A meat packing facility.
A slaughterhouse in the heart of California.
These places exist in the shadows so we're never shown what happens
inside.
It begins on a factory farm, like Smithfield's Circle Four.
Hidden away from scrutiny in the Utah desert, inside the world's largest pig producer,
Individuals are reduced..
..to units of production.
With mothers and their newborns trapped in metal cages, the machine of animal agriculture
does its work in secret..
creating suffering on a scale never before imagined
and building the perfect storm for pathogens in the process.
California voters have been trying to outlaw these operations..
..but as an industry with little oversight..
..the state continues to truck-in animals from places like Circle Four.
After six months of confinement at Smithfield, individuals who survive are crowded on top
of each other, up to 200 at a time, into steel transport trucks, for a 700 mile journey through
the heat of the Southwest..
..without food, or water, or anyone to care.
So I followed them, as they were driven all day and into the night..
while they dreamed of escape.
But this isn't their ride to freedom.
Thanks to a whistleblower, I was given a window into a business built on killing.
They arrive sick, thirsty and scared into unfamiliar surroundings, while they're beaten
in the holding pens, so the next truck load can come.
Some of them lay dead on the truck, while others are painfully crippled, and individuals
who've become too sick to walk on their own are executed with a bolt gun..
instead of receiving medical attention.
Workers themselves suffer routine physical injuries, which are often unreported..
for fear of reprisal.
And the psychological impact of the work has long lasting effects.
Carrying diseases from factory farms across the continent..
..some of the pigs continue to weaken, and die.
Those who perish suddenly are simply labeled "dead".
Others who show obvious signs of illness are sometimes killed, and briefly examined..
but only the symptoms of their diseases are ever determined.
To the industry, the misery endured by these individuals, and the risks of their diseases,
are merely an inconvenience to be covered up for the sake of profit.
So too are the workers treated..
..constantly exposed to suffering, disease and death..
..without understanding the risks..
..as though they were human expendables.
An industry so focused on profit over personal suffering can only create one terrible outcome.
Is this who we really are?
Even if they make it inside..
..their reward is one of the most cruel endings possible for anyone..
..a gas chamber.
As they are pushed forward, they limp into the loader together.
And for the first time in their life they see their own reflection..
..in a mirror used to lure their attention.
Before being forced into the gas chamber gondola..
..load after load.
The USDA tells us that gas chambers are humane.. but see for yourself.
Over 8,000 individuals are gassed like this at this facility every week.
These facilities are designed to profit on killing at any cost.
The industry wants to be trusted to regulate itself, but how do you regulate an operation
so focused on bloodshed?
They're supposed to be killed before they wake up again, but the supervisors fail to
prevent routine mistakes in the slaughter process.
Infections are so common, and run so deep, an inspector is dedicated to cut out what
they can see, so the rest of their body can be sold as though they were healthy.
This is animal agriculture.
The industry wants us to focus on what we put in our mouth or buy in a store;
on an object, not its origin.
But what happens if we ignore the warnings, while building our house on injustice?
How can we achieve peace.. while a body means more than a life?
How can we nurture love.. when oppression is on our plate?
And the truth is hidden from us?
Without laws to protect victims.. in a system created by greed.
We're basically building the highways for these microbes to transfer into our bodies.
It's having tragic consequences right now with over 20 deaths, just in the last week.
People think "I'm not a cow..", "I'm not a pig..", "I'm not that animal.."
so they don't care.
But people can think "I'm not this race..", or "I'm not this gender..".
That doesn't make it right.
Rescue the victims of oppression.
Challenge violence with the power of compassion.
Create the laws that value morality.
End exploitation at its foundations.
Expose the truth to protect our future;
to prevent pandemics while we still can.
Turn towards suffering with the strength of mercy.
Because our fates are connected..
If we don't stop this industry.