Former Animal Outlook undercover investigator Scott David examines the risks and implications of “ag-gag” laws that punish anyone who releases evidence of animal cruelty inside farms and slaughterhouses... "Looking back on those experiences now, I’m shocked at how naive I was when I first set out as an investigator. I wasn’t sure if I would even see anything worth showing to the public. By the end of my time in the field, I would be desperate to show people what I had documented."
Egg-laying facility in Spain - Image by
Jo-Anne
McArthur, We Animals
The room was kept dark on purpose, except for some scattered red bulbs. It
was supposed to keep the chickens calm, but neither they nor I felt
particularly comfortable. Hundreds of birds, destined for slaughter, were
dumped out onto the conveyor belt before my coworkers and me. Workers raced
to grab the birds from the belt and jam their legs into shackles speeding by
at eye level. The quota was shackling twenty-four birds per minute, a speed
completely divorced from humane or safe handling. Dirt, feathers, and
particles of feces swirled through the air. My back hurt from picking up
birds all day. My hands ached from holding thousands of bony legs between my
knuckles.
I was there to share the plight of these chickens with the public, and I
tried my best not to think about what the birds were going through. But it
was impossible to ignore. I wondered if I should really be here at all,
inside a North Carolina slaughterhouse, more than 2,000 miles away from
home. Beneath my goggles, mask, and the cover of darkness, my face twisted
up as a few tears fell down my cheeks.
That was in 2015, just before the state’s passage of what is known as an
“ag-gag” bill, a law that would punish undercover investigators like myself
who release evidence of animal mistreatment inside farms and
slaughterhouses. After my first job as an investigator in a Mountaire Farms
slaughterhouse in Lumber Bridge, NC, I understood why the industry wanted
laws like that passed. The workers there treated chickens like they were
objects. The line speeds forced workers to callously toss birds they thought
had arrived dead to the ground into piles. Many of them were still alive and
covered in corpses as the workers threw more birds onto the piles. When the
lines slowed or stopped due to mechanical problems, some would rip feathers
from live birds to throw at coworkers. Others would punch birds or even
throw them like baseballs into the shackles. One worker pried open a
chicken’s mouth and stuck a finger down the bird’s throat while we waited
for the line to restart.
Looking back on those experiences now, I’m shocked at how naive I was when I
first set out as an investigator. I wasn’t sure if I would even see anything
worth showing to the public. By the end of my time in the field, I would be
desperate to show people what I had documented.
My next job was at a pig processing plant in Minnesota that supplied Hormel,
the makers of Spam. I remember passing a billboard for the Spam Museum on my
way to work and wondering who would possibly want to visit. I also remember
looking up while at work and on several occasions seeing a pig, hanging by
his or her legs from a chain and trying to right him or herself, still
conscious despite blood flowing from a freshly slit throat.
Pigs didn’t fare well before slaughter, either. While herding, workers would
hit pigs with paddles and shock them in the face with electrical prods. Pigs
who collapsed during herding or refused to move were roughly shoved out of
the chutes or dragged out by their tails. They’d do anything to get the
animals through the system as quickly as possible, as the plant was part of
a pilot program that got rid of the 1,106 animal per hour slaughter line
speed cap for pork producers. This program, which is past the pilot stage
and just finished accepting the first round of opt-in requests from
slaughter plants, would also replace some USDA inspectors with company
employees, effectively allowing these corporations to police themselves.
Months after I left the facility, we were told by the Food Safety and
Inspection Service that they were not taking disciplinary action against the
workers or the plant. Yet they assured us that USDA inspectors would have
corrected this behavior if they had been present. A frustrating result, but
not unexpected in a world where cruelty toward farmed animals is rarely
punished.
I saw similar disturbing incidents involving improper stunning and slaughter
in the last facility I worked in. Again, I saw animals return to
consciousness after being stunned and having their throats slit. This time,
the incidents were much more frequent. I was employed at a slaughterhouse in
California belonging to the largest producer of lamb meat in the U.S. I
watched the workers cutting the throats of lambs, thinking I was just
getting some gruesome context footage. It was only after our team started
looking at the videos more closely that we discovered that even after being
stunned and having their throats cut, about 90% of these animals were still
alive later down the slaughter line, noticeably moving in response to
another worker cutting off their tails. We even took our findings to a
veterinarian for confirmation, who agreed that many of these animals
appeared to still be sensitive to pain. Eventually, this facility entered
into a consent decree with the Department of Justice and had to change some
of their practices, thanks to what I filmed there.
These companies keep their practices under wraps because they know that the
public would be horrified if they knew the ugly truth. If “ag-gag” laws had
been in place in those states when I had been undercover, I could have been
put in prison or sued for what I documented. Our organization could have
been mired in long, costly legal battles and we may have had to give up
conducting undercover investigations altogether. Without these
investigations, it would be impossible to expose what goes on day after day,
week after week, year after year inside a factory farm or slaughterhouse. I
couldn’t have shown people how birds are tortured, or how pigs and lambs are
all too often still alive far down the slaughter line. The footage I’ve
collected has been viewed millions of times, and if the mail we receive is
any indication, it changed a few people’s minds on the ethics of eating
meat. None of that may have happened if we had contended with “ag-gag” laws
while I was in the field.
The repeal of several of these “ag-gag” laws in recent years is a promising
sign that courts believe whistleblowers are protected under the First
Amendment. The public seems to agree as well, with polls showing the
majority of people opposing the passage of “ag-gag” bills in their states.
Still, the industry continues to put its money and support behind lawmakers
who introduce laws specifically designed to obscure the public’s view of
grisly factory farming and slaughter practices. If conscious consumers
withdraw their support by changing their diets, someday we may all be able
to sleep soundly knowing that no one died for our dinner.
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