We spoke to the campaigners at the Animal Equality booth

Last week, there was some disapproval over the Animal Equality booth set up in the quad. Many of the animal science majors here at UC Davis have also challenged the veracity of the information they’ve been distributing to students.

The organizers at the booth that I spoke with – Stephanie, Sasha, and Taylor – stand by the video’s claims and emphasized that their ultimate goal is to show people that “we don’t need to take lives in order to live our own.” Stephanie and Taylor are from the Animal Equality LA chapter (they’re on a two-month college tour), and Sasha is from a UC Davis organization advocating for animal rights.

Animal Equality set up in a more prominent area of the quad on their second day. Here, Taylor chats with one of the participants.

To recap – the booth is part of Animal Equality’s iAnimal virtual reality project, which allows participants to get a 360° experience while watching a shocking video of pigs in a slaughterhouse. Filled with graphic content, it’s unsettling even for the die-hard meat lover.

The video is disturbing to say the least, but it’s not unlike many others that have surfaced on the Internet in recent years. Many have criticized these videos for relying on shock value rather than the actual truth. I wanted to ask the Animal Equality advocates to respond to some of these claims.

I noticed the signs in the video aren’t in English. Where was this filmed?

Stephanie: It was filmed in 5 countries – Spain, Italy, Mexico, Germany, and England. But it’s representative of very common practices around the world, including ones in the United States. The only reason why we didn’t film in the U.S. was because of the strict laws. If I were to go undercover and shoot a film like this here, I’d get thrown in jail.

A lot of people, especially those studying animal science here, are saying that the information about these “common practices” in slaughterhouses is false. What do you think about that?

Sasha: Well, I’m not sure exactly what the animal science majors here study, so I can’t really comment specifically on the common practices that they might be referring to.

For example, I was told that the pigs being conscious while slaughtered actually isn’t true.

Sasha: From what I know, they do want the pigs’ hearts to be beating when they’re slaughtered so that their blood can be drained.

Stephanie: They also shock the pigs to get them to go in the slaughterhouse, because they’re often unwilling since they can smell the blood and hear the noises. And they’ll shock the pigs to make it easier to slaughter them.

The signs at the booth. Taylor and Stephanie are to the left.

Many disagree with the way the video is presented; i.e., it’s just for shock value. How do you respond to that?

Stephanie/Taylor: We’ve heard that a lot. But it’s not like we’ve taken the worst of the worst to put in this film – these are all very real practices that are much more common than people realize. It’s not like we chose this for the shock value or to use as a scare tactic – it’s reality. More than 90% of what you buy or eat at supermarkets and restaurants comes from farms that are just like what you saw. I can see why people would be upset if we were projecting this up on a huge screen in the middle of the quad, but we’re not. You choose to come to us, put the quiet headset on, and watch the video yourself. We’re not forcing anyone to watch it.

This is definitely a sensitive subject, especially here at UC Davis where agriculture is so predominant. What kind of responses have you gotten?

Stephanie: Yeah, I actually didn’t know this was an agricultural school until I got here! And we’ve gotten a lot of people here who’ve challenged our claims. I think it’s good to have those kinds of conversations. But at the end of the day, we just want to show people that we can be perfectly healthy without taking the lives of animals. I know it’s hard for a lot of people who love animals but also eat meat…we’re just asking people to cut back on it. If you’re eating meat every day of the week, maybe try 2 or 3 days without it.

The pamphlets being distributed. I overheard Stephanie saying that their main pamphlet had run out, and they were offering these (by a different organization) instead.

Overall, I had a fairly productive conversation with the organizers at the Animal Equality booth. Though the video is similar to many others that seem to be mere scare tactics, the advocates I met were willing to discuss the issues and claims that people have brought up.

Whether or not their justifications are true, they seem open about having a conversation to explain their reasonings. It will be interesting to see how this campaign continues to play out on the UC Davis campus.