October
2005
Undercover
TV: Animal Rights Reality Television
By Mat Thomas
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It’s no accident that
television often presents animals not as sentient beings, but as
products to be consumed. Networks cater to
transnational corporations that spend billions annually to air advertisements
deliberately displaying animals’ remains as tasty food or stylish
fashions. Usually, these products are well disguised, allowing viewers
to overlook the grisly reality that meat and leather are actually the
flesh and skin of once-living animals raised in factories and butchered
on mechanized assembly lines. Marketing campaigns also commonly portray
anthropomorphized farmed animals as happy with their enslavement, further
blurring the boundary between nightmarish reality and commercialized
fantasy.
But now, flipping between post-primetime sitcom reruns and wearisome late-night
infomercials, thousands of channel surfers from coast to coast are seeing something
different: shocking scenes from inside factory farms, vivisection laboratories,
fur ranches and other industrial dungeons where animals are tortured and killed
about as routinely as the average American buys eggs at the supermarket. The
source of these unsettling images is Undercover TV, a potent new antidote to
the pervasive normalization of institutionalized mass-murder. With the tenacity
of a muckraking reporter tracking down and exposing corruption in high places,
Undercover TV boldly broadcasts the terror billions of animals endure their entire
lives to sate society’s hunger for convenience, pleasure and entertainment.
Though its first episodes were created about ten months ago, Undercover TV already
airs on over 50 public access stations across America, including some of the
largest U.S. cities (such as New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and San
Francisco). This means millions of people can already watch Undercover TV, making
it the most viewer-accessible animal rights television program in history. The
show is well distributed thanks to a network of committed volunteers in different
host cities around the country. This efficient dispersal system enables a single
activist to potentially reach thousands of people by simply delivering a box
of videos to his or her community public access station every month or two. In
addition, Undercover TV will soon make episodes available for download from its
website.
While officially a project of In Defense of Animals (IDA), Undercover TV is a
collaborative effort between many animal protection organizations that provide
compelling investigative videos, from national nonprofits like PETA and HSUS
to regional grassroots groups. Undercover TV presents these videos in 30 minute-long
themed episodes. For example, an installment on “Factory Farming” may
include investigations of pig farms, broiler chicken operations and beef production
facilities. This allows viewers to learn about specific animal cruelty issues
while gaining an overall understanding of the abusive pattern driving all animal
exploitation industries. Sandwiched between carnage sometimes more horrifying
than the scariest slasher movie, Undercover TV’s host—champion vegan
bodybuilder Kenneth G. Williams—briefly introduces each segment, providing
context for viewers who may not fully understand—or believe—what
they are seeing.
Undercover TV’s unique content and structure distinguish it from typical
animal-related programming. As the show’s producer and director, longtime
animal rights activist Gabe Quash, points out, “Undercover TV shows animals
in a different way than other programs on television: we expose the graphic,
unfortunate truth of humanity’s exploitation of animals. Most mainstream
animal programs show only the harmonious aspects of humankind’s relationship
to animals. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of animals, the reality is much
more disturbing. Undercover TV brings these images to the public so that people
can know the truth about what’s being done to animals.”
While Undercover TV is breaking new ground with viewers, it is also revolutionizing
the way animal advocacy groups get their message out by providing a national
television audience for their exposés. The show allows video activists
to become the media and tell the animals’ stories from their perspective.
Nathan Runkle, founder and Director of Ohio-based Mercy For Animals, says the
group’s undercover investigations of battery cage egg farms “have
been very successful in generating media attention, but some television stations
won’t air the most graphic footage for fear of offending viewers and losing
ratings. Undercover TV eliminates the unfortunate barriers we sometimes face
when working to expose animal cruelty through mainstream media.” Viva!USA
Director Lauren Ornelas agrees. “Getting the media to cover factory farming
issues is difficult,” she says. “Every time we do an investigation,
our goal is to show everyone the constant abuses taking place behind the barn
door, so to speak, of the factory farming industry. Undercover TV helps us do
just that.” This assessment fits well with Quash’s ultimate goal: “to
show the truth and achieve justice for animals.”
If you haven’t seen Undercover TV yet, visit www.undercovertv.org to find
out whether it airs in your city. If it doesn’t, you can get it shown on
your community public access channel by joining Undercover TV’s nationwide
distribution network. Currently, Undercover TV is especially seeking volunteers
in some of the larger cities, like Austin, Boston and Portland. Visit the website
to find out how you can help, and for information on submitting investigative
video footage for future episodes.
Mat Thomas is a staff writer for In Defense of Animals and lives in San Francisco
with two cats. He has been a frequent guest on Vegan TV and volunteers for Undercover
TV’s production crew. To learn more about Undercover TV and
view a guide
to all 11 episodes, visit www.undercovertv.org.
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