Documentary on Michigan Animal Factories
.If you remember the Pig Poo Who Knew blog I did quite a while ago about the horrendous amount of pollution caused by industrialized farming, specifically Smithfield Foods, than you will want to see this. The Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club has created a 24-minute documentary about an industrial farm in Michigan. The tape is in DVD or VHS format for only a $10.00 donation. I’ve sent for mine but am afraid to view it. What I wrote about in the Pig Poo blog was bad enough. As a video, it might be too graphic. Not to mention suffering animals, which is something that is totally unnecessary and I don’t want to see. That’s the problem for most of us; we don’t want to see it. But it’s there. In the past 15 years it’s been discovered pigs are highly intelligent yet in that same time span our supposedly ethical society allows animal factories like these. It is a testament to our hypocrisy.
Click on the Sierra Club to the right under links and it will take you to their home page. The Michigan Chapter has a print out for an order form. The food prep industry should see this tape to see what we are really eating and the importance of free range whenever possible.
They are also showing the documentary LIVING A NIGHTMARE: Animal Factories in Michigan for free on Tuesday, March 6 at 3:00 pm and 6:30 pm at the IHM Sisters Motherhouse, 610 W. Elm Ave., Monroe, MI. For more info call (517) 484-2372.
The first step to altering a not only inhumane way of farming but the resulting pollution from animal waste that ends up in our waterways and ground is to make people aware that it exists. Make note of the recent outbreak of bacteria in our food source and watch the practices of these farms. When a farmer has 1800 hogs or cattle compartmentalized in a barn what do you think happens? Imagine the air quality despite the fans, and the flies. What about overflow when it rains? Imagine living near one of these with the flies and smell in the air because of open-air lagoons of animal waste, pesticides, bacteria, and slough from slaughterhouses. My husband knows of someone in Michigan in this situation. Imagine living near this. Who is going to buy your home so you can get out? The surrounding citizens fought the industrial farmer but were outmaneuvered by the power of wealth.
What I want to know is who let them in? Who is it in the political scheme of things that let an industrial farmer who utilizes open air lagoons for waste into a state like Michigan which is surrounded by the world’s largest freshwater supply. I know I end up in politics on this site a lot, but I hate to say it, that’s where it starts and ends. The corporation what is this industrialized farm didn’t just waltz in and make room for themselves. There were land purchase transactions somewhere, and with that type of open pollution there were certainly government agencies involved or avoided in the decision. And how long have they been around here? It will be interesting and morbid to see this documentary which will answer many of these questions and what we can do. For those of you that are used to shocking movies, this one’s for you.
March 3rd, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I, like you, hate to see animals killed and I know that every day thousands are killed for no reason other than “that’s what they were born for”! Red meat is BAD for us - perhaps that is why God gave man heart disease - to provide a consequence for our meaningless slaughter of His animals.
I am so upset about seeing dead animals on roads that I usually say a quick prayer for them and God help me, I sometimes think I’d rather see the person who hit them lying there. I know, that is just crazy because they do run out from nowhere but I can’t help but think if the person were paying attention and anticipating that an animal or small child might be running in front of them, they could do a better job at defensive driving.
I pity the person who does not value the life of an animal or respect it’s domain - they have never experienced the real reason God gave them to us.
March 4th, 2007 at 6:54 am
You know we’ve been friends for so long and although we are different we are so much alike. I didn’t think there was anyone out there but me thinking about road kill until last spring you said to me that you hate spring because of all the dead animals on the road. I say prayers for them too because the Lord has said, “Whatever concerneth thee, concerneth me also.” So I figure a prayer will get them a better place somewhere.
People have forgotten that driving is a privilege. I’ve managed to miss all but one animal in my lifetime and could have prevented that also. It haunts me to this day. My husband drives like a lunatic but has never hit any. He says he watches everywhere for them.
I’ve saved so many animals. I winged a sparrow who dove in front of my car last summer. It was flopping around in the middle of the road. I stopped, picked it up, checked it out, it’s croup was knocked to the side. I pushed it back, took the bird home. The croup straightened out. It roosted awhile, then I took it back and dropped it off where I hit it to be in the area where is was flying.
My husband and I save birds all the time. They cannot smell and it’s an old wives tale you can’t touch their young. I’ve repositioned an entire nest of downed robins while the mother watched. It took about 20 minutes and she was back in the nest with them. So everyone please, you can put a nest back where it belongs. If the nest has blown away or is destroyed, use a cool whip contained with holes punched in the bottom for drainage, and tie it to a limb with an electrical strap. Put some of the nest in the container, set the babies on top and wait. The mother will come back and sit on those birds again! People like to save bunnies also. Please do not try to save one bunny. It will die of loneliness. A bunch of bunnies yes, one bunny no.
Luckily, I know where a DNR trained person lives on Grosse Ile that is set up as a rescue house. I’ve taken dozens of bunnies, hurt birds, ducks, you name it to her. God bless people like her.
People that think we are nuts, well refer to nobel price winner Dr. Albert Schweitzer. His book Animals, Nature, & Albert Schweitzer is a guideline for the Kosher treatment of even the lowest forms of life to include research animals especially. One of his quotes is “Man can no longer live for himself alone. We must realize that all life is valuable and that we are united to all life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship with the universe.” And finally, “To think out in every implication the ethic of love for all creation–this is the difficult task which confronts our age.”
This is really pertinent today with global warming and an ever increasing endangered species list. If we don’t clean up our act, man will be on that list also.
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