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Seven activists stripped and climbed into oversized meat trays to jolt the public into considering the plight of farm animals. The Association Against Animal Factories, which organized the event in Vienna, said, “According to the Austrian law, animals are classed as things. This means that their value is only measured by how much profit can be squeezed from their carcasses.”

Photo: APA/Neubauer

How many consumers think about the fact that the styrofoam package of “boneless” and “skinless” chicken breasts they buy at the grocery store once had a face and a family? Not many. If pork chops were packaged with the pig’s head, then fewer people would buy them. And that is probably why grocery stores go to great lengths to disconnect the meat they sell from the animal to whom it belongs.  With the help of organizations like Vegan Outreach, we can help people connect the dots without taking off our clothes. That said, getting naked attracts attention, and I’m grateful to the activists who put themselves in a compromising position – personally and legally – to draw attention to the plight of farm animals.

Brian Ahmed, an egg farmer in Australia, is claiming that activists put the lives of his hens at risk when they enter his farms.  “We need tougher laws that actually penalise those who illegally enter farms and jeopardise the health of our livestock.”

Mr. Ahmed fails to explain how people entering his farm jeopardizes the health of his hens, but he must know that invoking “biosecurity” could help him garner support from unsuspecting lawmakers and from the public, which is largely unfamiliar with factory farms. Photos and videos speak a thousand words, which make undercover investigations the best tool available to educate the public about the horrors of factory farming.

Undercover footage taken by Farm Watch shows dozens of rats crawling over living and deceased pigs in wet, filthy and cramped enclosures.  The fact that the meat from this farm is certified under New Zealand’s pork care label demonstrates that these labels are meaningless.  A TV news station in New Zealand ran an excellent in depth story about the farm, the regulators and the broken system.

Factory farms, or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), are inherently inhumane because the animals are treated like commodities.  In CAFOs, pigs, chickens and cows are mutilated, confined, kidnapped, beaten and deprived of the ability to do anything that comes naturally to them.  If you oppose animal cruelty, then please go vegan and educate others about the horrors of factory farming.

In response to ag gag laws which criminalize undercover photo and video from being taken in factory farms, animal rights activist Will Potter launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to buy drones to legally photograph factory farms from above:   “In my new project, I am going to use new investigative journalism tools to help expose what some corporations want to keep hidden.”

Agribusiness is moving mountains to stopping animal cruelty inherent in factory farming from being exposed, but Will Potter is staying one step ahead.  While the drones might not capture cruelty, they will show the destructive impact that factory farms have on the environment.  To learn more about and support his effort, please visit his Kickstarter page, Drone on the Farm: An Aerial Exposé

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.