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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.

Dozens of animal rights activists disrupted a event celebrating pig consumption at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. According to organizers, Cochon555 is “a nose-to-tail culinary tour dedicated to . . . educating chefs and diners about the agricultural importance of utilizing Old World livestock.” The event is held in 14 cities around the country. “Cochon” is French for pig.

“Cochon555 is working to make people feel good about eating meat by perpetuating the myth that animals can be slaughtered humanely,” said Amanda Houdeschell, one of the organizers of the protest. “It’s a fraud, and it’s giving people who might otherwise abstain from eating animals a free pass to turn a blind eye to the horrors inflicted on them.”

Cochone555 guests appear to be amused by the disruption. Activists speculate that, for many, nervous laughter was a defense mechanism.

Several minutes into the disruption, Cochon555 organizers turned off the lights in the hotel ballroom and turned up the volume on the music in an effort to drown out the protesters. While many of the guests at the carnivorous event appeared to be amused by the disruption, organizers were visibly jarred.  As protesters exited the hotel, one Cochon555 representative attempted to justify the pig festival to the activists: “No matter if you think it’s murder or whatever, we’re still honoring a product that is bred by breeders with their wholehearted integrity.” In response to his assertion that the pigs are “treated just like your kids,” TheirTurn’s Donny Moss asked, “Do we slaughter our children?”

One of hundreds of individuals killed and dismembered during Cochon555 tour

Animal rights activists with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) waited in line for five hours to get a prime spot at the annual hotdog eating contest at Nathan’s in Brooklyn, and their patience – and willingness to be manhandled – paid off.

After the activists disrupted the event and got arrested (see video below), several TV and print media outlets in NYC ran stories, and dozens of newspapers around the country published an Associated Press story. Notably, the New York Post, a paper frequently hostile to animal rights activism, reported on why the activists protested:

Several international newspapers also covered the disruption.  In Argentina, Flores Buenos Aires included the DxE statement from the NY Post article.

Animal rights activists have protested the infamous hotdog eating competition for the past several years, and have, each year, garnered at least some favorable media coverage. In 2016, the NY Daily News, another newspaper notoriously hostile to animal rights activists, published a story that included strong animal rights messages.

Ironically, the annual hotdog eating contest is held on Independence Day, in spite of the fact that the individuals who were consumed by the contestants spent their entire lives being held captive before being slaughtered.

Cattle are held captive in sheds and feedlots before being slaughtered

Matt Cataldo, one of five activists who was arrested and later released with no charges, told TheirTurn, “These people who stuff dead animals down their throats, vomit into their own hands and then shove it back in are regarded as athletes, but they are lazy cowards — exploiting innocent animals for money and fame. There is no excuse for animal abuse, and we will never stop fighting for their freedom.”

Police falsely arrest Matt Cataldo (left). Rocky Schwartz (right) and three other animal rights activists for legally protesting at Nathan’s hot dog eating contest on July 4th.

On September 17th, about 1,500 people traveled to upstate New York to attend Catskill Animal Sanctuary’s (CAS) annual “shindig,” a day long celebration with rescued animals, live bands, cooking demonstrations, vegan food vendors, speakers and hayrides.

According to Kathy Stevens, the founder of CAS, sanctuaries enable visitors who aren’t already vegan to “connect the dots between their lifestyle choices and the suffering of these beautiful animals.” She asserts that people must “understand that our choice to eat animals condemns countless beings to an unthinkable level of torture, fear and terror.”

Attendees bond with farm animals at Catskill Animal Sanctuary’s 15th Anniversary Shindig

By inviting many vegan food vendors to the shindig, Stevens demonstrates that adopting a diet free of animals is hardly a sacrifice, given how delicious vegan food in 2016.  And while not all vegan food is health food, a plant-based diet, Stevens asserts, is better for our health and for the planet, as animal agriculture “is the primary cause of the global devastation we’re experiencing.”

At least a dozen vegan food vendors lined the roads within the sanctuary.

Please visit Catskill Animal Sanctuary to learn more about and support the organization’s life-saving work.

Following numerous undercover investigations revealing shocking cruelty in slaughterhouses, U.S. meat and egg companies are slowly shifting towards a method of killing regarded by many as being less inhumane: gas chambers.

Euphemistically referred to as Controlled Atmosphere Killing (CAK), gas chambers are widely used in Australia and some European Union countries to slaughter pigs, chickens and other animals.

In several countries, pigs and chickens are commonly killed using gas chambers.

PIGS

In order to gas pigs, slaughterhouse workers use electric prods to force them into small steel cages which are lowered into carbon dioxide filled chambers. Undercover footage shows pigs screaming, thrashing and gasping for air in their final moments. An Australian activist conducting an undercover investigation described what he saw: “In their last minutes, these pigs are burning from the inside out.”

Pigs being suffocated in gas chambers.

BROILER CHICKENS

The travelling crates that contain chickens are typically unloaded from a truck onto a conveyor belt which carries them into a gas chamber. According to an eyewitness from Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals, “Aversive behavior in the form of gasping, shaking of heads and stretching of necks to breathe could be seen beginning in window two [of the gas chamber] and, by window three, all were exhibiting strong convulsions. The birds’ movements eventually became still and by the time they emerged from the CO2 chambers they were completely lifeless…”

Gas chambers are used to render broiler chickens unconscious before they are bled to death.

EGG-LAYING HENS

Workers aggressively grab spent layer hens birds out of their cages and toss them into mobile metal gas chambers.  On some factory farms, the hens are simply stuffed into trash cans where they are gassed. According to a former worker at a supplier to Eggland’s Best: “It’s absolutely chilling to hear these birds scrambling and fighting for air in these gas chambers.”

At worst spent hens are killed by being thrown into trash cans which are than filled with gas.

Several animal advocacy groups are pressuring companies to transition to using CAK as their primary method of slaughter because it has been shown to be, in many ways, less painful and stressful than conventional methods.

To learn more about the use of gas chambers to kill pigs, please visit aussieabattoirs.com

To watch the investigation that revealed the use of gas chambers to kill spent hens, please visit Mercy For Animals

To learn more about animal cruelty in the food industry, please watch Farm to Fridge and Earthlings

To order a free vegan starter kit, please visit PETA