When Factory Farm Representatives Squirm

This happens when they have to argue against totally common-sense bills

In a perverse violation of both the first amendment and any semblance of decency, in response to undercover investigations documenting the grievous and inhumane animal cruelty perpetuated on a daily basis on factory farms, several states tried to pass ag-gag laws — laws that, rather than outlawing the cruel practices, outlawed undercover reporting on the cruel practices. These laws are so mind-blowingly indefensible that it’s a wonder anyone thinks they’re a good idea — who in their right mind would think that a largely unaccountable industry with minimal federal protections that is in charge of the slaughter of billions of beings should be wrapped up in a cloak of invisibility, immune from press coverage or independent oversight. For anyone who seriously believes that factory farms will prevent animal cruelty…well, I have a bridge to sell you — just venmo me a few thousand dollars!

These laws are not remotely defensible. While there are some tricky legal questions surrounding the question of whether they’re constitutional — they’re probably not, hence they were criticized by the ACLU as well as numerous other organizations — that these laws are bad is perhaps the most obvious political truth of all time. Should an industry which torments so many be immune from independent checks — checks which don’t apply to other industries? Particularly when those undercover investigations lead to dramatic shifts in industry practice as well as multiple criminal investigations.

Factory farms have only grown — expanding juggernauts of doom; dark, soulless enterprises of death and torment. Those who go undercover in factory farms say they smell like blood, feces, and death.

The factory farms have no human name, no face. These vast corporate enterprises keep on churning, seemingly immune to any legal or moral challenge. Moloch runs the factory farms.

And yet the farms have defenders — people hired to represent them. Often, when there’s a dispute about the laws, they’ll bring on shills for animal agriculture to try pitifully to defend the industry. When this happens, it tends to go rather poorly. This is where you can see the cracks in factory farming. This is where you can see the human embodiments of the factory farms squirming, trying desperately to defend the indefensible.

Here’s one link. Watch the video and it’s abundantly clear that the factory farm defender is in the wrong. Her platitudes are dispatched swiftly by actual facts.

Yet because this is a CNN interview, not all the points can be responded to. Thus, in this article, I’ll respond to every point made by the factory farm defender — I’ll explain why the points made by Emily Meredith are all totally wrong.

Meredith’s first sentence is “No one in the entire animal agriculture industry condones animal abuse.” This is particularly odd given the long history of the animal agriculture abusing animals — grinding up babies in blenders and cramming pigs into crates too small for them to turn around, for example. Additionally, if no one in the entire industry condones animal abuse, why were several of them jailed for abusing animals? When half a million birds are boiled alive, when 80% of pigs have pneumonia, when 90% of chickens can’t walk properly, is this really an abuse free industry?

She next said “These undercover videos really aren’t about stopping animal abuse.” This is an odd claim — as you can see here, there are over a dozen documented examples of it precisely stopping animal abuse. To quote a small part of it

What We Found: A hidden camera captured hens crammed into filthy battery cages and dead hens left to rot alongside birds still laying eggs for human consumption. The investigator also documented workers burning off the beaks of chicks without painkillers, sadistically and maliciously torturing animals, and throwing live birds into plastic bags and leaving them to suffocate.

The Result: In response to the undercover footage, McDonald’s, Target, Walmart, and other huge retailers dropped Sparboe from their supply chains, resulting in what may be the largest financial fallout for a factory farm following an undercover investigation.

After years of continued campaigning by MFA, McDonald’s, Target, and Walmart announced cage-free egg policies.

One other pertinent quote.

What We Found: Workers were caught on video viciously beating and shocking cows, violently twisting their tails in order to deliberately inflict pain, and dragging a downed cow by her neck using a chain attached to a tractor.

The Result: Kraft Foods, the largest food company in the U.S., announced a new policy requiring all of its dairy suppliers to phase out the cruel practice of tail docking cattle among other important animal welfare policies.

Next, she claims “What they are about is activists using underhanded, manipulative, and deceptive tactics to mislead consumers into thinking that their food is inhumanely produced.” This is wrong for several reasons. First, even if it were true, it’s not illegal to present misleading information. You cannot flagrantly violate the first amendment because people use information misleadingly. Second, if the claim is that most people overestimate how well their animals are treated, that’s clearly absurd. Do most people know that half a million birds are boiled every year, farmers pull off the skin of fish with pliers, 90% of chickens can’t walk properly, 80% of pigs have pneumonia, billions of baby chicks are ground up in blenders, and that young pigs are frequently beaten to death against concrete in a way that is labeled “humane.” If you want the public to have accurate information about an industry, don’t ban true reporting about it.

Third, the factory farms are quite fond of claiming that there’s deception. They haven’t shown what about the footage is deceptive. This amounts to little more than claiming that the other side is dishonest, as they provide video evidence of you engaging in repeated, wanton cruelty.

Next she claims that “Their ultimate goal is to promote a vegan world.” Shock and awe! Imagine the horror — promoting a vegan world! Yet even if one thinks that a vegan world is a bad thing, we will not have a vegan world for a long time. Thus, this is like claiming that it should be illegal to report a workplace rape because some of the people who support the law want to ban workplace relationships. You do not get to ban speech and flagrantly violate the first amendment just because the people using their first amendment rights are saying radical things.

She next says “The activist community like HSUS is trying to make these videos representative of the whole community and that’s completely false.” Oh good, only some small subset of the industry heinously abuse animals in ways that violate the law. The rest of it does normal, legitimate animal abuse like beating pigs against concrete till their blood and brains adorn the concrete floor and keeping chickens in cages far too small to turn around.

Meredith seems delusional — though more accurately, she’s paid to mislead. The picture on would get from her discussion is of an industry, hard-working and noble, unfairly demonized by cruel activists. Yet this is particularly bizarre because she’s the one who wants to keep industry practices behind the cover of darkness. Sunlight is the best disinfectant — the factory farms have something to hide. She totally ignores the unimaginable, rampant cruelty that the factory farms partake in and just lies repeatedly claiming that it’s activist fabrication.

Meredith then was asked if consumers have a right to transparency regarding what’s happening with their food. Her reply in a classic politician-dodge was to say “the industry has been more transparent.” This is both false and evasive — the industry that, at that moment, was arguing that it should be illegal to film what they do, is not a transparent one. And yet it clearly evades the question about the type of greater transparency measures enabled by undercover investigations.

She’s then very outraged that the activists don’t turn over the footage to a private meat industry propaganda panel that can then do PR for the meat industry — more need not be said about this absurd claim.

And that was it. That was the best that the factory farms had to offer. For there is nothing to say, nothing that can exonerate their drastic deviation from sanity and common sense. Paul Shapiro did a good job arguing with Emily Meredith — showing that debunking these factory farm talking points isn’t hard. They are defending pure evil and we are defending an end to it.

If you enjoy watching factory farmer defenders squirm trying to defend ag gag laws, here’s another good video.

While the factory farms may be winning in the battle over who will cook the foods that adorn Americans’ plates, those of us opposed to this wanton cruelty and torture are winning the war of ideas. For there is no rational idea, no sane and sound justification for tolerating these torturous slaughterhouses and farms. The staggering cruelty that the farms dispense cannot be reasonably defended — so they turn to cheap shots, lies, and deception. Yet it is not working. People can see through the lies — as the comments in the video I just linked reveal. An industry built on staggering cruelty, much like the man in Poe’s the Telltale Heart, cannot let its horrors go ignored. Eventually, the heart still beating in the basement, be it pig or human, will start its loud thumping, and the slaughtering will have to end.