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What happens when a country music singer and a TV news journalist receive a phone call about two pigs who will be killed if they’re not rescued within the next 24 hours? Pig Little Lies, a new reality show on UnChainedTV, documents the chaotic – and at times funny – rescue of a bonded pair of potbelly pigs and the bittersweet surprise that transformed the lives of the motley crew of human animals who are caring for them.

Pig Little Lies, a new TV series on UnChainedTV, is the first animal rights themed reality show

Pig Little Lies, the first animal rights-themed reality TV show, stars Los Angeles-based country singer Simone Reyes, TV journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell, wildlife rehabilitation expert Cindy Brady, and Dante and Beatrice, the two pigs who were abandoned at a high kill animal shelter in Southern California. When Reyes received the fateful call about Dante and Beatrice, Velez-Mitchell, who was with her at the time filming another project, decided to turn her attention – and the camera – to what she knew would be a dramatic rescue.

UnchainedTV is a free network with animal rights and vegan content that can be streamed on smart TVs, smart phones, tablets, Amazon’s Fire Stick, AppleTV and Roku.

Pig Little Lies is first original series produced by UnChainedTV. Launched in 2022, UnChained TV is free streaming platform with hundreds of animal rights and vegan-themed documentaries, cooking shows, travelogues, talk shows and music videos. Velez-Mitchell, who founded the platform, describes it as “a portal to a healthier, more environmentally sustainable, and more compassionate lifestyle.”

Several mainstream media news outlets, including Variety, have reported on UnChainedTV’s release of Pig Little Lies.

Several mainstream media news outlets, including Variety, have reported on the release of Pig Little Lies, the first original series produced by the new streaming network UnChainedTV

For Velez-Mitchell, Pig Little Lies is the perfect series for her burgeoning network because it uses an entertaining reality show format to provide viewers with life-saving information that they aren’t getting elsewhere. “Heart disease is a leading killer often caused by cholesterol in pork and animal products,” says Velez-Mitchell. “Do doctors inform you of that? Do they tell you that the World Health Organization warns that processed meat, like hot dogs and bacon, cause cancer?” Velez-Mitchell and Reyes are aiming to help the viewers connect the dots between the animal-based foods on their plate and the diseases that are caused by eating them. They are also hoping to help viewers connect the dots between their pork-based meals and the lovable pigs who they get to know in the series. “Pigs are intelligent, social and gentle animals who value their independence and love their families just like us,” said Reyes. “This UnChainedTV series gives Dante and Beatrice an opportunity to showcase their personalities and introduce themselves to people who would normally eat them.”

A few of the stars of UnChainedTV’s reality show Pig Little Lies

UnChained TV is also a platform for filmmakers and animal rights activists to feature their work addressing climate change, filling in a major gap left by the mainstream environmental movement, which has largely avoided addressing the impact of animal agriculture on the planet. “You have a few influential climate activists, like Greta Thunberg, promoting an eco-friendly plant-based diet, but the largest environmental groups have dropped the ball on animal agriculture,” said Velez-Mitchell. “In addition to being one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, animal agriculture contributes to habitat destruction, wildlife extinction, world hunger, drought, ocean dead zones and widespread water pollution.”

Jane Velez-Mitchell and Simone Reyes star in UnChainedTV’s new reality show, Pig Little Lies

Velez-Mitchell hopes that Pig Little Lies will be the first of many original series produced by UnChainedTV.  Next up — a mini-series about a chicken named Hope who lives with a family in Southern California and who rules the house!

The Executive Producers of Pig Little Lies are Jim Greenbaum, Cindy Landon, Dr. Sailesh Rao, Eamonn McCrystal and Jane Velez-Mitchell. The show is directed by Emmy-winning Eamonn McCrystal of Inspired. LLC.

UnchainedTV is a free network that can be streamed on smart TVs, smart phones, tablets, Amazon’s Fire Stick, AppleTV and Roku.

On May 1st, dozens of conservationists and animal rights activists staged a rally in Times Square to help members of the public connect the dots between eating animals and pandemics. Their message was simple: “Eating Animals Causes Pandemics.” The New York City rally was one of approximately 60 that took place in 20 countries around the world in support of International Pandemic Outreach Day.

The Eating Animals Causes Pandemics campaign is a collaboration among animal rights, environmental, conservation and religious organizations. It emerged as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19, which is believed to have jumped to humans in a live animal market in China. Like many of the pandemics that preceded it, including the catastrophic Spanish Flu of 1918, COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease — one that is transmitted to humans from a non-human animal.

On International Pandemic Outreach Day, advocates in New York City spoke to hundreds of pedestrians whose attention they captured with their hazmat suits and posters. Most were not aware that outbreaks of avian flu, swine flu and a human version of mad cow disease are caused by our consumption of chickens, pigs and cows.

Factory farms are a breeding ground for infectious diseases, which could easily spread among the animals and, if zoonotic, to humans

The COVID-19 pandemic shined a global spotlight on the infectious disease risks associated with live animal markets, but zoonotic diseases can – and do – emerge in factory farms, slaughterhouses and any other setting where animals are intensively confined and/or slaughtered for human consumption. Dr. Michael Gregor, the author of Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching (2016) has said, “If you actually want to create pandemics, then build factory farms.”

Conservationists and animal rights activists staged a rally in Times Square to raise awareness about the connection between eating animals and pandemics

Paul Watson, the founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is best known for using direct action to protect whales from Japanese whaling vessels, but he’s also a world-renowned advocate for the oceans and all of its other inhabitants. During an interview with TheirTurn in New York City, Watson explained why protecting the oceans is not only vital to sea animals but also to the very survival of the human species. “If the oceans die, we die.”

Watson explains that oceans, which he describes as the “blue lungs” of the Earth, produce 70% of the oxygen that we breathe and that the source of the oxygen are phytoplankton. Since 1950, the amount of phytoplankton in the oceans has dropped by 40% due to whaling, commercial fishing, animal agriculture and other forms of pollution.

Watson is the subject of new award-winning documentary film, Watson, that chronicles his career as an eco-warrior on the high seas. Watson is available on Animal Planet.

On September 21, youth climate leaders from around the world converged at the United Nations in New York to participate in the Youth Climate Summit. During the summit, TheirTurn asked them why the youth climate movement isn’t using its platform to encourage grass roots climate activists and the mainstream public to make lifestyle changes to reduce their own carbon emissions.

One day earlier, tens of thousands of New Yorkers, most of whom were students, took to the streets of downtown Manhattan to participate in a youth climate strike with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Neither their posters nor the information they distributed focused on what individuals can do to reduce their own carbon footprint. Frustrated by the fact that youth climate leaders are not proactively encouraging the public to take steps to reduce their own emissions, a contingent of several dozen adult activists joined the climate strike to promote plant-based diets.

Adult climate strikers promote plant-based diets as a strategy to reduce carbon and methane emissions

“Eating animals is the elephant in the room of the climate change movement,” said Nathan Semmel, an attorney and activist who participated in the climate strike. “How can youth climate leaders expect world leaders to take action on the climate crisis if they aren’t encouraging their own constituents to stop engaging in environmentally destructive activity that can be easily avoided?

Ranchers are deforesting the Amazon in order to graze their cattle and grow cattle feed (photo: National Geographic)

During the interviews with TheirTurn, every youth climate leader mentioned meat reduction or elimination when asked what steps individuals can take.  None of them, however, indicated that they are proactively conveying this message to their constituents. They are instead pressuring global leaders to make systemic change.

“It’s not an either/or,” said journalist and climate advocate Jane Velez-Mitchell of JaneUnChained. “Youth climate leaders can demand accountability from our leaders and ask their constituents to reduce their own carbon footprint by making the switch to a plant-based diet.”

Waste lagoon at a cattle ranch (taken from above)

Unlike youth climate leaders, who understand the impact of animal agriculture on the climate and are reducing or eliminating their own consumption of animal products, grass roots participants in the youth climate strike were largely unaware. When asked what steps they can take to reduce their own carbon emissions, most recommended reducing single-use plastic and recycling.

Youth climate leaders speak about their advocacy at the United Nations Youth Climate Summit

Pedestrians lined up in NYC’s Union Square to watch a four minute video in exchange for $1, but many were so profoundly affected by what they saw that they declined to take their reward and instead engaged with the advocates on hand about transitioning to a vegan diet.

The “pay-per-view” event, organized by the 12,500 member NYC Vegetarian and Vegan Meetup Group, aims to expose New Yorkers to the cruelty of animal agriculture and help them transition to a healthier and more environmentally friendly plant-based diet. TheirTurn interviewed people who were willing to speak on camera about if and how the video, “Ten Billion Lives” (see below), would affect their behavior.

“One of the biggest challenges we face as advocates in our day-to-day lives is convincing people to watch footage of industrialized animal agriculture and slaughter,” said David Greene, who runs NYC Vegetarian and Vegan Meetup Group. “The ‘Pay-Per-View’ approach helps us overcome that obstacle and provides us with a platform to engage with a captive audience about making more compassionate choices.”

Activist Joyce Friedman conducts vegan outreach with a woman who was disturbed by the farm animal abuse in the video.

Here is the 4 minute video that the pedestrians were paid to watch:

If you live in the NYC tri-state area and would like to participate in pay-per-view events, other forms of vegan outreach or social events, please visit NYC Vegetarian and Vegan Meetup Group.