Introduction

The clips (playable through the coloured links in the text below) sometimes show extreme animal abuses, but first and foremost they show how roughly and indifferently animals are treated.
They will also give you an impression of an animal's life in factory farming: endless boredom, overcrowded stables, sties and cages without any opportunity for natural behaviour.

Some of the videos will automatically restart once they are finished.
You can pause and play the downloaded clips by clicking the space bar.
Pressing [Escape] can end endless loops. The videos are displayed at 12x15 cm or larger.

Types of video

The video clips below are *.-exe-files or have RealPlayer or Windows Media format (playing .rm and .wmv files is the most simple way).
Click on the clip(s) you want to see; (in case of "exe-files" answer 2 security questions.
The files are virus-free; for the files marked with (.exe) or (*) you don't need any additional software. There is no authenticode signature. For the files marked with "(.rm)" you need RealPlayer and the files marked with "(.wmv)" you need Windows Media Player.
Their quality varies from moderate (*) to reasonable (*).

Chicken catchers

In an RVU broadcast as part of a series on different kinds of jobs ("Werken aan Werk"), the nocturnal job of the Dutch chicken catcher is shown.
The clips show, for instance, how a box filled with a new load of consumption chicks (.exe) or (.wmv) is emptied. Tens of thousands of chicks meant for consumption are here chucked out of the crates and thrown into the shed. Every now and then a new crate of chicks is emptied in the foreground. In the background two other people are also unloading crates.
The male chicks are killed (.exe) or (.rm).

The relative space for movement every consumption chick has decreases continually because the chicks grow very fast.

After six weeks, the chicken catchers turn up around dawn. They grab a number of chicks in each hand (.exe) or (.wmv) and then throw and cram them into crates (.exe) or (.rm).
Some of the animals get their bones or wings broken in the process (.wmv).
The animals are shoved into the crates (.exe) or (.wmv) and shaken to and fro.
As the crate is closed one chick gets caught between the crate and its lid (*).
The pile of crates is driven towards the van.
Finally they are unloaded in the slaughterhouse, onto a conveyor belt to the place where they are hung upside down on hooks by their paws. One chick tries to escape its fate, but ends up being swept along in the stream (*).
They then proceed to the machine that will try to behead them (.exe) or (.rm). A few seconds later their throat is cut manually.

In July 1998, TV Noord (a Dutch local television broadcasting station) filmed an open day at a laying battery in Sellingen (province of Groningen, The Netherlands).
These chickens had been in the laying battery for one year and were butchered some days after. The chickens fly up in panic (.exe) or (.wmv) because they are scared by the lights used for filming.
This is followed by a close-up of some chickens with cut beaks in their small living space (.exe) or (.rm). Similar living space for ducks held for fatty liver " foie-gras" (GAIA: mpg).

In 'Noorderlicht' (a Dutch scientific program) one broadcast paid attention to the use of antibiotics in factory farming.
The clip shows a space filled with tens of thousands of free-range chickens (.exe) or (.wmv).
The only way to keep such a number of chickens crammed together "healthy" is by mixing antibiotics into their food.

International transport

The RVU broadcast an Austrian documentary entitled "Meat of fear-fear of meat".
With this title the makers want to indicate that the animal's fear when brought to the slaughter (under stressful circumstances) has a negative effect on the quality of the meat.
Some clips from this documentary show the international transport of cattle. Before arriving at the abattoir, cattle have been transported over hundreds of kilometres. During their transport, they are often not taken proper care of, and they sometimes end up being so weakened they can't stand on their legs anymore.

The video (made by Manfred Karreman) shows the unloading of a cow from such a truck (.exe) or (.rm) or (.wmv).
The animal is pulled out of the truck by ropes that have been tied around its legs.
The subtitle goes as follows: "One may conclude that animals meant for slaughter are treated in an alarmingly cruel way. The motto: they will soon be slaughtered anyway. These animals had only been transported for a few hundred kilometres."

Another video shows the last minutes of calves (.exe) or (.wmv) that are brought to a slaughterhouse in a foreign country as part of the so-called Herodes regulation.
In spite of the requirement that the calves have to be in good shape when they arrive, it is clear that not every calf is able and willing to walk its last few metres.
That is no wonder if you see how cruel calves sometimes are treated (.exe) or (.rm) (CIWF).

A team of the German organisation Animals Angels trailed horses from Lituania, from where they are driven to Italy. Horses themselves are badly build for transport that last sometimes for days. After a while they can't stand on their feet no more and they fall and hurt themselves. This horse was put down by a vet, while hanging upside down with one leg in a barred window (the trucks ventilation system) (.exe) or (.rm).

Each year millions of sheep, pigs and cattle are transported across Europe, often on extremely long journeys. During 1999 Compassion In World Farming investigators have been busy trailing the livestock trucks. The shocking pictures they took are presented in the CIWF-film 'Some Lie Dying' (5 Mb).
CIWF investigators managed to film in three Greek slaughterhouses. Two made no attempt at all to stun the animals into unconsciousness before slaughter. Their throats were cut (.wmv) while they were fully conscious and they were left to bleed dead.
One slaughterhouse uses electrical stunning with a bold (*), but the animals don't appear completely stunned (*).

Various organizations present this "Christmas video":

Bull fights

Bloody and cruel is a bull's entirely purposeless suffering in the last seconds of a bull fight (.exe) or (.wmv), as can be seen in a clip by Manfred Karreman.

Cattle market

With hidden camera's GAIA (Belgium organization for animal rights) filmed how animals on cattle markets are hit with sticks (.exe) or (.rm), kicked and beaten (*), sometimes with barbs. Even children imitate the animal abuse of adults. On this video (.exe) or (.rm) a child repeatedly hitting a calve.

Sows tied up for life

'Het Klokhuis' (a Dutch educational youth program) shows the stereotypical behaviour of sows tied up between two bars (.exe) or(.wmv).
Out of sheer boredom, the pigs start chewing on the chains, and this selfsame chewing movement is repeated for hours in a row.

In a broadcast by '2-Vandaag' (a Dutch current affairs programme) from December '99, one can see a farmer walking past the small sections of the sty in which the sows 'live' with some ten piglets each (.exe) or (.wmv). One can clearly see how little room a sow has, between two bars and with no possibility to turn.

Piglets are castrated and their tail is cut:

Mink farms

Two videofragments of a Dutch mink farm (taken from "De achtste Dag", Humanistisch Verbond). Mink are held in ironframe cages (.exe) or (.rm). They are allowed to go to the adjacent cage, but that is all the freedom for movement (*) they get.
On Asian markets fur animals are brutally killed just for their coat. On this site a horrible video and below the number of animals used for a human coat.

Our Daily Bread:

More information about the background of factory farming.

For more video's about cruel international transports, see the CIWF film 'some lie dying'.

More video's on PETA "Resources for activists" and Factory Farming.

See also Google's videosearch, for example on "animal abuse".

Not all video material on this site makes sad to watch. For some humor see the flash-movie "the Meatrix", about the problem and rise of factory farms explained with some cynism and humor.