Confronting the hopelessness of factory farms
Blog
Emi Kondo, World Animal Protection’s global multimedia manager, has travelled the world gathering powerful images and stories of our work to share with our generous supporters. Disaster zones, wild, and farmed animals in distress and difficult animal rescues have all been captured by Emi’s lens. Not surprisingly these events have all taken their toll on her emotions, but Emi explains that nothing prepared her for her shocking first visit to an intensive pig farm in Brazil...
An interview with Emi Kondo, Global Multimedia Manager
“I remember just walking in and the first thing I noticed was the terrible smell, thick with ammonia burning my nose, my eyes, catching my throat. And then came the understanding that the smell was because the hundreds of mother pigs in small cages in front of me were forced to do all the necessities of their lives – urinating, defecating – in the same place they are eating. They had to because the farming system doesn’t allow them to move around.”
As Emi set to work taking close-up pictures to document their suffering, she recalls the distress of looking into the mother pigs’ eyes.
“They all looked like they didn't have life in their eyes – it was like they were gone from the world already, like movies sometimes show people looking and behaving in institutions. I asked the farmed animal expert I was with, ‘Why do they look like this?’. Her answer was so distressing that I have never forgotten it. They said: ‘It’s known as ‘learned helplessness’.”
“She explained this as meaning ‘the pigs having learned to not have hope for the future because there is no escape from the conditions they live in’.”
Mother pigs in individual cages are unable to move, turn around, or socialize during their pregnancy. | Photo: Emi Kondo
On this visit, Emi also saw ‘stereotypies’ in pigs for the first time. These are repetitive behaviours that are common among many captive animals stressed by the unnatural conditions in which they are forced to live.
“The pigs who didn’t look completely lifeless were chewing the cage bars in front of them, over and over again in the same repeating pattern. Foam was dripping down their mouths. I was told they do this because it is like their brains begging them to have an activity: ‘Do something, do anything so your brain doesn’t die.’ To see them do that just broke my heart. It was really hard to see what these systems are forcing on animals.”
Telling the real story
Confronted with such horrendous suffering, Emi explained that she quickly understood how important her work would be in opening people’s eyes to factory farming.
“So many people are so removed from farming that their views of farms are cute little red barns, green grass, white fences and happy animals. The shock is huge when you enter a factory farm and see, hear and smell the distress they inflict.
“Since joining World Animal Protection – I’ve also learned so much from our experts about animal sentience and behaviour – how animals feel emotions just like we do. So whenever I'm in the field, that's what I'm looking for, capturing these glimpses of feelings and behaviour with my camera. In this way I can help people understand and make the connection that it is wrong to confine and treat animals in this way.”
During her visit, Emi photographed piglets being born. Under normal circumstances new life is associated with hope, but not on a factory farm. She explains the births were difficult to witness because the pigs were still caged – unable to move freely, unable to turnaround. And after birth the piglets were separated from their mothers by more bars.
“They could only get close to her to feed, and she could not move to interact with them, to nuzzle them, to protect them from us, for example – to do the things mothers would normally do.
A mother pig separated from her piglet on an intensive factory farm. | Photo: Emi Kondo
“I was given a newborn piglet to hold, it was a beautiful little animal, soft eyes, perfect skin – it should have been such a joy to hold, but I could only feel great sadness. I knew the lives these piglets would have, what the production processes would do to them. I also knew that under normal circumstances, allowed to move and behave naturally, this piglet’s mother would have been fiercely protective and not let me – a stranger – hold her baby.
“The next day I photographed the terrible pain inflicted on two-day-old factory farmed piglets just like the one I had held. They were castrated, their tails were docked, and their teeth clipped – all without anaesthetic. The squealing and pain were terrible to hear and see.”
Inflicting suffering and unhappiness
Emi explains that most of the workers she has spoken to on factory farms are not happy in their jobs. They report that the depressing environment based on inflicting suffering causes them distress and that they feel trapped.
“They say things like ‘We don't want to do this anymore…These are not the kind of jobs we want to have. But these are the only jobs we have available in the region’.”
Throughout her time with World Animal Protection, Emi has completed photographic assignments at around 15 intensive pig farms, and she says it never gets easier, but now she knows what to expect. And in contrast her visits to higher welfare pig farms bring her so much pleasure and give her the chance to observe natural behaviour.
“Watching normal mother and piglet behaviour is such fun to watch and you can gain a real understanding of how they form bonds, hierarchies and how they naturally communicate. For example, I saw mother pigs call their babies to come and get food and make different sounds to stop the piglets being naughty. I saw one mother pig tell two piglets to stop fighting so roughly. Just one angry snort made them jump apart!”
Working with natural behaviour
Emi says the atmosphere on free range farms is so different for workers too. They are able to develop an understanding of the pigs’ natural behaviours, individual personalities and care for them empathetically. “On one farm it was so good to see worker supporting a mother pig to help her birth – even brushing her to help relax and soothe her.”
At this farm Emi took one of her favourite images.
“It’s of a mother pig when the sun was rising – receiving its warmth. She closed her eyes against the increasing rays and with such pleasure. I remember that moment very clearly because she was like us – whenever we haven't seen the sun for a while, and we just want to soak in a bit of sunshine.”
A mother pig at a free-range farm soaking up the sunshine. | Photo: Emi Kondo
Emi says she will continue to capture the lives farmed animals – to capture their sentience, their personalities, their feelings. Her commitment after 10 years at World Animal Protection is undiminished.
“It’s always sad to visit these farms and see these animals. We all want to save every single one., But when we are on assignment it’s not always possible. I need to keep reminding myself about the bigger picture and how their stories will raise awareness and bring the reality of how they live to more people. I’m determined to create an understanding in people of why the factory farming system must end – to show what it means, so they mobilise against it… There are no red barns…no white fences… no green grass…only animals suffering and learned helplessness.”
You can help end this needless suffering by calling for an end to factory farming in Canada
Sign our petition to send a message to the Federal government: We demand a moratorium that will stop new factory farms in Canada.
The suffering of innocent animals on factory farms is nonstop. It never ends.
Until this petition is taken seriously and a moratorium is put in place, new factory farms will continue to be built in Canada with little regard for animal welfare, local communities, and the environment.