Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

Watch the undercover footage obtained at Hy-Line via the following link – scroll to the end:
http://aella.org/2011/03/mitch-headthe-notion-of-sadism-by-indifference/ 
 
Mitch Head: The Notion of Sadism by Indifference

Well, just when you didn’t think humanity could get any more sadistic through a totally apathetic viewpoint, along comes Mitch Head defending the notion of sadism by indifference in his defense of “The hatchery”, which is owned by West Des Moines-based Hy-Line North America. It is one of many operations in Iowa , the nation’s leading egg producer.
Grinding up chicks alive.
Are we that disconnected to the life around us and within us that we will tolerate anything? Isn’t that how concentration camps were built, through indifference to sadism?

Boycotting eggs in general would be helpful. An alternative to eggs is also helpful. Griding up chicks alive, despite what Mr. Head seems to believe, is NOT humane, nor is it helpful.
“Using a grinder,” Head said, “is the most instantaneous way to euthanize chicks.”

What he really means to say is that it is the most efficient and cost-effective way to dispose of unwanted life forms. You know, somewhere in the “ballpark” in how the Nazis placed humans in gas chambers and then cremated their bodies? This was their idea of more “efficient” and “instantaneous”.

We can point to someone else who once thought as Mitch Head does. Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was a spokesperson for the Nazi Party, Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As overseer of the concentration camps, extermination camps, and Einsatzgruppen (literally: task forces, often used as killing squads), Himmler coordinated the killing of some six million Jews, between 200,000 and 500,000 Roma, many prisoners of war, and possibly another three to four million Poles, communists, other Germans whom the Nazis deemed unworthy to live, including homosexuals, people with physical and mental disabilities, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and members of the Confessing Church.

Himmler was also very interested in agriculture and the “back to the land” movement. He was unsuccessful as a chicken farmer, the way he had set up the concentrated feeding area for the chickens caused them all to die. This failure was the horrific blue print, years later, for the concentration camps he was a major contributor of creating. In contrast to Hitler, Himmler inspected and oversaw all concentration camps. As a result of these inspections, Himmler and the Nazis searched for a new and more expedient ways to kill, which culminated in the use of gas chambers and the ovens.

Mitch Head stating that grinding live chickens is “the most instantaneous way to euthanize chicks”, sends chills up the spine of humanity.  Indifference and selective compassion are a dangerous duo, for together, they breed excessive apathy and thus, become a gateway for the darkness to thrive. Reference the Holocaust to see how indifference and selective compassion manifests themselves. Look at any holocaust/genocide past or present, human or animal, and one can clearly see how it all begins. It starts when someone says “they are only Jews” , “they are only Native Americans”, “They are only Africans”, “They are only animals”, “they are only chicks…”

It’s a choice, everyone. We can stand by, do nothing but give into our fears, our doubts and our anger, OR we can stand up for what we believe in, we can stand with courage in our conviction that we are all connected and that all life matters.
P

eople believe that the opposite of love is hate, but that’s not true.
The opposite of love is indifference.

And indifference is the plague of a people that can no longer feel or hear its own collective heart. Once that happens we are all dancing to what is tantamount to soul genocide.

And genocide begins when a man, who is representative and spokesperson to an egg producer, publicly states that grinding chicks alive is “the most instantaneous way to euthanize chicks.”
Marla Stormwolf-Patty
Vice-president of AELLA
******************
WASHINGTON – An animal rights group publicized a video Tuesday showing unwanted chicks being tossed alive into a grinder at an Iowa plant and accused egg hatcheries of being “perhaps the cruellest industry” in the world.
The undercover video was shot by Chicago-based Mercy for Animals at a hatchery in Spencer , Iowa , over a two-week period in May and June. The video was first obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
“We have to ask ourselves if these were puppies and kittens being dropped into grinders, would we find that acceptable?” asked Nathan Runkle, the group’s executive director, at a news conference in Des Moines. “I don’t think that most people would.”

The group said that tossing male chicks, which have little value because they can’t lay eggs or be raised quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat, into grinders is common industry practice. United Egg Producers, a trade group for U.S. egg farmers, confirmed that.

The hatchery is owned by West Des Moines-based Hy-Line North America and is one of many operations in Iowa , the nation’s leading egg producer.

The video, shot with a hidden camera and microphone by a Mercy for Animals employee who got a job at the plant, shows a Hy-Line worker sorting through a conveyor belt of chirping chicks, flipping some of them into a chute like a poker dealer flips cards.

These chicks, which a narrator says are males, are then shown being dropped alive into a grinding machine.
In other parts of the video, a chick is shown dying on the factory floor amid a heap of egg shells after falling through a sorting machine. Another chick, also still alive, is seen lying on the floor after getting scalded by a wash cycle, according to the video narrator.

Hy-Line said the video “appears to show an inappropriate action and violation of our animal welfare policies,” referring to chicks on the factory floor.

But the company also noted that “instantaneous euthanasia” — a reference to killing of male chicks by the grinder — is a standard practice supported by the animal veterinary and scientific community.
Company spokesman Tom Jorgensen said Tuesday an investigation was continuing, and once it’s completed the company would release more information.

Runkle acknowledged that his group’s ultimate goal was to get people to stop eating eggs. He said he believe many would refuse to eat eggs if they knew what happened to male chicks.
“The egg industry is perhaps the cruelest industry on the face of the planet,” Runkle said.

Mercy for Animals also sent letters to the nation’s 50 largest grocery store chains, including Walmart, Whole Foods, Safeway, Harris Teeter and Trader Joe’s, asking them to include a label on egg cartons that says, “Warning: Male chicks are ground-up alive by the egg industry.”

A spokesman for United Egg Producers called the proposal “almost a joke.” Spokesman Mitch Head said Mercy for Animals had no credible authority, as well as questionable motives. “This is a group which espouses no egg consumption by anyone — so that is clearly their motive.”
Mercy for Animals estimated 200 million male chicks are killed a year, which the United Egg Producers also confirmed.

“There is, unfortunately, no way to breed eggs that only produce female hens,” Head said. “If someone has a need for 200 million male chicks, we’re happy to provide them to anyone who wants them. But we can find no market, no need.”

Using a grinder, Head said, “is the most instantaneous way to euthanize chicks.”
There is no federal law that ensures the humane euthanasia of animals on farms or hatcheries, according to Jonathan Lovvorn, vice president and chief counsel of the Humane Society of the United States .

The Humane Society also says that virtually all egg farms, even those that sell cage-free eggs, get their hens from hatcheries that kill their male chicks.

Hy-Line says on its Web site that its Iowa facility produces 33.4 million chicks. Based on that figure, Mercy for Animals estimates a similar number of male chicks are killed at the facility each year. Hy-Line did not comment on that estimate.

Runkle, of Mercy for Animals, said most people would be shocked to learn that 200 million chicks are killed a year.
“Is this justifiable just for cheap eggs?” he said.

As to more humane alternatives to disposing of male chicks, Runkle said the whole system is inherently flawed.
“The entire industrial hatchery system subjects these birds to stress, fear and pain from the first day,” he said.

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, VIDEOS | Leave a comment »

MFA Website:  http://www.mercyforanimals.org/ 

http://www.mercyforanimals.org/investigations.aspx

New hidden-camera footage obtained by Mercy For Animals has led to the arrest of Roberto Celedon for three felony and 10 misdemeanor criminal charges related to his illegal slaughter operation in Los Angeles County, California.
The shocking video evidence   http://www.mercyforanimals.org/caslaughter/  shows animals being violently pinned down, having their throats crudely sawed open, and slowly bleeding to death.

After reviewing the hidden-camera footage, Dr. Armaiti May, a practicing veterinarian and farmed animal welfare expert in Santa Monica, stated: “The blatant cruelty towards the goat and sheep at this facility is nothing short of horrifying and must be punished to the full extent of the law.”

Roberto Celedon was arrested and charged with a felony under California Penal Code 597(b) which states that every person who “tortures, torments,” “cruelly kills any animal” or “subjects any animal to needless suffering” is guilty of a crime punishable by a fine of not more than $20,000 and/or imprisonment in excess of one year.
Celedon was also cited for numerous violations of the California Food and Agriculture Code for operating without a license.
During a raid of the facility, Los Angeles County Animal Control officers seized dozens sick, injured and emaciated animals. These animals are now being rehabilitated at The Gentle Barn, a sanctuary for farmed animals in California.
This case graphically illustrates the cruel, inhumane and illegal abuses that farmed animals are all too often subjected to in California and across the nation. In a civilized society, it is our moral obligation to protect all animals, including animals raised and killed for food, from needless cruelty and suffering.
While MFA works to expose and end cruelty to farmed animals, compassionate consumers can help prevent the needless suffering of animals at the hands of the meat, egg and dairy industries by adopting a compassionate vegetarian diet.

SAV Comment

You have to wonder what else is going on in the US; now that some politicians in some states have passed ‘Ag Gag’ legislation.  They want to prevent the world from filming / seeing animal abused such as this, whilst only protecting the dollars in their own pockets.

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/usa-ag-gag-laws-now-starting-to-be-passed-a-dangerous-thing-for-animals-and-for-the-american-public/ 

With Ag Gag, the idea, of course, is to shut down undercover investigations of animal abuse. The bill would criminalize speech that is used to gain access to a factory farm and the like. The bill is so broad that it is likely to chill the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association, if not violate them. It also raises the constitutional concern of prior restraint – prohibiting speech in advance. If this bill becomes law, it would be virtually impossible to conduct an undercover investigation of animal abuse, often the only way animal cruelty in factory farms is exposed.

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, VIDEOS | Leave a comment »

Fortunately, no ‘Ag-Gag’ in Europe.  Continuing to SHOW the public about farm animal abuse.

SAV previous post:

WARNING – VERY DISTURBING VIDEO FOOTAGE – Obtained undercover – without the concerns of Ag-gag now faced by US campaigners.

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/spain-warning-animal-equality-uk-and-spain-expose-more-than-graphic-pig-abuse-at-mucian-farm/

Ag-gag = https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/usa-ag-gag-laws-now-starting-to-be-passed-a-dangerous-thing-for-animals-and-for-the-american-public/

Manager of El Escobar pig farm arrested

Murcia, Spain

Yesterday the Spanish Authorities arrested the manager in charge at the Farm El Escobar. The Spanish Authorities have already arrested four people related with the case.

Just 48 hours after Animal Equality issued the terrible images of brutality to animals on the Farm El Escobar, three people were arrested for their involvement in the documented events. The arrest of the three farmers who were filmed smashing iron bars over the heads’ of pigs, and attacking and killing the animals with swords, was confirmed yesterday by the Spanish Authorities. A week later, the manager of the farm has also been arrested  for an alleged offence of animal abuse.

The investigations began on the 21 of February when the video was made public by Animal Equality. The  Spanish Authorities inspected the facilities, with veterinary staff.

These actions could constitute an offence of animal abuse, which can carry a sentence of up to one year’s imprisonment.

UPDATE: Manager El Escobar Farm arrested!
http://www.animalequality.net/news/363/manager-el-escobar-pig-farm-arrested

There is a petition concerning the case of gross animals abuse at a Spanish Pig Farm.

Info here:

http://www.animalequality.net/news/360/pigs-brutally-stabbed-swords-spanish-pig-farm-supply-leading-uk-supermarket-morrisons

Please sign here:

http://actuable.es/peticiones/exige-cierre-la-granja-cerdos-escobar-por

Tu nombre – your Surname

Tu apellido – your first name

Tu correo-e – e-mail

Cód. Postal – Postcode

Acepto las Norm. de Uso y Pol. de Priv. – please click (tick) yes

Firma la petición – click

Thank you.

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, VIDEOS | Leave a comment »

Further to our recent post regarding undercover animal abuse video:

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/usa-it-is-turkeys-pecking-each-other-and-themselves-and-if-you-dont-believe-me-then-you-are-a-terrorist/

Here is the latest.

As Europeans, we feel that the US is now treading on very dangerous ground.

Big brother is watching, watching you; and if you do not agree, then you are a terrorist.  Obviously, terror is not struck into animals on factory farms that this legislation will prevent the public from witnessing.  Dangerous, very dangerous; when human rights are removed by those in the industry.  If things are so clean, what have they got to hide and why are they so worried about this ?

In many states of the USA, obtaining undercover footage such as this would now be illegal.  Animal abuse is in effect, now being legalised on farms and in intensive systems.  It is going to be illegal to expose animal abuses to the American public.  Fortunately, Europe still has its head screwed on and prosecutes such abuses rather than shut the door and allow them to continue.

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/spain-warning-animal-equality-uk-and-spain-expose-more-than-graphic-pig-abuse-at-mucian-farm/

Wake up USA; this is only the start of legislation to prevent you from doing almost anything.

Link: http://www.animallawcoalition.com/animals-and-politics/article/1954

IA Gov Signs Ag-gag Bill

Posted Mar 3, 2012 by lauraallen

Update March 3, 2012: Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has now signed the Ag-gag bill, H.F. 589 into law. This despite a strong effort by animal welfare and civil liberties organizations and the general public to stop this assualt on the First Amendment. For more on this bill and what it means for the animals, read Animal Law Coalition’s report below. For a look at the kinds of investigations this bill will stop, visit the sites of Mercy for Animals or  as other examples, the Hallmark Meat Packing Co. investigation by the Humane Society of the United States. The investigation of the Rose Acre egg producers in Iowa would never have happened had this law been in effect at that time. There are dozens more examples. 

Original report: The Iowa Ag-gag bill, H.F. 589, has now been approved by both the state House of Representatives and the Senate. The bill has been sent to Gov. Terry Branstad for his signature.

What the Ag-gag bill does 

The bill creates the crime of “agricultural production facility fraud”.

A person is guilty of this crime if, for example, he or she obtains a job at a factory farm or other “agricultural production facility” by making a false statement or representation with the intent to “commit an act not authorized by the owner”.

Anyone who obtains access to an agricultural production facility “by false pretenses” is also guilty of the crime.

Those who conspire to commit the crime or aid and abet the commission of the crime would be held responsible as well.

A first conviction would be a serious misdemeanor. A second or subsequent conviction would be an aggravated misdemeanor. 

The idea, of course, is to shut down undercover investigations of animal abuse. The bill would criminalize speech that is used to gain access to a factory farm and the like. The bill is so broad that it is likely to chill the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association, if not violate them. It also raises the constitutional concern of prior restraint – prohibiting speech in advance. If this bill becomes law, it would be virtually impossible to conduct an undercover investigation of animal abuse, often the only way animal cruelty in factory farms is exposed.  

A similar bill in Utah passed the state House of Representatives this past week. Similar provisions in a bill in Florida  were killed in committee in 2012. Similar bills in New York, Minnesota, Iowa and Florida failed to pass in 2011. But the New York bill as well as the Minnesota bill were re-introduced and are now pending. There is also a bill in Indiana and another in Nebraska that would shut down undercover investigations of farm animal abuse in this way.

What Part of “Thou Shalt Not Kill” Don’t You Understand?!!
~GOD

Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.~JFK [Paraphrased]

Trust our government to delay, bungle and kill every worthwhile social
program they undertake; yet with incredible speed and efficiency–shred
the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

~Brennan Browne

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/02/29/147651002/states-crack-down-on-animal-welfare-activists-and-their-undercover-videos

States Crack Down On Animal Welfare Activists And Their Undercover Videos

Some states are stiffening the punishment for activists who want to use undercover videos to expose conditions inside farms.

Just this week, the Iowa legislature passed a bill that would make it a crime to use false pretenses to gain access to a livestock operation to engage in activities not authorized by the owner.

If the governor signs the bill into law, Iowa will join Montana, North Dakota and Kansas in enacting what activists call “ag gag” laws, which criminalize undercover photography or video inside animal farms.

Several other states – including Illinois, Missouri, Utah, New York, Nebraska, Indiana and Minnesota – are considering similar legislation. That’s a sure sign that farmers around the country feel that the steady stream of undercover videos released in the last few years has hurt the industry’s image.
 

A few videos show farmworkers violently treating or neglecting hurt animals – behaviour that constitutes illegal abuse. Many others simply depict everyday practices. But industry groups say farmers need protection from possible incursions by activists whose principal motivation may be to hurt their business, not report abuse.

“We have a number of activists that want to gain access to farms … to take some films and make it look as dramatic as they possibly can, to affect the public,” Craig Hill, president of the Iowa Farm Bureau, told the agriculture news site Brownfield. His group supports the Iowa bill. “It could be they’re there to damage the operation. We just need to keep those people out, and honest, responsible people in.”

But animal welfare groups like Mercy for Animals and Compassion Over Killing, which have paid activists to go undercover to film in a variety of plants, say that animal producers who want to outlaw filming inside their plants do so because they have something to hide.

“We do undercover investigations to open up the doors, to shine a spotlight on a hidden world,” Erica Meier, executive director of COK, tells The Salt. “Clearly, with these laws, the industry is trying to prevent people from seeing the realities. When they see them, they are shocked that animals are allowed to be treated this way.”

In a recent video, Meier’s group documented Iowa farm workers castrating baby male pigs without painkillers, and adult sows confined inside gestation and farrowing crates. “These conditions are standard,” says Meier. “But just because it’s standard doesn’t mean it’s humane.”

The industry accepts that some standard practices may have to change to assuage the public’s concerns. Just last month, Nancy Shute reported that McDonald’s said it would require its U.S. pork suppliers to phase out the use of gestational crates for pregnant sows. Smithfield, the nation’s largest hog producer, says it’s in the process of moving pregnant sows on company farms from individual gestation stalls into group housing arrangements for the animals’ welfare.

And as Dan Charles reported, the Humane Society has teamed up with the United Egg Producers to draft a law around more humane cages for chickens. Under the proposed guidelines, the chickens would get twice as much space, plus perches and “nest boxes” where they could lay their eggs.

While the anti-undercover video legislation has the support of many state farm bureaus and animal producer councils, some national groups say the legislation may be counter-productive.

“We are big fans of more transparency. And we understand that farmers are concerned [about the videos]. But we are concerned that passing legislation to ban cameras really is not the right approach,” says Charlie Arnot, president of the Center for Food Integrity, a group with many livestock industry members.

Arnot noted that one way farmers can make their operations more transparent is by opening up their barns, either with farm tours or live video feeds, like this one on the website of JS West, an egg producer in California.

COMMENTS

Steve Hansmann (PapaHans) wrote:

As a man who grew up on a small family dairy farm, and someone who still raises his own chickens, geese, beef etc., I can say without reservation, that almost all of our meat supply is raised in a nightmare horrorshow that can best be compared to Buchenwald or Belsen. Pigs and chickens in particular, no matter how well-fed or “clean” are raised, and butchered, in an environment that would make most of the deniers posting here vomit into their shoes. Industrial agriculture is evil. We pay a heavy price for cheap food, and the worst part of it is it’s becoming more expensive, and less healthy.

Samstag, 3. März 201

Eric Hirzel (Eric2122) wrote:

I couldn’t help but cringe when I watched this. Aside from the obvious, why be afraid if you have nothing to hide argument, this is our fault. And when I say ‘our’, I mean the people of America, or the world if you will. Yes, what the farms are doing is wrong, but how do we expect them to keep up with the consumption of our population? There simply isn’t enough land to support the production needed on ‘free range’ farms.

Course we could cut down more forests and pack ourselves into taller buildings with smaller rooms.. But if we can’t manage our own population, how do we expect to manage the populations of our livestock. We’ve grown too quickly. Is having two loving children not enough?

The treatment of these animals is horrible, but it only reminds me of where we ‘humans’ are headed. That’s capitalism for you, pack all the animals into smaller and smaller places, including us.

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, VIDEOS | Leave a comment »