Undercover video taken by a Mercy For Animals (MFA) investigator exposes the torture of baby turkeys on Butterball factory farms. MFA has turned over this evidence to local law enforcement, which is currently considering criminal animal cruelty charges. Butterball, which is the nation’s largest turkey producer, is responsible for 20 percent of the 252 million turkeys killed each year.

Factory farms are inherently abusive because the animals are mutilated, ground up alive, confined, torn from their mothers and stripped of the ability to do anything that comes naturally to them. Abuses that are not built into the system, such as the ones mentioned above but are pervasive nonetheless are the beatings — the “kicking and stomping on turkeys and bashing in their heads with metal pipes.” Please share this Butterball video so that people who think that eating a turkey sandwich is a benign activity are exposed to the truth.

The Massachusetts Coalition for Humane Farms has launched a six city tour to promote state legislation mandating ages that would enable animals “to turn around and spread their limbs.” Using cages as a prop, the activists will educate voters about the extreme confinement of battery cages for hens, gestation crates for pregnant pigs and veal crates for calves.

Photo credit: One Green Planet

Bigger cages don’t equate to “rights,” but they’re less horrific than existing cages. Should we be fighting for bigger cages, an achievable goal that provides some relief, or should we be fighting for abolition, which is what we ultimately want for the animals? As we debate those questions as a community, we should continue to do what we can all agree on — encouraging people to adopt a cruelty-free lifestyle.

After investigating 70 rabbit farms and four slaughterhouses in Spain, Igualidad Animal (translated: Animal Equality) released undercover footage of workers slicing the throats of conscious rabbits; dead animals in cages with live ones; injured and sick animals being left untreated and others eating their own feces. According to Spanish media, “farmers were observed killing sick animals by hitting them over the head with iron bars, smashing their skulls against concrete floors or punching them.” Igualidad Animal has filed 72 official complaints, which, if proven, could result in heavy fines and prison sentences.

As expected, Spain’s rabbit farming industry association has criticized the video and says it is “creating a new code of practice which goes ‘beyond what is required by law.'” Undercover investigations like this that expose abuse in animal factories are the most powerful tool we have to affect change, which is why industry is backing “ag gag” laws criminalizing them. Please use these videos as a tool to educate people about factory farms.

A  animal rights activist in England has threatened to dive in front of Cambridge rowers to protect baby ducklings who are being “mowed down” by fast-moving boats.  The local rowing association says that requiring the rowers to slow down for part of the seasons is “unreasonable.”

Photo credit: Duncan Lamont

Crashing into animals when it can be avoided is inexcusable, especially when it’s being done as part of a recreational activity.  Does the rowing association really think that the lives of ducks are less important than someone’s workout?  When baby ducks are nearby, slow the hell down!

A candidate for the Board of the Royal Society for The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in the U.K. triggered outrage when he compared factory farming to the Holocaust. The people who spoke out about the candidates’ remarks didn’t indicate that they disagree with them. They merely pointed out that the use “holocaust” is so inflammatory that it diminishes arguments made on behalf of animals suffering on factory farms.

For many years, PETA has juxtaposed images of factory farm and concentration camps to raise awareness of the plight of farm animals. It’s an approach that resonated with me because that is what I think of when I see images of factory farms. However, I use that metaphor only when I think it will have the desired effect. For maximum impact, evaluate your audience before crafting your message.