HBO is going to be airing a new documentary "Death on a Factory Farm" starting March 16th.

[LeftyMom]

http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/deathfactoryfarm/index.html

"Three years in the making, DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM follows the undercover investigation of Wiles Hog Farm by the animal rights group The Humane Farming Association (HFA), and the resulting court case against it. The organization received a tip from an employee at the farm that animals were being abused, including a claim that hogs were being hung by chains and strangled to death as a form of euthanasia. HFA then turned to an undercover investigator (also featured in "Dealing Dogs") going by the name "Pete," who wore a hidden camera while he worked as a farmhand at Wiles.

Over the course of six weeks, Pete secretly filmed numerous disturbing scenes, including piglets being tossed into crates from across a room, impregnated sows held in pens that don't allow them to move, an unhealthy piglet being slammed against a wall to euthanize it, and a sick sow being hung by a chain from a forklift until it choked to death. Having obtained this key evidence, Pete concluded the investigation and quit his job.

HFA brought the footage to the Wayne County Sheriff's Department, which subsequently raided the farm. Prosecutors filed ten criminal charges of animal cruelty against Ken Wiles (the owner of the farm), his son Joe, and Dusty Stroud, a farm employee who participated in hanging the sow.

In the trial that followed, prosecution and defense waged a tense battle over the legality and morality of practices rarely seen by the public and described by the presiding judge as "distasteful and offensive," but defended by Ken Wiles and other members of the tight-knit Ohio farming community as the commonplace reality of producing livestock for consumption. "

Naturally, the animal exploitation industry is pretty worried over the possibility of large numbers of people finding out what they're up to.

http://www.porkmag.com/directories.asp?pgID=720&ed_id=7194
http://www.drovers.com/news_editorial.asp?pgID=675&ed_id=5272
http://www.dairyherd.com/news_editorial.asp?pgid=675&ed_id=8224&ts=nl1
http://blog.beefmagazine.com/beef_daily/2009/03/02/death-on-a-factory-farm-to-air-on-hbo/#more-145
http://www.arfb.com/news_information/press/2009_pdf/Vol12-3.pdf (page 3)
http://www.ncfb.com/mediaCenter/leader/pdf/leader.pdf (page 2)

Expect a lot of spin to follow about how this is atypical behavior.

[handmade34]

1. thanks for the heads up... humane is subjective

many animal farmers believe that good management equals humane treatment... as long as the animal has enough to eat and is disease free (and there is money made), it is good, no matter the animal may never see daylight or interact with other animals naturally. Factory farms are repulsive and unhealthy.

There are good people out there that raise animals to sell for meat but I tend to believe that a large operation can never raise meat animals humanely. I have long maintained that is a person eats meat they should take part in raising/butchering it themselves.

[flvegan]

2. " There are good people out there that raise animals to sell for meat"

They may be relatively good people, but their participation in animal livestock sucks.

I'm not even going to qualify your first paragraph with an answer.

[handmade34]

3. I am not justifying...

Leftymom stated, "Expect a lot of spin to follow about how this is atypical behavior" and I agree that will happen because what is humane is often a subject of debate. What I think doesn't really matter. I don't eat meat and seldom eat any animal products, but I am not dogmatic about it. I would like to see everyone eat/live primarily vegetarian for many reasons, most of all because I know that large animal farms are very detrimental to our environment and I care about all life. I would love to see all agricultural lands used for organic grains, fruits and vegetables.

I have in the past raised and slaughtered all of the meat I did consume. Presently back at my home, there are 48 free range hens and 2 roosters that will start laying eggs soon and I most likely will have scrambled eggs with onions and green peppers if I ever get there. I don't see some issues in black and white when we have such a diverse country.

[flvegan]

4. Your roosters lay eggs?

:rofl: I crack me up.

No, seriously I mostly agree. I don't think there's anything humane about the production of meat. Don't care how it's done, or who does it. I am black and white on that. Eggs, like you've stated, I don't have a problem with so much. I'm a nice shade of plaid on that issue.

[handmade34]

5. I don't get home much...

but I am told by their caretaker that my roosters are very special!