Videos and effectiveness

[Hans Meier]

hi everyone

 

i'd like to know your opinion on videos showing farm animals. here's a video from Switzerland that shows a few dozen seconds of the every day life of free range pigs.

 

 

now, what do you think of such videos (content, length, images, quality, ...)? do you think they are effective? how could their effectiveness be improved?

 

do you think you reach more people showing cruel videos? the more cruel, the more effective? would the media take up an ordinary video showing farm animals? would it be shared on facebook? would it actually affect people?

 

did you ever do some videoing? what did you film? was it effective? how did you share it? what camera did you use? i am planning to buy one the new Sony Bloggie 3D. extremly small, 4h recording time, image stabilization, cheap, HD quality, ...  

[Carolyn Bailey]

Hi Hans, 

 

I think videos can be effective in many ways. I think a video like this one showing "free range" pigs can bring awareness to the surprising lack of regulations required in order to class something as "free range." 

There was a video being circulated recently which was (I think) of 3 hens in a small cage. The video showed their life inside that cage to be nothing. The video didn't show any "cruelty" or anything of interest, other than that the lives of those hens was appalling. 

That said, I also think some videos that show extreme cruelty, like the Conklin Dairy video, can send the message that some forms of extreme cruelty are wrong, but the every day cruelty and rights violations which takes place inside every dairy is OK. I don't think that message is helpful.

 

[Monique]

People who choose free range would no doubt be surprised to learn that free range actually means very little.  A video like this could make them rethink.  They already have an awareness that farming is generally cruel to animals so this could take them one step further.

However, most people have not even taken that first step yet.   The majority of the non-vegans that I know would find nothing wrong with the  video above.   They really think that this is an adequate way to house pigs.  After all "the farmers know what's best for their animals, and anyway they are just pigs."  Talking to the average non vegan elicits comments like that all the time.

To get the attention of most people I think we need to show them something that will absolutely shock them.  Their comfort zone involves unquestioning trust for farmers and unconsciously avoiding the reality of where their meat comes from.  Our challenge is to get past those psychological barriers. 

On the other hand some videos are so gruesome that people just won't watch them.  So they achieve nothing.  It's tricky to figure out the right balance.

 

[Hans Meier]

thanks for your replies!

They already have an awareness that farming is generally cruel to animals so this could take them one step further.

i am not sure whether this can be said for Swiss people. On the contrary: Due to easy-going cows all over the country side and a few chickens in the neighborhood from private breeders most people don't think that farming is cruel at all. Cruelty might (!) happen in a slaughterhouse, but on farms everything's all right. That's a huge problem, probably caused by false advertisement.  

The majority of the non-vegans that I know would find nothing wrong with the  video above.

That's interesting! i haven't had the chance to talk to many people yet (most people prefer other subjects to talk about..). However, from the feedback i got from facebook this video and many pictures from similar farms seemed to be at least displeasing, if not shocking. 

To get the attention of most people I think we need to show them something that will absolutely shock them.

Thats the question. Shocking videos have been around for, i don't know, 30 years now? From an animal welfare point of view they actually changed quite a lot. Most species on farms now have more space available, but suffer differently. From an animal rights point of view, I think, shocking videos are not effective, for at least three reasons.

1. As you said, Monique, many people don't even try to watch cruel videos.
2. People who actually watch shocking videos often don't care about the 1% of animals officially being stunned incorrectly. Their meat was surely raised and killed humanly.
3. Those who actually do care about shocking videos often want to improve the farming standards in order to reduce the suffering of farm animal, rather than question their use for human consumption itself. Shocking videos seem to have a huge potential in misleading the viewers. 

However, the question remains whether non-cruel videos are misleading as well, since videos like the one above don't come with an abolitionist message either. Apart from the message do they actually affect people?

 

 

[Bill Cherry Jr]

I have mixed feelings about these things. On the one hand how will they know if they aren't shown. On the other hand it just sorta breaks my heart and pisses me off. I pretty much don't watch them anymore. i am also inclined towards emphasizing the positive aspects of veganism when I do. (I have to admit that other the the lifestyle change and a few donations every now and again I am pretty much an armchair activist.  And sometimes I have difficulty with some terminology. But I digress...)

You never really know what is going to trigger that awareness of what is going on. Some people will be offended and some will be shocked into awareness; others will probably be entertained by it. Still others of course will simply say all AR/vegan types are nuts. (well, we are... but in a good way). 

So, anyway, I say emphasize the positive when possible. for what that's worth.