{"id":99856,"date":"2017-10-09T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=99856"},"modified":"2017-10-07T16:04:42","modified_gmt":"2017-10-07T15:04:42","slug":"the-fbis-hunt-for-two-missing-piglets-reveals-the-federal-cover-up-of-barbaric-factory-farms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/10\/the-fbis-hunt-for-two-missing-piglets-reveals-the-federal-cover-up-of-barbaric-factory-farms\/","title":{"rendered":"The FBI\u2019s Hunt for Two Missing Piglets Reveals the Federal Cover-Up of Barbaric Factory Farms"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article includes graphic images\u00a0some readers may find disturbing.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Two dying piglets were rescued by Direct Action Everywhere activists from cruel conditions \u2014 where they were left to suffer to death \u2014 at Smithfield-owned Circle Four Farm in Utah.<\/p><\/div>\n

5 Oct 2017 – <\/em>FBI agents are devoting substantial resources to\u00a0a multistate\u00a0hunt for two baby piglets\u00a0that the bureau believes are named Lucy and Ethel. The two piglets were removed over the summer\u00a0from the Circle Four Farm in Utah by animal rights activists who had entered the Smithfield Foods-owned factory farm\u00a0to film the brutal, torturous conditions in which the\u00a0pigs are bred\u00a0in order to be slaughtered.<\/p>\n

While filming the conditions\u00a0at the Smithfield facility, activists saw the two ailing baby piglets laying on the ground, visibly ill and near death,\u00a0surrounded by the rotting corpses of dead piglets. \u201cOne was swollen and barely able to stand; the other had been trampled and was covered in blood,\u201d said Wayne Hsiung\u00a0of Direct Action Everywhere (DxE)<\/a>, which filmed the facility and performed the rescue. Due to various\u00a0illnesses, he said, the piglets were unable to eat or digest food and were thus a fraction of the normal weight for piglets their age.<\/p>\n

Rather than leave the two piglets at\u00a0Circle Four Farm\u00a0to wait for an imminent and painful death, the DxE activists decided to rescue them. They carried them out of the pens where they had been suffering and took them to an animal sanctuary to be treated and nursed back to health.<\/p>\n

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DxE photograph depicting piglets huddled up against their mothers at Smithfield-owned Circle Four Farm in Utah. DxE says the piglets were sick or starving. Photo: Wayne Hsiung\/DxE<\/p><\/div>\n

This\u00a0single Smithfield Foods farm breeds and then slaughters more than 1 million pigs each year. One of the odd aspects of animal mistreatment in the U.S. is that species regarded as more intelligent and emotionally complex \u2014 dogs, dolphins, cats,\u00a0primates \u2014 generally receive more public concern and more legal protection. Yet pigs \u2013 among<\/a>\u00a0the planet\u2019s most intelligent, social, and emotionally complicated species<\/a>, capable of great joy, play, love, connection, suffering and pain, at least on a par with dogs \u2014 receive almost no protections, and are subject\u00a0to savage systematic abuse by U.S. factory farms.<\/p>\n

At Smithfield, like most industrial pig farms, the abuse and torture primarily comes not from rogue employees violating company procedures. Instead, the\u00a0cruelty is inherent in the procedures themselves. One of the most heinous industry-wide practices is one that DxE activists encountered in abundance at Circle Four: gestational crating.<\/p>\n

Where that technique is used<\/a>, pigs are placed in a crate made of iron bars that\u00a0is the exact length and width of their bodies, so they can do nothing for their entire lives but stand on a concrete floor, never turn around, never see any outdoors, never even see their tails, never move more than an inch. That was the condition in which the activists found the rotting piglet corpses\u00a0and the two ailing piglets they rescued.<\/p>\n

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Piles of dead and rotting piglets are piled up behind a sow, who is wedged into a crate so tightly that she cannot move away from the mess at Smithfield-owned Circle Four Farm in Utah. Photo: Wayne Hsiung\/DxE<\/p><\/div>\n

Female\u00a0pigs give birth in this condition. They are put in so-called farrowing crates when they give birth, and their piglets run underneath them to suckle and are often trampled to death. The\u00a0sows are bred repeatedly this way until their fertility declines, at which point they are slaughtered\u00a0and turned into meat.<\/p>\n

The pigs are so desperate to get out of their crates that they often spend weeks trying to bite through the iron bars until their gums gush blood, bash their heads against the walls, and suffer a disease\u00a0in which their organs end up mangled<\/a>\u00a0in the wrong places, from the sheer physical trauma of trying to escape from a tiny space or from acute anxiety (called \u201corgan torsion\u201d).<\/p>\n

So cruel is the practice that in 2014, Canada\u00a0effectively banned its usage<\/a>,\u00a0as the European Union\u00a0had done two years earlier<\/a>. Nine U.S. states, most of which host very few farms, have banned gestational crating<\/a>\u00a0(in 2014, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, with his eye on the GOP primary in farm-friendly Iowa, vetoed a bill<\/a> that would have made\u00a0his state\u00a0the 10th).<\/p>\n

But in the U.S. states where factory farms actually thrive, these devices continue to be widely used, which means\u00a0a vast majority of pigs in the U.S. are subjected to them. The suffering,\u00a0pain, and death\u00a0these crates\u00a0routinely cause were\u00a0in ample evidence\u00a0at Smithfield Foods, as accounts, photos, and videos from DxE demonstrate.<\/p>\n

FBI raids animal sanctuaries<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under normal circumstances, a large industrial farming company\u00a0such as Smithfield Foods<\/a> would never notice that two sick piglets of the millions\u00a0it breeds and then slaughters were missing. Nor would they care: A sick and dying piglet has no commercial value to them.<\/p>\n

Yet the rescue of these two particular piglets has literally become a federal case \u2014 by all appearances, a matter of great importance to the Department of Justice. On the last day of August, a six-car armada of FBI agents in bulletproof vests, armed with search warrants, descended upon two small shelters for abandoned farm animals: Ching Farm Rescue in Riverton, Utah, and Luvin Arms in Erie, Colorado.<\/p>\n

These sanctuaries have no connection to DxE or any other rescue groups. They simply serve as a shelter for sick, abandoned, or otherwise injured animals. Run by a small staff and a team\u00a0of animal-loving volunteers, they are open to the public to teach about farm animals.<\/p>\n

The attachments to the search warrants specified that the FBI agents could take \u201cDNA samples (blood, hair follicles or ear clippings) to be seized from swine with the following characteristics: I. Pink\/white coloring; II. Docked tails; III. Approximately 5 to 9 months in age;\u00a0IV. Any swine with a hole in right ear.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The FBI agents searched the premises of both shelters. They demanded DNA samples of two piglets they said were named Lucy and Ethel, in order to determine whether\u00a0they were the two ailing piglets who had been\u00a0rescued weeks earlier from Smithfield.<\/p>\n

A representative of Luvin Arms, who\u00a0insisted on anonymity\u00a0due to fear of the pending criminal investigation, described the events. The FBI agents ordered staff and volunteers to stay away from the animals and then approached the piglets. To obtain the DNA samples, the state veterinarians accompanying the FBI used a snare to pressurize the piglet\u2019s snout, thus immobilizing her\u00a0in pain and fear, and then cut off\u00a0close to\u00a0two inches\u00a0of the piglet\u2019s ear.<\/p>\n

The piglet\u2019s pain was so severe, and\u00a0her screams so piercing, that the sanctuary\u2019s staff members screamed and cried. Even the FBI agents were so sufficiently disturbed by the resulting trauma, that they directed the\u00a0veterinarians not to subject the second piglet to the procedure. The sanctuary representative recounted that the piglet who had part of her ear removed spent weeks depressed and scared, barely moving or eating, and still has not fully recovered. The FBI \u201creceipt\u201d given to the sanctuaries shows\u00a0they took DNA samples \u201cfrom\u00a0swine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several volunteers at one of the raided animal shelters said they were followed back to their homes by FBI agents, who dramatically questioned them in front of family members and neighbors. And there is even reason to believe that the bureau has been surveilling the activists\u2019 private communications regarding the rescue of this piglet duo.<\/p>\n

The FBI specified as part of its search that it was seeking DNA samples from piglets they said were named \u201cLucy\u201d and \u201cEthel.\u201d But those were not the names the activists used when publicly discussing the rescue of the two piglets. In their videos about the rescue, they called the pair \u201cLily\u201d and \u201cLizzie.\u201d Lucy and Ethel were code names the activists used internally, suggesting that agents were surveilling the activists\u2019 communications \u2014 either electronically or through informants \u2014 in an effort to find the two piglets and build a criminal case against the group.<\/p>\n

Subsequent events confirmed that\u00a0this show of FBI force was designed to intimidate the sanctuaries, which played no role in the rescue. Weeks\u00a0after the FBI\u2019s execution of the two search warrants, Luvin Arms \u2014 in the midst of an interview with The Intercept \u2014 received a telephone call from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, claiming the agency had received \u201ca complaint\u201d that the sanctuary lacked the legally required licenses for animal shelters that are open to the public. \u201cWe had never had an FBI visit or a USDA call about licenses, and now suddenly, within weeks, both happened,\u201d the sanctuary representative said.<\/p>\n

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A piglet that was ill and close to death at Smithfield recovers as she is cared for after being rescued. Photo: Wayne Hsiung\/DxE<\/p><\/div>\n

Retaliation for exposing cruel treatment<\/strong><\/p>\n

What has vested these two piglets with such importance to the FBI is that their rescue is now part of what has become an increasingly visible public campaign by DxE and other activists to highlight the barbaric suffering and abuse\u00a0that animals endure on farms like Circle Four. Obviously, the FBI and Smithfield \u2014 the nation\u2019s largest industrial farm corporation<\/a> \u2014 don\u2019t really care about the missing piglets they are searching for. What they care about is the efficacy of a political campaign\u00a0intent on showing the public how animals are abused at factory farms, and they are determined to intimidate those responsible.<\/p>\n

Deterring such campaigns and intimidating the activists behind them is, manifestly, the only goal here. What made this piglet rescue\u00a0particularly intolerable was an article that appeared in the New York Times<\/a>\u00a0days after the rescue,\u00a0which touted the use of virtual reality technology by animal rights activists to allow the public to immerse in the full experience of seeing what takes place in these companies\u2019 farms. The article\u00a0featured a photograph of the DxE activists rescuing the piglets from the Smithfield farm:<\/p>\n

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The Times article\u00a0was published\u00a0July 6. The search warrant against the sanctuaries was obtained the following month,\u00a0in mid-August, and then executed on August 31. In the interim, the piglets had become stars of a clearly effective campaign against Smithfield Foods.<\/p>\n

In response to questions from The Intercept,\u00a0Smithfield insisted\u00a0that\u00a0it does not abuse its animals.\u00a0But, as is typical for factory farms,\u00a0the company offered\u00a0little more then generalized denials, accompanied by vague accusations that the videos and photos the activists took are somehow \u201cdistorted.\u201d<\/p>\n

After they rescued the two piglets, the DxE activists did not try to hide what they had done: They did the opposite. They\u00a0used a tactic known as \u201copen rescue,\u201d the purpose of which is to publicly detail what has been done to help\u00a0the public understand the true nature of the abuses.<\/p>\n

The activists wrote about the rescue in social media postings that went viral, detailing the horrific conditions they witnessed at Smithfield and describing the suffering of the piglets. They posted videos<\/a> to Facebook and YouTube\u00a0that they filmed of the farm and the rescue as it happened, with other videos showing\u00a0Lily and Lizzie being treated at the sanctuaries and growing into happy, playful, healthy adolescents.<\/p>\n

Video: Direct Action Everywhere – <\/em>The Faces of Pigs before Slaughter<\/strong><\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MUYFNlw5kVQ<\/p>\n

Plainly, the \u201ccrime\u201d of these activists that has galvanized the FBI is not the \u201ctheft\u201d of two dying piglets; it is political activism and investigative journalism, which exposes the cruelty and abuse at the heart of this powerful industry.<\/p>\n

In response to a few media reports\u00a0on the FBI raids at the sanctuaries, bureau spokesperson Sandra Barker\u00a0told the Washington Post<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cI can say that we were at the two locations conducting court-authorized activity related to an ongoing investigation. Because it\u2019s ongoing, I\u2019m not able to provide any more details at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

To an industry feeling\u00a0endangered by growing public disgust over conditions at industrial farms \u2014 driven by scandals within the meat, pork, and poultry sectors \u2014 Lily and Lizzie are political and journalistic threats. Animals like them are vital for enabling animal rights activists to demonstrate to the public in a visceral, personalized way that this industry generates massive profit by monstrously and unnecessarily torturing living beings who are emotionally complex and experience great suffering.<\/p>\n

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Rescued piglets Lizzie and Lily. Photo: Wayne Hsiung\/DxE<\/p><\/div>\n

Government\u00a0power abused to intimidate and punish activists<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Justice Department\u2019s grave attention to a case of two missing piglets reflects how vigilantly the U.S. government uses extreme measures to protect the agricultural industry \u2014 not from unjust economic loss, violent crime, or theft, but from political embarrassment and accurate reporting that damages\u00a0the industry\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

A sweeping framework of draconian laws \u2014 designed to shield the industry from criticism and deter and punish its critics \u2014 has been enacted across the country by federal and state legislatures that are captive to the industry\u2019s high-paid lobbyists. The most notorious of these measures\u00a0are the \u201cag-gag\u201d laws, which make publishing videos of farm conditions taken as part of undercover operations a felony, punishable by years in prison.<\/p>\n

Though many courts,\u00a0including most recently a federal court in Utah<\/a>, have struck down these laws as an unconstitutional assault on speech and press freedoms, they continue to be used in numerous states to harass and, in some cases, prosecute animal rights activists. As the Times article notes, these ag-gag laws are one reason activists are forced to turn to virtual reality: to show what really happens inside industrial farms without running the risk of prosecution.<\/p>\n

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Many mother pigs had nipples that were torn into bloody shreds from feeding starving piglets.
Photo: Wayne Hsiung\/DxE<\/p><\/div>\n

Even more extreme and menacing is the federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. As I described previously when\u00a0reporting<\/a> on the arrest of two young activists \u2014 who faced 10 years in prison for freeing minks from farm cages before the animals could be sliced to death and turned into luxury coats \u2014 nonviolent animal rights activists are often designated as \u201cterrorists\u201d under the AETA and are treated in the court system as such, even when no human beings are hurt and the economic loss is minimal:<\/p>\n

As is typical for lobbyist and industry-supported bills, the AETA\u00a0passed with\u00a0overwhelming bipartisan support (its two prime Senate sponsors were James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.) and then was signed into law by George W. Bush.<\/em><\/p>\n

This \u201cterrorism\u201d law<\/a>\u00a0is violated if\u00a0one \u201cintentionally damages or causes the loss of any real or personal property (including animals or records) used by an animal enterprise \u2026 for the purpose of damaging or interfering with\u201d its operations. If you do that \u2014 and note that only \u201cdamage to property\u201d but not to humans is required \u2014 then you are guilty of \u201cdomestic terrorism\u201d under the law.<\/em><\/p>\n

Prior to the 2006 enactment\u00a0of the AETA, animal rights activism that\u00a0damaged property was already illegal under a 1992 federal law, as well as various state laws, and subject to severe punishments. The primary purpose of the new 2006 law was to expand the scope of criminal offenses to include plainly protected forms of political protest, and to heighten the legal punishments and intensify social condemnation by literally labeling animal-rights\u00a0activists as \u201cdomestic terrorists.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The factory farm industry and its armies of lobbyists wield great influence in the halls of federal and state power, while animal rights activists wield virtually none. This imbalance has produced increasingly oppressive laws, accompanied by massive law enforcement resources devoted to punishing animal activists even for the most inconsequential nonviolent infractions \u2014 as the FBI search warrant and raid in search of \u201cLucy and Ethel\u201d illustrates.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government, of course, has always protected and served the interests of industry. Beginning when most of the nation was fed by small farms, federal agencies\u00a0have been particularly protective of agricultural industry. That loyalty has only intensified\u00a0as family farms have nearly disappeared, replaced by industrial factory farms where animals are viewed purely as commodities, instruments for profit, and treated with unconstrained cruelty.<\/p>\n

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Downed pigs languish in their own feces at Smithfield-owned Circle Four Farm in Utah.
Photo: Wayne Hsiung\/DxE<\/p><\/div>\n

Lately, opposition is emerging from unusual places. Utah federal judge Robert J. Shelby, an Obama appointee who is a lifelong Republican, recently struck down the state\u2019s ag-gag law on First Amendment grounds, noting in his ruling<\/a>:<\/p>\n

For as long as farmers have put food on American tables, the government has endeavored to support and protect the agricultural industry.\u00a0\u2026 In short, governmental protection of the American agricultural industry is not new, and has taken a variety of forms over the last two hundred years. What is new, however, is the recent spate of state laws that have assumed an altogether novel approach: restricting speech related to agricultural operations.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Shelby detailed, those ag-gag laws were not used until activists began having success in showing the public the true extent of cruelty that industrial farms impose on animals:<\/p>\n

Nobody was ever charged under these [early ag-gag] laws, and for nearly two decades no new ag-gag legislation was introduced. That changed, however, after a series of high profile undercover investigations were made public in the mid to late 2000s.<\/em><\/p>\n

To name just a few, in 2007, an undercover investigator at the Westland\/Hallmark Meat Company in California filmed workers forcing sick cows, many unable to walk, into the \u201ckill box\u201d by repeatedly shocking them with electric prods, jabbing them in the eye, prodding them with a forklift, and spraying water up their noses. A 2009 investigation at Hy-Line Hatchery in Iowa revealed hundreds of thousands of unwanted day-old male chicks being funneled by conveyor belt into a macerator to be ground up live.<\/em><\/p>\n

That same year, undercover investigators at a Vermont slaughterhouse operated by Bushway Packing obtained similarly gruesome footage of days-old calves being kicked, dragged, and skinned alive. A few years later, an undercover investigator at E6 Cattle Company in Texas filmed workers beating cows on the head with hammers and pickaxes and leaving them to die. And later that year, at Sparboe Farms in Iowa, undercover investigators documented hens with gaping, untreated wounds laying eggs in cramped conditions among decaying corpses.<\/em><\/p>\n

The publication of these and other undercover videos had devastating consequences for the agricultural facilities involved. The videos led to boycotts of facilities by McDonald\u2019s, Target, Sam\u2019s Club, and others. They led to bankruptcy and closure of facilities and criminal charges against employees and owners. They led to statewide ballot initiatives banning certain farming practices. And they led to the largest meat recall in United States history, a facility\u2019s entire two years\u2019 worth of production.<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the next three years, sixteen states introduced ag-gag legislation.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, both the legislative process and law enforcement agencies are being blatantly exploited \u2014 misused \u2014 to protect not the property rights but the reputational interests of this industry. Having the FBI \u2014 in the midst of real domestic terrorism threats, hurricane-ravaged communities, and intricate corporate criminality \u2014 send agents around the country to animal sanctuaries in search of DNA samples for two missing piglets may seem like overkill to the point of being laughable. But it is entirely unsurprising in the context of how law enforcement resources are used, and on whose behalf.<\/p>\n

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A piglet at Smithfield-owned Circle Four Farm in Utah.
Photo: Wayne Hsiung\/DxE<\/p><\/div>\n

Smithfield Food\u2019s defenses<\/strong><\/p>\n

It makes sense that Smithfield Foods would be petrified of the public learning of many of its practices. But in this particular case, they are specifically trying to hide the pure evils of gestational crates.\u00a0This video, taken by an investigator with the Humane Society in 2012, shows the widespread but hideous reality of gestational crates at a Smithfield farm:<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IbjtXSzPlQs<\/p>\n

In response to the\u00a0public controversy over this practice,<\/a> generated by activists filming what was going on, Smithfield announced in 2012 that they would phase out gestational crating in\u00a010 years \u2014 by 2022. They then claimed<\/a>\u00a0that by the end of 2017, they would transition completely to \u201cgroup housing systems.\u201d\u00a0But as\u00a0the DxE videos show, gestation crates are exactly what activists found in abundance when they visited Smithfield\u2019s Circle Four.<\/p>\n

Indeed, when Wayne Hsiung and DxE visited Circle Four over the summer, they saw no signs whatsoever of any construction or reform efforts to move away from gestational crates, Hsiung told the Intercept. As the videos show, Circle Four had thousands of pigs suffering in such\u00a0crates. That was where the activists found the two piglets, close to death.<\/p>\n

When Smithfield learned that The Intercept was reporting on these issues, a spokesperson emailed a statement and invited\u00a0further questions. The statement claims that in response to DxE\u2019s reporting, Smithfield \u201cimmediately launched an investigation and completed a third-party audit,\u201d and \u201cthe audit results show no findings of animal mistreatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a typical industry tactic: When they claim, as they almost always do, that their paid auditors discovered \u201cno findings of animal mistreatment,\u201d what they mean is that there was no evidence that their employees engaged in activities that corporate procedures explicitly prohibit (such as beating the animals or administering electric shock).<\/p>\n

But what the audit\u00a0does not<\/em> do is ask whether the procedures themselves (such as gestational crating) are abusive and thus constitute \u201cmistreatment.\u201d Smithfield failed to\u00a0provide a response to The Intercept\u2019s follow-up questions about what it does and does not mean when their auditors claim no \u201cmistreatment\u201d was discovered; the company simply reiterated that \u201cthe animals observed on the farm by the audit team were in good condition, appeared comfortable, free of clinical disease, and showed no signs of fear or intimidation in the presence of people.\u201d Simply review the DxE video above, and the featured photos\u00a0showing what they found at Circle Four, to judge for yourself.<\/p>\n

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Cramped conditions lead to many pigs being trampled to death at Smithfield-owned Circle Four Farm in Utah. Photo: Wayne Hsiung\/DxE<\/p><\/div>\n

In its statement, Smithfield also accused the activists who rescued the two piglets of \u201crisk[ing] the life of the animals they stole and the lives of the animals living on our farms by trespassing\u201d \u2014 an odd claim from a company that plans to slaughter all of those same animals.\u00a0When asked to specify how the activists endangered the\u00a0lives of the sick animals they rescued, Smithfield told The Intercept that \u201cthe video\u2019s creators violated Smithfield\u2019s strict biosecurity policy, which prevents the spread of disease on farms.\u201d The statement added: \u201cThe piglets were not \u2018extremely ill\u2019 or \u2018on the verge of death.\u2019 These piglets, along with other animals living on the farm, are well cared for throughout their lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in response, Hsiung told the Intercept: \u201cOur activists use better biosecurity protocols<\/a> than the company\u2019s own employees, as evidenced by the dead, rotting piglets on the farm. Allowing baby animals to rot to death\u00a0is, in fact, a serious violation of biosecurity and food safety. Taking photographs of animal cruelty\u00a0is not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smithfield also accused the activists of manipulating their film, claiming that \u201cthe video appears to be highly edited and even staged in an attempt to manufacture an animal care issue where one does not exist.\u201d But Smithfield did not respond to this question from The Intercept about the staging allegation: \u201cHow would these activists stage hundreds of pigs in gestation crates and dozens of piglets rotting to death \u2014 all in virtual reality, no less? It would take a Hollywood blockbuster budget and the most sophisticated team of computer-generated imagery for that. What\u2019s Smithfield\u2019s theory about what they fabricated in this video?\u201d<\/p>\n

The only specifics\u00a0Smithfield offered was the assertion that \u201cbased on the review of animal care experts, it appears piglets were moved from one section of the barn to another to support the inaccuracies and falsehoods described in the video by its creators.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Hsiung said: \u201cThe video speaks for itself. I don\u2019t know how we can fake a rotting piglet.\u201d Regarding the accusation that they moved piglets, he added: \u201cI imagine what they are seeing is piglets in the wrong sort of pen, gestation rather than farrowing. But that is a testament to their own failed animal care practices. We were shocked and horrified, as well, to see piglets born and housed in inappropriate conditions that left them exposed to trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n

In sum, the industry has long responded to these videos \u2014 which they tried in the first instance to use their lobbying power to\u00a0criminalize \u2014 by\u00a0insisting that the videos are distorted. Yet they never specify what these supposed distortions are. Now that activists are using virtual reality technology, which allows the viewer to see everything the activists see, such claims are even more untenable than they were before.<\/p>\n

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A rescued piglet, named Lily, recovers under a blanket.
Photo: Wayne Hsiung\/DxE<\/p><\/div>\n

Revolving door with agribusiness<\/strong><\/p>\n

A recent change in U.S. political discourse \u2014 spurred by events such as the 2008 financial crisis, the Occupy movement, and the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign \u2014 is the increasingly common use of the words \u201coligarchy\u201d and \u201cplutocracy\u201d to describe the country\u2019s political system. Though dramatic, the terms, melded together, describe a fairly simple and common state of affairs: power exerted by and exercised for the exclusive benefit of a small group of people who\u00a0wield the\u00a0greatest financial power.<\/p>\n

It is hard to imagine a more vivid illustration than watching FBI agents don bulletproof vests and execute DNA search warrants for Lily and Lizzie, all to deter and intimidate critics of a savage industry that funds politicians and the lobbyists that\u00a0direct them.<\/p>\n

Substantial attention has been paid over the last several years to the \u201crevolving door\u201d that runs Washington \u2014 industry executives being brought in to run the agencies that regulate their industries, followed by them returning to that industry once their industry-serving government work is done. That\u2019s how Wall Street\u00a0barons come to \u201cregulate\u201d banks, how factory owners come to \u201cregulate\u201d workplace safety laws, how oil executives come to \u201cregulate\u201d\u00a0environmental protections \u2014 only to leave the public sector and return back to lavish rewards from those same industries for a job well done.<\/p>\n

Though it receives modest attention, this revolving door spins faster, and in more blatantly sleazy ways, when it comes to the USDA and its mandate to safeguard\u00a0animal welfare. The USDA is typically dominated by executives from the very factory farm industries that are most in need of vibrant regulation.<\/p>\n

For that reason, animal welfare laws are woefully inadequate, but the ways in which they are enforced is typically little more than a bad joke. Industrial farming corporations like Smithfield know they can get away with any abuse or \u201cmislabeling\u201d deceit (such as\u00a0misleading claims about their treatment of animals) because the officials\u00a0who have been vested with the sole authority to enforce these laws \u2014 federal USDA officials \u2014 are so captive to their industry. Courts have repeatedly ruled that private individuals, animal rights groups, and even state authorities have no right to sue to enforce animal welfare laws, because the \u201cexclusive authority\u201d lies with the U.S. government<\/a>, which has no real interest in actually enforcing those laws.<\/p>\n

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Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on July 12, 2017, in Atlanta.
Photo: Bob Andres\/Atlanta Journal-Constitution\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n

The current secretary of agriculture, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (pictured, right), is just one example, but he vividly highlights the revolving door form of legalized corruption that dominates this industry.<\/p>\n

Perdue was raised on a Georgia row farm and obtained\u00a0his doctorate in veterinary medicine. Despite those seemingly benign credentials,\u00a0the factory farm industry celebrated the news of his nomination by President Donald Trump. The National Chicken Council, for instance, demanded<\/a>\u00a0that he be \u201cconfirmed expeditiously.\u201d The enthusiasm was for good reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorgia was pretty friendly to food-industry interests during Perdue\u2019s two terms,\u201d Grub Street reported<\/a>, and Perdue \u201ctook about\u00a0$330,000 in contributions<\/a>\u00a0from Monsanto and other agribusinesses for his campaigns.\u201d In 2009, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, the lobbying group for genetically modified foods, named<\/a> Perdue its \u201cGovernor of the Year\u201d because, it said, \u201che has been a stalwart advocate of the biosciences in Georgia and truly understands the promise of our industry.\u201d\u00a0As Georgia governor, Perdue supported the rapid expansion<\/a> of factory farm giant Perdue Farms (to which he has no familial relation), with its long history of allegations of animal abuse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And Perdue has extensive ties to the agribusiness sector he\u2019s now supposed to oversee and regulate. The firm of which he is the founding partner and his family owns and runs, Perdue Partners LLC, is an agribusiness at the heart of this industry<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After being confirmed, Perdue wasted little time\u00a0lavishing his agribusiness industry with gifts. In February, the USDA \u201cabruptly removed inspection reports and other\u00a0information from its website about the treatment of animals\u00a0at thousands of\u00a0research laboratories, zoos, dog breeding operations and other facilities,\u201d reported the Washington Post<\/a>. Then, two senators who have received large sums from farmers and ranchers \u2014 Democrat Debbie Stabenow and Republican Pat Roberts \u2014 agitated for the recession<\/a> of the Obama administration\u2019s mild regulations on organic eggs, designed to improve conditions for chickens, and the Perdue-led USDA \u201cput the new standard on hold and suggested that it might even be withdrawn.\u201d<\/p>\n

In sum, with industry insiders dominating the sole agency (USDA) with the authority to regulate factory farms, animals that are captive, abused, tortured, and slaughtered en masse have little chance, even when it comes to just applying existing laws with a minimal amount of diligence. The politics of the U.S. \u2014 including the fact that a key farm state, Iowa, plays such a central role in presidential elections \u2014 means there are massive forces arrayed behind factory farms, and very few in support of animal welfare.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Piglets are raised in cramped, filthy conditions at Smithfield-owned Circle Four Farm in Utah.
Photo: Wayne Hsiung\/DxE<\/p><\/div>\n

From fringe to the mainstream<\/strong><\/p>\n

But the animal rights movement, despite receiving relatively scant media attention and operating under the threat of federal prosecutions for terrorism<\/em>, boasts some of the nation\u2019s more effective, shrewd, and tenacious political activists. They have made significant strides in turning the public against the worst of the prevailing practices on these farms, and more generally, in forcing into the public consciousness the knowledge of how this industry imposes suffering, abuse, and torture on living beings on a mass and systematic scale, all to maximize profits.<\/p>\n

Just a decade ago, the cause of animal cruelty and exploitation was a fringe position, rarely appearing outside far-left circles. That has all changed, thanks largely to the efforts of these activists, many of whom have been imprisoned for their efforts. Most activists say that it was unimaginable even a decade ago for major newspaper columnists such as the New York Times\u2019 Nicholas Kristof or Frank Bruni to take up their cause, yet that\u2019s precisely what they have\u00a0done in a series of columns over the last several years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you torture a single chicken and are caught, you\u2019re likely to be arrested. If you scald thousands of chickens alive, you\u2019re an industrialist who will be lauded for your acumen,\u201d Kristof wrote in one 2015 column<\/a>. He described the savagery of the process used to slaughter chickens by the millions and scornfully dismissed industry\u2019s claim that no abuse or mistreatment was found by their auditors.<\/p>\n

In a column the year before,\u00a0Kristof detailed the barbarism and\u00a0misleading claims<\/a> that chickens are \u201chumanely raised\u201d\u00a0at Perdue Farms \u2014 the company USDA Secretary Perdue helped to expand \u2014 and concluded: \u201cTorture a single chicken and you risk arrest. Abuse hundreds of thousands of chickens for their entire lives? That\u2019s agribusiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s to say nothing of the other significant costs from industrial farming. There are serious health risks posed by the fecal waste produced at such farms. And the excessive, reckless use of antibiotics\u00a0common at factory farms can create treatment-resistant\u00a0bacterial strains<\/a> capable of infecting and killing humans. There is also increasing awareness<\/a> that industrial farming meaningfully exacerbates climate problems, with some research suggesting that it\u00a0produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined. Reviewing the meat industry in 2014, Kristof summarized<\/a> what he learned this way:<\/p>\n

Our industrial food system is unhealthy. It privatizes gains but socializes the health and environmental costs. It rewards shareholders \u2014 Tyson\u2019s stock price has quadrupled since early 2009 \u2014 but can be ghastly for the animals and humans it touches.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bruni wrote in a 2014 column<\/a> headlined \u201cAccording Animals Dignity\u201d of \u201ca broadening, deepening concern about animals that\u2019s no longer sufficiently captured by the phrase \u2018animal welfare.\u2019\u201d Instead of simply curbing the most egregious abuses, he wrote, a more principled awareness of the intrinsic worth and rights of animals is emerging: \u201can era of what might be called animal dignity is upon us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some progress is indeed undeniable. Laws are being re-written to recognize<\/a> that dogs and other pets are more than property; places such as Sea World and Ringling Brothers\u2019 circuses can no longer feature<\/a> imprisoned animals forced to perform<\/a>; and some states are enacting laws\u00a0criminalizing the worst extremes of animal cruelty.<\/p>\n

One U.S. Senator, Democrat Cory Booker of New Jersey, has\u00a0placed animal rights protections as one of his legislative priorities. Booker, who has been a vegetarian since college and recently announced his transition<\/a> to full veganism, has sponsored a spate of bills\u00a0to fortify the rights of animals: from banning<\/a> the selling of shark fins to limiting<\/a> the legal uses of animals for testing to requiring<\/a>\u00a0humane treatment of animals in all federal facilities.<\/p>\n

While he has been\u00a0attacked<\/a> by the New York Post for \u201canimal rights extremism\u201d after he announced his veganism, Booker now regularly and unflinchingly invokes<\/a> the core principles of animal rights: \u201cI want to try to live my own values as consciously and purposefully as I can. Being vegan for me is a cleaner way of not participating in practices that don\u2019t align with my values.\u201d Rather than these legislative efforts being scorned, a spokesman for\u00a0Booker told the Intercept that \u201cSens. Merkley and Whitehouse have been reliable allies on animal testing and other efforts; the Shark Fin effort has a number of cosponsors<\/a> as well; and Sens. Schatz, Markey, Warren, Feinstein, Blumenthal have been partners as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The devastating\u00a0costs of industrial farming and the mass torture and slaughter on which it depends \u2014 moral, spiritual, physical, environmental \u2014 are being documented in scholarly circles with increasing clarity. A group of public health specialists jointly wrote in a New York Times op-ed in May<\/a>: \u201cThis sweeping change in meat production and consumption has had grave consequences for our health and environment, and these problems will grow only worse if current trends continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rescued pig Lizzie gives affection to her rescuer, Wayne Hsuing of DxE.
Photo: Wayne Hsiung\/DxE<\/p><\/div>\n

In general, the core moral and philosophical question<\/a> at the heart of animal rights activism is now being seriously debated: Namely, what gives humans the right or justification to abuse, exploit, and torture non-human species? If there comes a day when some other species (broadly defined) \u2014 such as machines \u2014 surpass humans in intellect and cognitive complexity, will they have a valid moral claim<\/a> to treat humans as commodities whose suffering and death can be assigned no value?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0irreconcilable contradiction of lavishing love and protection on dogs and cats, while torturing and slaughtering farm animals capable of a deep emotional life and great suffering, is becoming increasingly apparent. British anthropologist Jane Goodall, in her groundbreaking book \u201cThe Inner World of Farm Animals,\u201d examined the science of animal cognition and concluded: \u201cFarm animals feel pleasure and sadness, excitement and resentment, depression, fear, and pain. They are far more aware and intelligent than we ever imagined \u2026 They are individuals in their own right.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of these changes have been driven by animal rights activists who, often at great risk to themselves, have forced the public to be aware of the savagery and cruelty\u00a0supported through food consumption choices. That\u2019s precisely why this industry is so obsessed with intimidating, threatening, and outlawing this form of activism: because it is so effective.<\/p>\n

Dissidents are tolerated to the extent they remain ineffectual and unthreatening. When they start to become successful \u2014 that is, threatening to powerful interests \u2014 the backlash is inevitable. The tools used against them are increasingly extreme as their success grows.<\/p>\n

To call the FBI\u2019s actions in raiding these animal sanctuaries a profound waste of its resources is both an understatement and beside the point. The real short-term goal is to target those most vulnerable \u2014 volunteer-supported animal shelters \u2014 to scare them out of taking care of rescued animals. And the ultimate goal is to fortify and intensify a climate of intimidation and fear designed to deter animal rights activists from reporting on the horrifying realities of these factory farms.<\/p>\n

There is a temptation to turn away from and ignore this mass suffering and cruelty because it\u2019s so painful to confront, so much more pleasant to remain unaware of it. Animal rights activists are determined to prevent us from doing so, and we should all feel gratitude for their increasing success in making us see what\u00a0we are enabling when we consume the products of this barbaric and sociopathic industry.<\/p>\n

Clarification: the article was edited to reflect that the quote from Jane Goodall is from\u00a0her introduction to <\/em>The Inner World of Farm Animals, written by Amy Hatkoff.<\/em><\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Glenn Greenwald<\/a> – glenn.greenwald@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

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Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article includes graphic images some readers may find disturbing. Systematic abuse of animals lies at the heart of U.S. industrial farms, which are protected by the government. Despite a crackdown on activists, the public is seeing the barbarism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-rights-vegetarianism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}