Death on a factory farm - Essay Example

Death on a Factory Farm Overview ‘Death on a Factory Farm’ is an eighty-three minutes documentary premiered by HBO on 16th March 2009 in USA. The documentary is set against the backdrop of a farm in Creston, Ohio. The documentary is concerned with the animal rights against the animal abuses that took place in the Wiles Hog Farm and is followed by the undercover investigation of the brutal animal abuses taking place in the farm and its subsequent trial. Under the initiative of The Humane Farming Association, abbreviated as (HFA), the documentary was directed and produced by Tom Simon and Sarah Teale through the under- cover investigation for six weeks by the name of “Pete”.

Death on a Factory Farm: The Review The six week under-cover investigation captivates extreme cruel footage of inhumane animal treatments and abuses in the farm. The thrashing of an unhealthy piglets against the wall as a means of euthanasia, throwing of the piglets by almost tossing them across the room into the crates, to the sight of impregnated sows held back in the pens reducing their ability to move to the brutal killing of a sick cow hung from a chain of a forklift until it choked to death are the naked truth of implementation of low-cost means of euthanasia in the farm and brutal treatment of animals used for the purpose of food in the farms.

Message of the Film-Maker The gruesome practices against animals in the farm constitute the major part of the documentary followed by the trials and the documentary brings three agendas or issues pertinently. A thorough watch of the documentation would lead any audience to think on the Ohio factory’s cruel practices. It will definitely reinstate the thought of animal rights and its proper practice and practical implementation and will lead one to think about the US courts and the impotency of the animal welfare laws.

Euthanasia, better known by the name of mercy killing encapsulates the idea of a painless death. The documentary is an eye-opener in terms of depicting the hammering of a sick piglet’s head to death and calls it euthanasia in the terms of the factory practices. The film bears a clear message that the subjugation of animals to the mere stature of raw materials have made the treatment and abuses toward them so common-place that even hanging of sows with a forklift and choking it to death seems so ordinary in agricultural and farming connotations.

The documentary bears the mal-practices at the Ohio farm but it indicates prevalence of such practices across the globe which has made the corrupted animal killing a very ordinary custom, violating all the humane and legal sensibilities. The Response All sorts of animal farming are cruel but still there must be some conventions and responsibility of the farmers towards the humanity and civic society. At least strangling, starving and hammering or thrashing the sick and infected animals cannot be termed as ‘euthanasia’ practiced in the animal farms.

And the excuse that these practices are executed to reduce the danger of the farmers and cost of the farming is all the more frustrating and illogical. ‘Death on a Factory Farm’ is a blasphemy for a vegan to watch but it should be tolerated so that every person can receive the prick in the conscience to stand up against the brutal mal-practices and animal abuses across the factory farms all over the world. Bibliography HBO, “Death on a Factory Farm”, No Date. Synopsis. June 20, 2011. IMDb, “Death on a Factory Farm”, 15th April, 2010.

Documentary. June 20, 2011.