Free From Harm

Today I learned of the barbaric practice taking place in restaurants in Japan. A practice called “Live Sushi,” a ‘delicacy’ that involves eating frogs while they are still alive and fully conscious. The lower half of their body is severed, skinned and they are served on a plate, with eyes blinking and body twitching and twisting, while they are slowly eaten alive. This barbaric, vulgar and unnecessarily cruel practice is truly a shame on the Japanese people. … READ ON

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. … READ ON

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. … READ ON

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. … READ ON

A new video clip has been released by Israeli group, Anonymous for Animal Rights, shot undercover at Israel’s leading kosher meat processor, Tnuva Cattle in Beit Shean, Israel. The video footage was captured by an investigator acting as an employee at Truva between September and October of this year. The footage exposes egregious brutality and suffering of animals in this allegedly high welfare facility, described by one highly-respected Israeli veterinarian, Yevgeny Borschevsky, as “the animals’ Treblinka.” … READ ON

The startling investigation comes less than a year after MFA exposed horrific cruelty at another Butterball factory farm, a groundbreaking case that led to the first-ever felony cruelty to animals conviction related to birds used for food production in US history. … READ ON

Just the other day, a young female turkey was found hiding away in the corner of a free range farm shed in Petaluma, California. She managed to evade her captors on the day the transport truck came to haul away the other turkeys to be slaughtered for Thanksgiving. Apparently some worker found her hiding away, felt moved by her valiant effort, and contacted Animal Place, a local sanctuary. This 4-minute video documents her amazing story, her will to live and her rescue. … READ ON

A new Mercy For Animals investigation provides a shocking look into a Walmart pork supplier—Christensen Farms—where mother pigs and their piglets are forced to suffer unrelenting abuse and lives of extreme confinement and misery. … READ ON

Hidden-camera video footage secretly recorded by an MFA investigator has led to 21 criminal cruelty-to-animals charges against the owner, two managers and five employees at Ontario Livestock Sales, one of the oldest and largest livestock auctions in southern California. … READ ON