Behind HBO's "Death on a Factory Farm"

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By Martha Rosenberg (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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"Shock poles were used on pigs even when there was nowhere for them to go or when they were so piled together they couldn't stand up anyway," says Pete. "They were even used when they would cause the animal to charge you. It made no sense at all."

Of course, the court testimony from Iowa veterinarian Paul Armbrecht that acquitted Wiles--that hanging was an acceptable method of euthanasia-- also made no sense. Aren't veterinarians sworn to alleviate animal suffering?

Nor did the $10,000 the Ohio Pork Producers Council donated to the Wiles' legal defense make sense in light of the National Pork Producers Council statement that the HBO's documentary "shows practices at a hog farm that are not condoned and, in fact, are abhorred by responsible pork producers." Make up your mind folks.

But most confusing is why agribusiness, the press and the eating public continue to view factory farm animal abuse as isolated instead of endemic and definitional.

And how the latter day "hanging judge" could view a sow suspended from a front loader and not see cruelty.

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Martha Rosenberg is columnist and cartoonist based in Chicago I

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
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