{"id":770246,"date":"2022-10-11T07:48:56","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T11:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=770246"},"modified":"2022-10-11T08:10:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T12:10:00","slug":"animal-rights-activists-are-escalating-tactics-to-expose-systemic-abuse-in-factory-farms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=770246","title":{"rendered":"LETHAL EXPOSURE: Animal rights activists are escalating tactics to expose systemic abuse in factory farms"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Nobody is going into these factory farms to see what conditions are like for animals, no cameras or third-party inspections. And when people learn that and learn what that means, they\u2019re outraged.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

ARNO KOPECKY:<\/strong> Amy Soranno could have said she was sorry. She knew that was her last, best shot at avoiding prison for her role in organizing the occupation of the Excelsior hog farm near Abbotsford, B.C., on the morning of April 28, 2019. But at her sentencing hearing at the end of this summer, Soranno doubled down. In the closing statement she delivered in a B.C. courtroom, she made it clear she\u2019d do it all again if it would help save pigs from their suffering…<\/em><\/p>\n

There was no doubt about the extent of Soranno\u2019s involvement in the hog farm occupation. On that day three years ago, she and more than 50 fellow activists stormed the breeding room with iPhones in hand, then broadcast their sit-in over Instagram Live for the next seven hours. It was the first time anyone had done this kind of thing in Canada. It wouldn\u2019t be the last.<\/em><\/p>\n

The sit-in was a response to gruesome video footage allegedly taken by cameras hidden at Excelsior and released a few days earlier by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). That footage showed mother pigs languishing in gestation crates next to dead and dying piglets, as well as older pigs with hernias, tumours and various lacerations. It also captured workers electric-prodding other pigs in the face and casually castrating piglets without anesthetic. In one scene, a dead pig is being eaten by its fellows.<\/em><\/p>\n

The scenes Soranno and her fellow activists captured later were less gruesome. There were no deformed pigs, no workers inflicting any pain or suffering. Still, the sight of hundreds of sows confined to filthy gestation crates \u2014 metal cages too small for them to turn or scratch themselves \u2014 made for grim viewing.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal was to get mass media attention, not only on Excelsior, but the fact that this farm is representative of the entire industry,\u201d Soranno told me shortly before her sentencing hearing. PETA\u2019s footage hadn\u2019t been enough, she explained. There was no way to prove it came from Excelsior, for one thing. For another, it was illegally obtained and so would not be admissible in court. \u201cBut if you go in first-hand and you\u2019re livestreaming,\u201d Soranno said, \u201cit\u2019s really indisputable.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Soranno, the gestation crates she and her fellow activists witnessed are perfectly legal. Like battery cages for hens and feedlots for cattle, holding sows in body-sized cages for months at a time is standard practice at most of Canada\u2019s 3,000 pig-breeding facilities.<\/em><\/p>\n

This meant Excelsior wasn\u2019t breaking any laws. But by storming the hog farm to protest, Soranno was. This past July, she and one other activist were convicted of breaking and entering and mischief \u2014 another Canadian first for an animal rights activist.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disgusting that our government\u2019s response to this systemic abuse and the footage that keeps surfacing is \u2026 to criminalize those who expose that,\u201d said Soranno… But civil disobedience often involves breaking laws one agrees with (like those protecting private property) to shine a light on laws one considers unjust \u2014 or in the case of farm animal welfare, laws that don\u2019t exist. Wasn\u2019t she being dishonest, pleading not guilty to a crime she\u2019d filmed herself committing?…<\/em><\/p>\n

Soranno acknowledges her plea was more of a political strategy than a legal one. Forcing the case to trial wasn\u2019t about Excelsior or even pigs, she added. It was meant to take aim at a factory farm system that slaughters more than 825 million animals each year in this country. The goal wasn\u2019t to get acquitted, she said. \u201cIt\u2019s how can we make this a political show trial? And if we pled guilty, we wouldn\u2019t have achieved that goal”…<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s not always the activists who wind up on trial. Over the past 10 years, a wave of activist-driven factory farm expos\u00e9s have repeatedly forced the industry to defend itself both in and out of court. The earliest expos\u00e9s were legal acts of subterfuge: activists took jobs on farms in order to become whistleblowers… but the glacial pace of change caused some activists to escalate their tactics; the occupation of Excelsior marked a new and more aggressive phase of activism that has spread across the country…<\/em><\/p>\n

Camille Labchuk, now the executive director of the animal law group Animal Justice, was at the forefront of that first wave. In 2012, Labchuk and a small group of fellow animal rights lawyers formed a Canadian chapter of Mercy For Animals, an American group with a long history of undercover investigations of factory farms in the U.S. Within two years, Mercy For Animals Canada had made national headlines exposing atrocities in virtually every branch of the meat industry throughout the country, from egg producers and pork transporters in Alberta to hog farmers in Manitoba, turkey farms in B.C. and veal producers in Ontario.<\/em><\/p>\n

Labchuk feels those expos\u00e9s had a major impact on the public\u2019s perception of factory farming. \u201cUntil that point, the temptation in Canada was to say, \u2018All of those images from farms, that\u2019s not up here; Canada\u2019s very different.\u2019 And of course, it\u2019s not,\u201d she told me.<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite the graphic success of all those investigations by Mercy For Animals Canada, however, there still isn\u2019t a single law in this country that addresses how farm animals should be treated. The only thing that comes close is the same animal cruelty laws that govern pet owners, which forbid causing \u201cunnecessary pain, suffering or injury\u201d to pigs and golden retrievers alike.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat sounds pretty good until you think about the word \u2018unnecessary,\u2019\u201d said Labchuk. From a legal perspective, \u201cit\u2019s expected that if you\u2019re using an animal for some industrial process, it\u2019s a necessary use of the animal. So \u2018unnecessary suffering\u2019 is interpreted as extreme cases of neglect, or gratuitous beating or torture,\u201d as was exposed at Chilliwack Cattle Sales. \u201cBut you\u2019ll never see anyone bring a criminal case for unnecessary suffering based on standard industry practices.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Nor is there any independent oversight \u2014 no cameras or third-party inspections \u2014 to ensure even the most basic standards of animal welfare are met. \u201cNobody\u2019s going on to these farms to see what conditions are like,\u201d Labchuk said. \u201cAnd when people learn that and learn what that means, they\u2019re outraged”. SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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