit on a daily basis against animals. This video shows us two different paths that pigs can follow: the factory farm system, with all of its horrors and violence and murder, and the life of a pig at a loving rescue sanctuary.

Please watch it. Even if you think you know what's going to happen, the video will surprise you with its combination of beauty and tragedy.

And if you haven't already, please go vegan.

Check it Out: Steve-O Speaks Out Against Factory Farming

Wonderful Steve-O, of Jackass fame (one of my guilty pleasures over the years), narrates a Farm Sanctuary video that looks absolutely extraordinary. It is the story of a pig, cow and chicken who manage to escape the horrors of factory farms. While I haven't seen it yet, I've watched plenty of other Farm Sanctuary videos, and I love the work they do.

In this interview with vegan and animal rights supporter Jane Velez-Mitchell, Steve-O discusses his efforts to humanize the three stars of the film. "Whenever you can even give one of these animals a name, I think you're doing something pretty major," he tells the Velez-Mitchell. "People don't want to think of their meal as a living thing that has a name or a personality or anything like that. By talking about just one pig, you really get through to people in a special way."

Check out this brief interview, if you get a chance. It's short and it's exciting to see such a high-profile figure speaking out for the animals. Go Steve-O!!!

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?

Watching Omnivores Struggle

The slippery slope.

It's interesting to watch omnivores grappling with their food choices. I just finished reading an article in the Toronto Star defending meat eating. "Why Consuming Animals May Be the Right Thing to Do," said the headline.

Echoing a New York Times contest in March asking readers to defend meat consumption in 600 words or less (which, not surprisingly, the big food industry/factory farm shill Temple Grandin entered), the Star published a litany of familiar excuses justifying the act of killing animals and then devouring them.

Author and New Yorker contributor Adam Gopnik led the charge: "All animals die. The choice for a pig is not between painful death and perpetual life, but between one death and some other. If we ate only animals that died naturally, then could there be any rational objection to our eating them - to eating their flesh in celebration of their life rather than burying it to rot or merely burning it?"

Toronto butcher Stephen Alexander, a big supporter of buying local, "humanely" raised meat, is clearly wrestling with the ethics of meat eating when he tells the Star: "You're killing them to live, you're killing them because you enjoy meat and it's good for you. But at the end of the day, there is the cold, hard truth that you're killing animals to eat their meat.... You have to justify it to yourself and that's all there is to it."

"Ethics are an individual choice," reasoned Heather Travis, who handles public relations for Canada Beef Inc., which represents 83,000 farming families here in Canada. Travis said her organization "strongly advocates beef as part of a balanced diet," and warned that staying healthy on a meat-free diet "can be trickier if you eliminate animal protein sources from your diet."

The temptation is great to pick apart these arguments one by one, and most intelligent vegans would be able to dance circles around these people in a debate.

But to me the most interesting element of all of these defenses of meat eating is the extent to which omnivores feel the need these days to justify the act. Five years ago, when I was an omnivore, I never felt any need to defend my choices. I liked meat. I ate it. End of story.

Today, five years later, more and more people are either going vegan, or feeling the need to justify and explain their food choices. I run into thoughtful omnivores all the time who are really - really - struggling with consuming animal products. Increasingly, it's getting so only an over-the-top fruit loop like Ted Nugent gives absolutely no thought whatsoever to chowing down on the flesh of sentient beings.

Famous food journalist Mark Bittman.

For the rest of us, it's a different story. I personally think the New York Times' challenge - which triggered an avalanche of responses from across the country - was a useful exercise in getting omnivores to think about why they do what they do.

A decade ago, the renowned and widely respected New York Times food journalist Mark Bittman gave little or no thought to the animals he was cooking (by his own admission). But in recent years, Bittman has developed profound misgivings about eating animals. These days, he believes that "20 or at most 50 years from now, those of us still alive will express incredulity at the way we once treated animals destined to become food." (Source)

Gordon Ramsay and friend. 

Bittman is not alone. Not long ago, famous TV chef Gordon Ramsay watched a hidden camera video of the inside of a factory farm (in this case, a pig facility). Seeing the male pigs being castrated without any anesthesia, sows chewing nervously on bars, and pigs shrieking in horror during the last days of their short lives, Ramsay was visibly shaken - and disgusted - by what he witnessed. Of course, Ramsay didn't go vegan. But the treatment of animals, an issue that for the longest time was never on his radar, has entered into his consciousness.

Bittman has been much more aggressive in moving away from cooking animal products than Ramsay. In fact, Bittman gained fame for his Vegan Until 6 diet, spotlighted in his book Food Matters, that advocated going vegan before dinnertime for improved health. Yet what began for Bittman as a health issue keeps coming back to the more significant matter of animals and their suffering. He can't get away from the issue. These days, in fact, he keeps bringing it up. It haunts him, just as it haunts any thoughtful omnivore. And this trend is working its way into corporate America. Burger King made headlines in late April when the chain announced it will switch to cage-free eggs and pork by 2017. Other fast food restaurants are likely follow.

Pigs in a factory farm. Many omnivores are troubled
by what's happening in the food industry. 

We vegans tend to be somewhat dismissive toward omnivores who are struggling with their food choices. But it's impossible to overemphasize the importance of this development, because it's a very new one. And it's becoming more and more widespread. Recently, I went on a local radio station to talk about these very issues on a program about farming and agriculture.  I could see the host, himself an omnivore and advocate of what he called "humane" livestock farming, was also grappling with these same issues. He and I shared a sense of uneasiness with the growth of big, corporate factory farms. A lot of omnivores, having watched documentaries like Food Inc. and Forks Over Knives, are experiencing these same feelings. I believe Bittman is absolutely correct, that  "20 or at most 50 years from now, those of us still alive will express incredulity at the way we once treated animals destined to become food." This is not a Pollyannaish notion. It's a reflection of the changing reality of our times.

A growing number of omnivores are troubled by their actions, and the increasing defensiveness of some is an outgrowth of a moment in history when the animal rights movement is gaining traction around the world. For those of us who feel passionately about animals and their rights, this shift may seem too slow and way overdue in coming. But it is happening, little by little, and it offers a glimmer of hope.

The True Spirit of Christmas (courtesy of our German Brothers and Sisters)

This video made me weep.

It shows German animal rights activists preparing a wonderful meal of fruits and vegetables and then one of them, dressed as Santa Claus, delivers it to pigs inside of a factory farm. His solitary act of sharing represented, in my view, a gesture of profound kindness in a world full of cruelty and inhumanity.

Notice how the pigs gently share the meal with each other. Notice how they savor every bite. It is the same way they savor life, and the same way we, as human beings, savor living, and the same way the children savor it.

The language in the video is German, but really, this video speaks a universal language. It's the language of compassion. It's the language of humanity. It's the language of decency.

It has been said that the greatness of a society can be judged in how it treats its most vulnerable inhabitants. Today, no matter where you go, the most vulnerable are always the animals.

If that's the case, our world has a long ways to go. A long, long ways.

Let this video be a reminder of the real spirit of Christmas. When human beings finally live up to that spirit, when they live in accordance with what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature" - which will inevitably involve ending the exploitation, murder and consumption of animals - then, and only then, can we call ourselves a "civilization."

Meantime, watch this video and catch a glimpse of the meaningful yet simple goodness to which we all ought to aspire.

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.

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.

Know thine enemy...

Sit down - if you're not already - and prepare for the bad news. The organization Food & Water Watch's "Factory Farm Map" has gone online and it paints a very grim picture. Have a look for yourself - http://www.factoryfarmmap.org - and you'll see a map of the United States inundated from coast to coast with factory farms in every state. The interactive map is loaded with all sorts of information, breaking down factory farms by animals (hogs, beef cattle, hens, etc.) and it includes information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's census data from 1997, 2002 and 2007.

Undoubtedly, the most discouraging finding from the organization is that between 2002 and 2007, the amount of livestock in America's biggest factory farms has increased 20 percent.

Here are some more findings quoted directly from Food & Water Watch's Factory Farm Map information:

o In five years, total animals on factory farms grew by 5 million, or more than 20 percent.
o Cows on factory dairy farms nearly doubled from 2.5 million cows in 1997 to 4.9 million in 2007. Factory dairy farms growth in western states like Idaho, California, New Mexico and Texas shifted the dairy industry away from traditional states like Wisconsin, New York and Michigan.
o Beef cattle on industrial feedlots rose 17 percent from 2002 to 2007 - adding about 1,100 beef cattle to feedlots every day for five years.
o Nationally, about 5,000 hogs were added to factory farms every day for the past decade.
o The growth of industrial broiler chicken production added 5,800 chickens every hour over the past decade.
o Egg laying hens on factory farms increased by one-quarter over the decade.

o The average size of factory farms increased by 9 percent in five years, cramming more animals into each operation.
o In 2007, the average factory-farmed dairy held nearly 1,500 cows and the average beef feedlot held 3,800 beef cattle.
o The average size of hog factory farms increased by 42 percent over a decade.
o Five states with the largest broiler chicken operations average more than 200,000 birds per factory farm. (Source)

Factory farms are gruesome industries. Not only do they brutally exterminate billions and billions of innocent animals, they have been shown - in study after study - to be some of the worst polluters in the world. They often end up filling nearby water supplies with toxic waste. They are poorly regulated. And the people who run them are obsessed with maximizing profits and, at best, give only lip service to adopting proper safety codes and adhering to industry standards.

It is clear from this map that these institutions are metastasizing like cancer, spreading to every part of the United States. I'm sure an interactive map of factory farms would paint an equally grim picture in Canada and other countries around the world. These businesses operate in our communities, carrying out the most violent slaughter imaginable behind high fences and thick walls, hiding horrors from the world because the men and women who run these rackets know that if everybody could see what happens inside, billions of people would convert to veganism.