It was a vegan event to celebrate Hilda's 25th-- the 25th anniversary of Hilda's rescue. The Stockyard owner said that--. And he was a little bit worried at first, having all these vegans come to the Stockyard Inn.
And he said that it was a very positive experience, that he learned a lot about it, that this is the wave of the future, and from now on, he's going to have a vegan item on his menu. And while the stockyard is now gone, Farm Sanctuary has grown. That's our farm in Watkins Glen, New York.
Most citizens don't think enough about these issues and are unwittingly supporting this bad system. After Lancaster Stockyards was convicted of cruelty, I traveled around the country documenting more downed animals. That's a picture I took in Southern California.
you get to know these animals at Farm Sanctuary like many people know their cats and dogs, and hearing about their stories. So it began a campaign at Lancaster Stockyards after there was no movement on prosecuting the stockyard for leaving this downed animal on the dead pile. And our position was that if an animal's too sick to walk, that animal should be humanely euthanized or should be given proper veterinary care.
But as time went, and as people started seeing these images of animals left for dead, and they started hearing about what was happening, things ultimately shifted. We were able to get Lancaster Stockyards convicted of cruelty to animals after seven years of campaigning. I went back to the stockyard a few years ago, took that picture.
We were able to get Lancaster Stockyards convicted of cruelty to animals after seven years of campaigning. I went back to the stockyard a few years ago, took that picture. It was overgrown, it's now been bulldozed, it's gone.
That's a picture I took in Texas. This cow was sent to the stockyard with her calf. And because cows and calves sell to different buyers, they were separated.
It was a freezing day. This calf was sent to the stockyard on the day he was born. He was still wet from afterbirth.
And he was dying of hypothermia. I went up to the stockyard worker and I asked, "What's going on with this calf?" And he said, "I have to bury him tomorrow." So I said, "Well, what if I take him off your hands?" He said, "Sure, go ahead, take him." So I took the calf to a nearby veterinarian.
And these were amazing animals. They were big, stocky beasts. They weighed about as much as a washing machine, but they were much more agile.
Animals die routinely in the process. That's a picture of the dead pile behind the stockyard. The day I took this picture, there were dead pigs, dead cows, dead sheep.
It was overgrown, it's now been bulldozed, it's gone. We actually had an event there last year at the Stockyard Inn, which is right next to the Stockyard. It was a vegan event to celebrate Hilda's 25th-- the 25th anniversary of Hilda's rescue.
They refused to euthanize her because as long as she was still alive, she could be sold for food. That's a picture I took at a stockyard in upstate New York. It was a freezing day.
Five years later, 1913, Henry Ford comes up with this amazing innovation called the moving assembly line. He actually got his inspiration of this from the dis-assembly lines of the stockyards of Chicago where animals are being slaughtered and cut into steaks. He reversed the process, right?
He's also educated millions in the process. Gene's achievements include winning the first ever cruelty conviction at a US stockyard, as well as introducing the first US laws to prohibit cruel farming confinement methods. Gene holds a Bachelor's degree in sociology from California State University, and also a master's degree in agricultural economics from Cornell.
They shouldn't be left to suffer and die in the alleyways, which was also commonly happening. But at the time, Lancaster Stockyards was seen as a pillar of the community. It was getting ready to celebrate its 100 year anniversary.
Previously, the only way to transport fresh meat was by sending rail cars filled with live cattle straight from farms to cities. Then, the animals had to be brought into the city and held in local stockyards before they were prepared by local slaughterhouses and butchers. The result was that city centers were filled with dirty, noisy cows.
First, ranches across the Great Plains funneled their cattle to cities in the Midwest. Taking on the role of industrial food preparation and distribution, these cities built up vast stockyards, slaughterhouses, and rail hubs to send the meat onward. Chicago emerged as the nation's meat packing capital, ballooning in size from just 30,000 people in 1850 to 1.7 million in 1900.
I co-founded Farm Sanctuary in 1986. And we felt it was important to see firsthand what was happening at farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses, so we started going in to document conditions. And we would find living animals in trash cans or living animals thrown on piles of dead animals.
Now, when Farm Sanctuary started in 1986, I spent a lot of time going to stockyards and farms and slaughterhouses to document what was happening. This is a picture taken of Lancaster Stockyard, which was, at the time, the largest stockyard east of Chicago. Cows, pigs, sheep, goats would be transported here to be sold.
There were seen as the pillar of the-- Oops. The animals, when they were being handled at these stockyards, were often seen just as commodities. What became apparent was the way I looked at these animals, and the way that these livestock people looked at the animals, was very different.
The Stockyard owner said that--. And he was a little bit worried at first, having all these vegans come to the Stockyard Inn. But he agreed that he would host this event.
- They're not doing very much at all. This is what's called the deltopectoral crest. It's really important for big arm movements because it's deltoids and pectorals. The radius and ulna are really quite thin, thinner than ours. The fingers are pretty stocky . The claws look big and curved, and they are, but other tyrannosaurs, and indeed other carnivores generally,
We have these industrialized operations. Now, when Farm Sanctuary started in 1986, I spent a lot of time going to stockyards and farms and slaughterhouses to document what was happening. This is a picture taken of Lancaster Stockyard, which was, at the time, the largest stockyard east of Chicago.
Here's a different variation of an animal husbandry and it's even easier to see here what I'm talking about. Farmers, livestock breeders, have been breeding more or less fatty cows, pigs, sheep, for centuries, probably. And here's a particularly fat breed of beef cattle. This is an Aberdeen Angus. Here's the meat. I should say it's stocky , but you can see all the subcutaneous fat, the intramuscular fat, here. And here's a lean species, a lean