HBO's "Death on a Factory Farm" May Reverberate to All Animals, All Farms
Pete's back. The now-famed undercover animal rights advocate infiltrated a commercial hog farm in Ohio this time, and bets are on that the new Death on a Factory Farm documentary, airing one week from tonight on HBO, will go a long way to further alienate viewers from the idea of eating meat, although its intent is to expose the legal loopholes that often doom animals in institutionalized production to abuse and cruelty.Even Pork magazine recommends to its meat-industry readers that they watch this documentary. The abuses are extreme and, in the minds of many viewers who have never been to a farm, the implication that all livestock is abused or warehoused inhumanely isn't a far leap. Pork agrees that the farm workers caught on film were out of line.
And, from the other point of view, the ways that business and legal entities view the animal rights movement spills over to virtually any cause or concern for animal welfare and safety as well as "rights".
Just as not all farmers throw piglets across the barn, not all animal advocates want to shut down all farms.
Expose films like this one are great for ratings; word has it that Oprah's well-done expose of puppy mills was her most-watched program in history.
Death on a Factory Farm will not be easy to watch, but try to do it with a critical mind. If you consider yourself an advocate for horses, understand that you are likely to be lumped with advocates for uncrating sows and liberating lab mice. Drawing lines between species isn't easy, and lawmakers, attorneys, and judges often don't see much difference between a horse and a rat and a sow. One law may cover them all, although the point of this film is that there is not much of any law at all to help these sows and piglets.
Put it on your calendar: Death on a Factory Farm, HBO, Monday, March 16. Check local times and listings.
To learn more about this film, click here.
To read the article in Pork, click here.
Labels: Animal, documentary, factory, Farm, HBO, law, legal, Pork, rights
posted by Fran Jurga @ 3/09/2009
9 comments
9 Comments:
It is about time, everyone worries about horses, but do you know a million cows a day are killed in the world for our food, often inhumanely
much credit for bringing attention to this.
Anonymous, I'm a vegan and I worry about getting laws passed for all animals, not just horses. If you would like to see what happens to horses on their way to slaughter go to kaufmanzoning.net, it took the Animal Angels 3 1/2 years to get 900+ documents of violations during transport in double decker cattle trucks by filing for through the FOIA. I'll warn you that they're very graphic, there's also a video. Google PMU mares and see what they go through, lab animals, nurse mare foals, dairy calves and cows, kosher slaughter, slaughtering of all animals, puppy milling, foal milling, it's all evil. Most people that I network with are concerned about all animals.
Thanks Pete, and HBO for all you do for the animals, keep up the good work.
I just hope that the crazed consumers, our government officials and perhaps the President have the gutts to view the film. For the sake and future of the creatures of our planet.
It's great that people are bringing to light irrisponsible farmers, but like Fran said, not all farmers are like that. Yes we need to reform the way some things are done, but most slaughterhouses and farms are strictly run and only capable people are put into the killing shoots. Just remember that while this is horrible that SOME farms are run like this, not all are. Just keep and open mind and do your research before lumping everyone in together. Some things are just propiganda and the creation of those videos are CRUELTY in their own way!
Well, I watched this documentary. In a lot of ways, this was an educational documentary, however, I found it to be more propaganda. It educates on the ways "not to do things" on a farm.
The issues, as presented in the movie, are right and wrong. There is also a third side of this issue that was not presented. "How do others take care of their animals in Animal Agriculture?" In our country, we have one of the safest supplies of food. How do we do that? By treating animals with respect. If this were a fair presentation of animal agriculture, it would show other "model" farms that have protocol to follow, employees who care about their jobs, owners who care about their animals, employees, consumers, and the product they produce. If every farm in America had the same protocol as the one documented, there wouldn't be animal agriculture. We would "all be eating lettuce", to quote the movie. I agree animal cruelty was portrayed in the movie, however, the producer OF the movie failed to present proper animal husbandry methods. The educational material that "Joe" had to complete after his conviction, should be available on the website so at least those who want to become educated in acceptable practices can take the time to educate themselves before passing judgment.
In order to educate the public, one cannot just provide one side of the story, as there are many. I am very disappointed in HBO for airing such one-sided propaganda. But that goes to show, the people with money to burn in this country are those uneducated in the ways of Agriculture, how we all get our food, and the safe measures followed by a majority of the producers.
This is un-just the way that one can ruin for all what generations have taken years and years to build.
Ty
Ty, what you saw on HBO is par for the course in factory farming, which is where about 98% of meat/dairy/eggs come from in the U.S. Over 10 BILLION land animals are killed in the U.S. alone for food each year. This can happen only by mechanized, confinement farming, and the animals are treated like machines - the numbers are too big. The laws are extremely weak for most farm animals, to nonexistent for others, and they were created by standards in the industries themselves. They are not welfare laws (nor are they enforced) by any standard of welfare. Do more research.
http://www.factoryfarming.com
http://www.whyvegan.com
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I am currently a veterinary student and have been involved in farming and ranching my entire life. The size and scope of our farm can be easily termed what many refer to as a "factory farm" As a veterinary student it is my and our moral oath to provide and CARE for the animals well being and health. This is something my family has unofficially practiced my entire life without the obligations of an oath. Although our livestock have a different purpose in comparison to our dogs and cats they are cared for in the most respectable fashion. Too often our society worries about what shoes to wear, what movie or tv show we can watch when some poor woman in Africa is trying to make the decision if she can even feed her kids tonight. I feel comforted because I know I'm providing a safe, wholesome, humanely treated product and am helping feed the world. Thank you for reading this, Garrett Stewart
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