Kerry Trueman is the co-founder of EatingLiberally.org, a netroots website & organization that advocates sustainable agriculture, progressive politics and a less-consumption driven way of life. Foodie, blogger & edible landscaping enthusiast in NYC’s West Village and the Hudson River Valley.
The pork industry’s quaking in its collective manure-encrusted boots over HBO’s upcoming documentary Death On A Factory Farm, set to premiere next Monday, March 16th at 10pm and be repeated numerous times during the month. The documentary follows an animal rights investigator who spent six weeks working undercover at the Wiles Hog Farm in Creston, Ohio and captured repeated instances of extreme cruelty inflicted on the hogs by callous workers.
Folks who tune in to watch will undoubtedly be disturbed by the graphic footage, but they may be equally shocked to learn that most animal cruelty laws don’t extend to farm animals. The film’s co-producer, seven-time Emmy winner Tom Simon, expressed the hope that exposing these particularly egregious instances of animal cruelty would compel the industry to do a better job of policing itself, adding that “if it doesn’t clean up its act, somebody’s going to do it for them.”
“Pete,” the pseudonymous undercover star of Death On A Factory Farm, granted an interview to Time magazine this week in which he talked about what motivates him to do this kind of work despite the toll that being an undercover animal rights investigator has taken on his personal life (question: doesn’t posing for Time’s photographer kinda blow your cover, even with the baseball cap and sunglasses? Just wondering.)
Simon and “Pete” will be guests on Air America’s Break Room Live with Mark Maron and Sam Seder this Friday at 3pm if you’d like to learn more about their campaign to shine a light on some of factory farming’s darkest practices.
13 responses so far ↓
1 Carrie // Mar 12, 2009 at 12:58 pm
I seem to recall seeing some statistics that the Hallmark dairy cow abuse case did nothing to dampen sales of beef, in general or hamburger meat in particular. Am I mistaken?
2 kat // Mar 12, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Alas, ’tis true–while this kind of exposé generates a flurry of outrage, the average American soon forgets and reverts to factory-farm-form; a consequence, perhaps, of a memory impaired by excess consumption of mercury-tainted tuna?
3 emmy hbo // Mar 13, 2009 at 3:02 am
An interesting read – some good tips here
4 Ty Wingert // Mar 17, 2009 at 3:07 pm
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
5 Amy // Mar 18, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Much of the footage in this documentary was extremely disturbing and appealed to the viewers’ emotions. I don’t think it was propaganda, per se. The goal was to show what happened at this one farm, not on every farm or even the “average” farm, and it told this story from start to finish. Comparing and contrasting various types of animal husbandry, from organic farms to agri-business, would be interesting, but that could not be accomplished in this particular show.
While every factory farm may not tolerate excessive violence against livestock by workers, most of these farms do house animals in these same conditions. Sows are forced to stand and are not able to turn around in their stalls; they almost never see sunlight. If this were not true, Californians would not have had to recently ban this practice. We learn “Old McDonald Had a Farm” as children and assume all farms are sunny places where lambs and chicks frolic in the spring; the reality is different. Unfortunately, I doubt whether this film will have an effect on food consumption in this country. While organic meat and free-range poultry is increasingly available, it is also very expensive. Even if consumers are aware of these products, they often can’t afford them. When you’ve just lost your job, it’s easier to buy saline-injected chicken breasts for $2.98/lb than free-range organic ones for more than double that amount. I don’t have “money to burn” but I care about this issue enough to make humane choices with the dollars I do have.
6 Leenskies // Mar 19, 2009 at 12:41 am
Human population 6.4 billion and growing. There are just WAY too many consumer units (parasites) on this sad ol’ planet. Look at what we allow in order to gratify our every desire! Psychotic! This kind of horror is NOT the way.
7 Leigh Anne Schmidt // Mar 19, 2009 at 11:46 am
In response to Carrie about the Westland/Hallmark recall, it certainly changed my eating habits. I didn’t know what a factory farm was a year ago. I’ve made many changes and have learned (not good) more than I care to share.
8 Denny // Mar 19, 2009 at 4:08 pm
AMY wrote:
“When you’ve just lost your job, it’s easier to buy saline-injected chicken breasts for $2.98/lb than free-range organic ones for more than double that amount. I don’t have “money to burn” but I care about this issue enough to make humane choices with the dollars I do have.”
to some degree I agree, limited income=limited choices or so it seems, some may claim “healthier food choices” are just too expensive, yet they’ll think nothing of plunking down a good $150 for a pair of Air Jordan’s then go home and feed their kids 3 buckets of greasy, sodium-busting, trans-fat laden KFC.
one could safely argue it boils down to “priorities”.
9 Luciana // Mar 20, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Good comment, Denny!
My neighbors feed their kids at McDonalds and by groceries at WalMart, but they by clothes at GapKids and Tommy Hilfiger.
My kid wears garage sale stuff and clearance clothes from Kohls, but we eat organic and free range food.
Priorities!
10 Sarah // Mar 21, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Does anybody know where i might be able to watch this documentary online?
11 Mike // Mar 26, 2009 at 12:05 am
Just adding my name to the list to show that there is one more person fighting the fight for humane treatment of my future food. You don’t have to torture and animal to end up eating it. The animal CAN know a healthy, joyous life until the moment it is quickly, painlessly killed, and that is a FACT. The ONLY reasons this is not the status quo are 1. The factory farms are only interested in the bottom line (ie. making as much money as possible and thus cutting EVERY corner possible) and 2. The rest of us are insulated from SEEING the atrocities that this kind of “corner cutting” will ALWAYS lead to by our failing media and educational system, both tools of the establishment.
Thank CHRIST for “Pete” and all those like him.
12 Kara // Apr 27, 2009 at 4:39 pm
I am with mike and the others….while I am currently VEGAN, the day I am able to raise my own farm and have humane lifestyles for animals, I’ll eat meat and dairy. There are PURE free-range farms out there, and I encourage everyone to get meat-eaters to buy that meat as opposed to factory-farme meat. Animals don’t need to have a life of torture, we need to respect them for the sacrifice they give us. They at least deserve a great life before we take it from them.
13 Julie // Jan 21, 2010 at 1:49 am
Pete, You are a HERO. Thank God there are people as Brave as You to expose this Cruelty.
I will let the Wiles Know in the only thing they understand $$$. I will stop buying Pork Period.
It is clear to me where Joe learned how to be cruel and uncaring Mr. Wiles.
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