Activists in British Columbia Handed 30-Day Jail Sentence for Exposing Cruelty on Pig Farm

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Two Canadian animal activists were given a 30-day jail sentence for entering and filming animal cruelty at Excelsior Hog Farm back in 2019. They were convicted of one count of break-and-enter & mischief for their undercover work at the hog farm and despite filming several instances of blatant animal cruelty, were not permitted to show any of their footage. What this story shows us is that there is plenty to hide behind the walls of these establishments and not everyone is on board with exposing those atrocities to the world.

While it's unfortunate that the judge denied them the opportunity to show their footage, I'm also not surprised as the primary focus of the trial was the activists and the charges against them. What I want to know however is how do we hold these establishments accountable? They're obviously not being monitored by any Government organization otherwise the cruelty witnessed by these activists wouldn't be taking place. Without people like these activists filming these atrocities, how do we expose and hold them accountable? 

The problem is, I don't think exposing cruelty on these farms benefits the higher ups as the factory farming industry is heavily subsidized and generates large profits. Exposing cruelty and forcing these establishments to shut down or be investigated simply causes a loss of profits. My other thought is, do consumers truly care about what's happening to the animals prior to their being slaughtered? I really am curious. If you're eating meat, you're aware that animals are slaughtered against their will and you've probably seen a video or two of how it's done, if that doesn't turn you off, would abuse of animals be the reason you give up meat? I really don't know.

The videos recorded some seriously grotesque instances of animal cruelty. Pigs were electroshocked on their faces, kicked, and piglets were seen having their tails & genitals severed off without any sort of pain mitigation. Mother pigs were documented crammed so tightly in cages that they couldn't even move and there were dead pigs scattered around that the others were actually eating. All of this, every ounce of this, is blatant animal cruelty. All of this goes against welfare standards that should be met within the industry. Who's monitoring this? Who holds these establishments accountable? If activists weren't filming these atrocities, then we would never know what was really going on behind those walls. The fact is, this sort of abuse is not limited to any one farm, rather, thousands of them. If it's not one, it's another because farm animals are regarded as nothing more than products, and that mentality makes it easy for people to abuse them without any regard.

​I don't know if I believe that exposing the cruelty will stop people from eating meat. I'd like to believe so, but I really don't know. What I do know though is that these places need to be held accountable for their business practices. If they're not operating within the acceptable welfare standards set out for the industry, then that needs to be addressed and corrected. The problem is, the only people who seem to care about the cruelty are being sent to jail for exposing it, so where do we go from here?

Look, if you're eating meat, rest assured that there is a very good chance that the place that supplied your meat probably abuses animals. That's basically a guarantee. I feel terrible for these activists but I also think it demonstrates how heavily protected the factory farming industry is and that it's going to take a lot of effort and work to expose and actually have something done about the cruelty happening within the animal ag industry.

​Learn more about this story by clicking the link at the top of this post.

HAPPY VEG