Undercover investigations by animal rights activists in Australia have triggered the Australian pig industry to lobby for protections similar to “ag gag” laws in the U.S. that criminalize the taking of footage which has led to reform. In an interview on Australian TV, the head of Australia’s pork trade group, Andrew Spencer, answers pointed questions about what the industry has to hide. During the interview, Mr. Spencer acknowledges that the industry is phasing out gestation crates but will not attribute that change to the work of activists.

TV Interview with Head of Australian Pork Trade Association

Factory farms are concentration camps for animals. To protect the bottom line, the animal agriculture industry is taking more aggressive steps to keep the public in the dark about how the animals are treated — confinement, mutilation, deprivation, physical abuse. To learn more about “ag gag” laws in the United States, please visit Farm Sanctuary. And, if you haven’t already, adopt a plant-based diet.

According to the NY Times, a 4-month undercover investigation by PETA showed that racehorse trainers “subject their horses to cruel and injurious treatments, administer drugs to them for nontherapeutic purposes, use electrical devices to shock horses into running faster and force injured and/or suffering horses to race and train.” As a result of PETA’s investigation, horse racing authorities in New York, Kentucky and New Mexico opened investigations into allegations of abuse by Steve Asmussen, a prominent horse trainer, and his assistant Scott Blasi, both of whom were the subject of PETA’s undercover work. Mr. Asmussen has been removed as a finalists for the Racing Hall of Fame.

Horses who are unlucky enough to “work” in the racing industry spend their short lives being drugged, injured and abused behind the scenes. And, when they can no longer make money for their owners, they are slaughtered for their meat. Like all animals used for entertainment and profit, these horses are treated like commodities, not companions. Please boycott horse and dog race tracks, circuses, aquariums, zoos, rodeos, bullfights and urban horse-drawn carriage concessions. For more information about horse-racing and to find out how you can help, please visit PETA’s horse-racing page.

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) has released undercover footage of baby dogs and cats and their mothers being physically and emotionally abused in a barren U.K. lab owned by the pharmaceutical company Merck. The video shows young puppies being separated from their mothers, who are killed because their job of delivering babies to the lab was complete. It also shows the puppies being injected, killed and dissected in front of their brothers and sisters. In a Care2 article, the BUAV said that “While many of these animals could have been rescued, simply killing them and tossing their bodies in the trash is easier than making any effort to find them homes.”

https://youtu.be/5mE4uCacUmc

Like agribusiness owners, researchers who test on animals go to great lengths to hide their experiments from public view, knowing that people would be outraged to see how the imprisoned animals suffer and die. As PETA explains, “They languish in pain, ache with loneliness, and long to roam free and use their minds. Instead, all they can do is sit and wait in fear of the next terrifying and painful procedure that will be performed on them.” Modern day science has provided scientists with alternatives to animal research, but because of government regulations, laziness and money, the brutal experiments continue. To learn more about animal testing and find out how you can help, please PETA’s Animals Used For Experimentation website.

Today, Idaho’s governor signed an “ag gag” bill outlawing the taking of photos and video in factory farms. Thanks to the elected officials who are beholden to the dairy lobby, whistleblowers are now criminals. This undercover video from Mercy For Animals, taken before the bill became law, shows exactly what the dairy industry and all agribusinesses are trying to hide.

Factory farms are concentration camps for animals, and agribusinesses will move mountains to prevent the public from seeing what happens inside. They know from experience that the public opposes an industry in which baby animals are kidnapped from their mothers, confined in cages, mutilated and stripped of the ability to do anything that comes naturally to them before being rounded up and slaughtered. The undercover investigators, who wear hidden cameras to document these abuses, risk their safety, financial security and freedom to expose the public to factory farming. Please help make the most of their heroic work by sharing their videos with your networks.

Land’s End is the latest clothing manufacturer to ban the use of Angora fur after viewing undercover footage of rabbits screaming while having their hair torn out by workers. According to the Huffington Post, H&M, The Gap, Tommy Hilifiger and Calvin Klein have “suspended Angora production until they can verify that the farms they contract with are not engaged in abusive treatment of animals.”

The retailers looking for Angora from animals who are not abused are never going to find it because fur production is inherently abusive — from the cramped cages where the animals go insane to the execution by gassing, anal electrocution and live-animal skinning. PETA provides more information on Angora and explains how you can help.