ANIMAL LIBERATION. Activism. Veganism. Humane Education.
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I'd like to meet:
'Carolinians.Vegans.
Vegetarians.
Animal Rights activists.Anyone interested in being involved or learning about the movement!Join us!
Work with us for a cleaner, healthier, peaceful North Carolina!
Check out great places to eat and shop at in NC!!!
http://ncveg.com/index.php?option=content&task=section&a
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Music:
Undying, Crimson Spectre, Uwharria
Movies:
Meet Your Meat, Finding Nemo, Legally Blonde 2, Princess Mononoke, Brother Bear
Books:
Animal Liberation, Herbivore zine, Dominion, The Pig Who Sang to the Moon, How it All Vegan, The Garden of Vegan, When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals, Defending Animal Rights, The Souls of Animals, You Can Save the Animals! 251 Ways to Stop Thoughtless Cruelty
, Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings---And 7 Steps to End Them Naturally,
Heroes:
THIS IS WHAT GOES ON BEFORE IT REACHES YOUR PLATE!"Belcross is a medium-sized pig farm in the heart of North Carolina’s hog farming country. When a call came into RIR from an employee, saying that animals were being abused, we set out to document what was happening. Here is what our investigator, who managed to get a job on the farm, saw.
The air at Belcross is filled with fear. Though the pigs are gentle and willing to please, they are terrified of the workers. Their bodies go rigid when an employee approaches because they know they will be beaten, called “you bitch!†and kicked with the sharp heel of a boot. As intelligent as these animals are, they do not understand why they are so hated. One day, the farm manager decides to kill a lame sow and take her flesh home for his own dinner table. After he and another employee drag the crippled pig out of the shed, the manager takes a 15-pound pipe wrench and with the full force of his body, smashes it against her head five times. The pig screams in pain each time. The other employee then takes the wrench and bludgeons her two more times. Still she is conscious, moaning quietly. The manager takes a tiny razor blade, less than an inch long, and begins to slice at her throat, at least 25 times, saying, “F_ _ _ ing pig bitch!â€
Still she lives. The two men begin to skin her and cut off her legs. “Give up, bitch, already,†the manager says.
After a few weeks, I am put in charge of the farrowing house, where the pregnant sows are brought to give birth. Now I have a chance to get to know some of the pigs. Most of them are so frightened of people, they won’t trust me, but a few approach shyly as I talk softly to them. Before long, they press against my hand as I rub the tops of their heads.
One sow collapses in her pen and is too ill to stand. Sickness, even if it can be easily treated, is a death sentence. Since she cannot reach her food or watering trough, I feed her by hand each day and she gently nibbles the food from my fingers, careful not to nip me. There are no dishes, so I unscrew a light fixture from the ceiling and fill it with water to give her a drink. She laps the water, looking at me gratefully as she quenches her thirst.
One day, the farm’s breeding technician is taking a lame sow outside to be killed when the injured pig falls in the narrow aisle between the pens and can’t get up. The technician should kill her humanely with a captive-bolt gun. Instead, he kicks her in the head and savagely stomps on her. When she still can’t get up, another worker jumps on her and pretends to do a tap dance. By the time they have pulled her outside, her pink body is covered with bruises and welts.
James Cromwell, star of the Babe films, helped PETA bring the abuse at Belcross to the public at a national news conference on Capitol Hill. Here he displays a tool used to beat and torture pigs.
Pigs too wounded to walk are spit on, hit, kicked, pushed and dragged down the aisles and then dumped off a ramp out the door. One worker tries to kill an injured pig by dropping a cinder block on her head.
Beatings with heavy sticks and iron bars occur daily. The cruel treatment terrifies and confuses the pigs, who are already stressed by cramped living conditions. They seem eager to do what is asked of them, but the shouting and the jabs and blows with the sticks make them cower in fear. One morning, the breeding technician is moving pregnant sows, one at a time, from their individual stalls to another building. As he opens each gate, the sow moves toward it, ready to exit as they are supposed to. But the technician beats each one with a four-pound metal rod, making them cry out in pain and retreat to the stall. Then he beats them to get them out again.
A few days later, the same technician puts two pregnant sows in a stall designed to hold only one. He then uses a wooden herding cane to prod one of the sows to stand up so that he can shove the cane into her vagina.
The employees are angry because I will not beat the pigs. They give me a metal rod and tell me I must hit them. But I have come to know these animals. I see their keen intelligence and kindness toward their fellow inmates. There is one sow in the farrowing house who can work the latch on her pen. Each night after I leave, she lets herself out—and then frees the other pigs near her. They are standing together, nuzzling each other, when I arrive each morning.
And I see their dread when they have fallen and know something awful is about to happen. They tense and cry out as the employees surround them, metal rods in their hands.
Now that I have left, I cannot forget those cries. It comes over me in waves when I least expect it, and I know that they cannot escape the wretchedness of their lives. You are their only hope. I ask you not to turn away from them. Don’t let your broken heart keep you from taking action. "
-James Cromwell
Animal Times Summer 1999
