Just a friendly reminder: HBO is premiering Death on a Factory Farm tonight at 10PM EDST (you can view a full schedule here). Directed by Tom Simon and Sarah Teale – the people who brought you Dealing Dogs, another animal-friendly documentary – Death on a Factory Farm follows an undercover investigation of an Ohio factory farm by the Humane Farming Association (HFA).

Here’s the synopsis from the film’s website:

Each year, ten billion animals are raised for consumption in the U.S., mostly on sprawling, industrialized farms, where virtually no federal laws mandate how the animals are treated – though guidelines exist – and state laws are ineffective. As a result, animals are frequently subjected to what many consider cruel treatment and inhumane conditions in the interest of economic efficiency. DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM chronicles an investigation into alleged abuses that took place at a hog farm in Creston, Ohio. This shocking documentary is produced by Tom Simon (a seven-time Emmy® winner) and Sarah Teale, producer of the 2006 HBO special “Dealing Dogs,” which received two Emmy® nominations, including Best Documentary.

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.

Time magazine recently featured an interview with “Pete,” which proved so popular that it was bumped to the front page of their website. (OK, that was last week; this week, one of the top ten most popular stories includes the somewhat deceptively titled “Eating Your Veggies: Not As Good For You?” Meh.)

It’s a must-read, though this brief exchange in the Q&A struck me as somewhat…odd:

Kate Pickert: Are you vegetarian?

Pete: I’m vegan. Oh, yeah.

Viewing, documenting and participating in the abuse of animals, day in and day out, tormenting yourself and others for the greater good… Well, what a stupid question. Of course Pete’s a vegetarian, right? At the very least, no? Why else would he subject himself to what can only be described as psychological torture? As a career? After all, this is the same man who investigated CC Baird for Dealing Dogs. Vegetarianism seems a given, a baseline, if you will. A more appropriate question might have been, “Are you vegan?” Perhaps I’m just nitpicking, but in asking the obvious, Ms. Pickert seems to be demonstrating her ignorance re: the animal advocacy movement.

HBO also has a brief interview with the filmmakers available on its website, here.

Sarah, Tom and “Pete” – especially “Pete” – are my heroes of the week. The month. The freaking year. Set your DVRs, your VCRs, whatever, and watch this with a friend or family member – preferably, a meat-eating one. If you don’t have HBO, keep an eye on Netflix and rent (or buy!) the DVD when it’s released. In the meantime, check out these videos from the film’s You Tube channel (embedded below).

And be sure to thank HBO for airing this important documentary!
 

Updated to add:

Check out the buzz Death on a Factory Farm is generating in the animal advocacy tubes:

Stephanie @ Animal Rights – NYT’s Hale on Death on a Factory Farm: Missing the Point

Stephanie @ Animal Rights – Death on a Factory Farm–On HBO Tonight

Vegan Soapbox: Interview With An Undercover Investigator

Vegan Soapbox: Review: Death On A Factory Farm

DawnWatch: NY Times covers tonight’s HBO premiere of “Death on a Factory Farm” 3/16/09

Making Hay: Calling All Pig-tivists

More to come tomorrow, no doubt. Drop your links in the comments!

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare action alerts hbo dealing dogs death in a factory farm time videos video blogging undercover investigation documentary pete Tom Simon’ Sarah Teale factory farm factory farming meat food pigs pork pig farm animal abuse animal cruelty cruelty to animals ohio creston Wiles Hog Farm Humane Farming Association hfa flickr photos animal advocacy

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