Meat-eating is strongly associated with cultural perceptions of masculinity and power. The idea that meat-eating and killing are “manly” is constantly reinforced through advertising and other forms of cultural narrative that tell us who we are. This macho mythologizing of meat helps explain why women are more than twice as likely as men to be vegetarian.
This short, non graphic video documents my visit to a live poultry market in Chicago. I posed as someone interested in having a business like theirs and asked if I could take some photos. They agreed. I then just let the video roll. What I found was even worse than I would have imagined. The only way to describe this place is a squalid hell on earth with a level of suffering I had never seen before. Shops like this are marketed as the “buy local,” “sustainable,” “free range,” “pasture-raised” and “organic” alternatives to factory farming.
Voltaire once wrote, “If we believe absurdities, we will commit atrocities,” and nowhere is this principle seen more clearly than in the billion dollar lies and bizarre cruelties of the dairy industry. It is a testament to the power of dairy advertising that otherwise intelligent adults can be made to believe that it is not only natural, but necessary to drink the breast milk of another species. In trying to expose this absurdity, one encounters even more absurd defenses and practices. This video is a perfect example, demonstrating the heartless cruelties visited on animals in the dairy industry.
This a moving, non graphic video that tells the magnificent story of one farmer of caged egg laying chickens who apparently had a change of heart and released them to Edgar’s Mission farm sanctuary in Australia. For the first time in their lives, the rescued chickens in this video are getting an opportunity to exhibit their natural behaviors. The video highlights some of the chicken’s most basic pleasures in life: stretching and flapping their wing, sunbathing, dustbathing, scratching in the earth and forming social bonds with others in their flock.
In this short and concise video clip, Francione astutely describes the root of our problem with animals which is also the basis for his theory of animal rights. We say we believe that animals should not be harmed unnecessarily and yet 99% of our use of animals can only be described as unnecessary and pleasure-based. “The best justification we have for inflicting pain, suffering and death on 10 billion animals a year is that they taste good. I regard that as moral schizophrenia.”
Father Frank Mann’s own journey has been inspired by visionaries such as Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton, who have shown compassion and moral leadership in the face of injustice. He recently had a deep personal awakening to the plight of animals, and has since incorporated the values of being vegan and animal rights into his spiritual life and vision of a more just and peaceful world.
No, this is not about the infamous fictional horror movie that has spooked many and given others feverish nightmares. This is far worse, far more premiditated, far more methodical and far more insidious than the movie. And worst of all, it’s all really happening right now, particularly around this time of year to celebrate the Easter holiday. The latest Animal Equality undercover investigation exposes the transport and slaughter of young lambs in Italy, a typical scene depicting standard industry practices (most likely for “humane” labeled products) rather than some isolated and egregious act of cruelty. And it proves how the everyday, “normal” exploitation of animals is perhaps the most disturbing reality of all.
La Mirada Circular (The Circular Glance) is an award-winning short Spanish film from directors ván Sáinz-Pardo, Dirk Soldner and Jim-Box that draws perhaps the most startling connection yet between human and non human animal exploitation. Two young children appear to be kidnapped and hauled around in an animal transport truck. They are taken to a slaughterhouse to find animals being hauled out of another truck and sent into the slaughterhouse. But is this all part of a child’s imagination? You’ll have to get to the end to find that out.
In this video recorded at the March 2013 McDougall Advanced Study Weekend, leading sustainability activist Dr. Richard Oppenlander makes a compelling case for how the transition to a plant-based diet is the most practical, effective and sustainable solution to our most serious environmental problems as well as debunking the most popular misconceptions about sustainability.
Turlock is the incredible story of the rescue of 4,460 starving hens from an egg farm in Stanislaw County, California in Spring, 2012, managed by Animal Place. Turlock the movie is released one year after the rescue effort to commemorate the date. While tragic, the story is ultimately an immensely-inspiring testament of the human will to help and defend the lives of animals who are the hidden casualties of the industries that profit from their suffering.
I’ve been following the work of photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur for some time now, and we’ve featured her work in our photo galleries as well. Jo-Anne’s work is so subtle and profound at the same time, qualities that reflect in her personality as well. When I learned that filmmaker Liz Marshal just finished the final cut of her new film about McArthur called The Ghosts in Our Machine, I felt the excitement brew up inside of me.
ABC News aired this brief segment the other day which contains short clips of footage from undercover investigations conducted by Mercy for Animals and The Humane Society of the United States. President of HSUS, Wayne Pacelle, is also interviewed briefly and the issue of Ag gag laws is seriously questioned in light of this systemic cruelty in agriculture that often goes unreported. No one defending the Ag Gag laws or even defending farming practices today is interviewed.
Their Future Is in Your Hands is a 10-minute documentary short that takes a big-picture look at modern society’s mainstream attitudes about animals and how those attitudes translate into widespread animal exploitation in the food, research and entertainment industries. The film makes a strong and yet simple case for animal rights, ethical consistency and the power we have to dramatically reduce animal suffering by the daily choices we make.
You don’t want to miss this absolutely unique, expertly crafted, fifteen-minute documentary that follows the lives of two piglet siblings. One, named Jackpot, is adopted by an animal sanctuary. The other, named with a number, X-15, is raised on one of Austria’s typical pig farms. The film, titled “Pig Vision: The Journey of Two Brothers,” is an unvarnished, unsentimental portrait of how each piglet is raised in dramatically different ways.
Toronto Pig Save’s vigils are held weekly near slaughterhouses in the area. At these vigils, TPS volunteers often hand out free vegan food and literature to passersby. The group always welcomes new volunteers to join them in bearing witness, in comforting the pigs, in leafleting, and in taking video footage and still photographs.
Of all the compelling reasons to be vegan, nothing could be more motivating than the story of Little Princess, a terribly sick dairy cow who no one wanted to buy at auction until Animal Place Sanctuary stepped in and purchased her for $5. They rushed her to UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, where veterinarians found that Little Princess had pneumonia, a condition that had gone untreated for at least three months — perhaps as long as five months. With 80% of her lungs full of pus, she was too far gone to save. Her new friends cradled Little Princess in their arms as she was euthanized.
We know that birds have evolved separately from mammals, but what we haven’t known is how. In the absence of research and a better understanding, we have mistakenly assumed that the development of mammals somehow afforded them greater cognitive abilities, communication skills, and overall intelligence (at least when measured from the anthropomorphic human yardstick). A new documentary called Thoughtful Birds in Action shows how the bird’s evolution has advanced at least as much if not more (in some ways) than mammals.
The animated short known as MAN is a darkly comic, disturbing view of our species who wreaks havoc on other species and on nature itself. MAN is a parable of a man in conflict with the world at large, seeking power over rather than unity with it. MAN offers a biting commentary on this male character’s destructive and violent pathos. MAN shows a human being at his worst, creating vast suffering for animals at every turn. And in the end, MAN, sitting on his throne, is dealt a karmic blow. He is destroyed by beings from another planet who land on earth, squish him into a welcome mat, then shuffle off in their spaceship.
In this hugely inspiring TED-series video, Zoe Weil explains how each of us can apply our passions and skills to end a problem like factory farming. She highlights several people — from artists to business entrepreneurs — who have used their profession to bring awareness to the issue and help build empathy for animals used in modern agriculture.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is often referred to as America’s Fittest Mayor. In this video segment from local Chicago station WGN News, Emanuel endorses the vegan diet as a way to combat our chronic disease epidemic, promote longevity and reduce our skyrocketing healthcare costs. He appears with Engine 2 Diet founder Rip Esselystyn. This is reportedly part of a larger campaign by the mayor to promote healthy eating in the city of Chicago.