free love, free fight
In June 2009, 65 hens were freed from unnecessary suffering and misery of battery cages. They were transffered to new, safe homes.
Animals are not gifts, neither is their rescue. Therefore not even this rescue is meant as a gift and is not dedicated to anyone. It is only related to the memory of a man who could do more than just saying nothing, moaning and crying.
On 16th of June 2006, after a short illness, Gari Allen died.
I have personally crawled through many fur farms, cattle rearing farms, poultry houses and pig barns and I am still surprised that all of this is real.
I have seen minks, ferrets and arctic foxes being killed so that an image obsessed slut could feel luxurious and sexy; lonely calves confined to small boxes, torn away from their mothers and their milk, because milk belongs to the business and calves to the slaughter houses; pigs sitting and gagging in shit, their own as well as others; purposely distorted chicks that are then called broiler chickens, who are advertised as healthy and tasty meat; and I have seen hens - madly cackling and half-lunatic egg machines - covered on feathers; and I saw that all is so damn hard. I have witnessed many other terrible abuses that the judiciary system as well as the mainstream society either endorse outright or are complicit with through their silence.
I could hope that one day a change will come and I can strive towards that future. It’s just that… what about the animals whose lives, at this very moment, are maimed?
In May 2009 there were 16 hens freed from battery cages and put in new, safe homes.
Few weeks ago, I received a mail from my friend. She wrote that Chuck died. This is a little remembrance of him.
As a little boy I used to visit hog-killing a lot. My eyes were in another universe than they are today. The killing was a pleasure. Family celebration. Aunties, uncles, cousins, grandma and grandpa. Loud welcomes, laughter over head and ears, plum brandy and ‘kids, go have a look on the piggy’.
This was unplanned rescue. Together with friends from Austria we entered a turkey farm in the South Moravia. We walked through the building, I took pictures and finally we agreed, that we take at least one turkey and move her to Austria. She had a beautiful eyes and stang awfully. (dále…)
The chickens, the lives of which have been changed from birds to layers by people, are normally separated in hatches for suitable and useless. Then the useless ones are killed while the suitable ones go into cages to get used to them.
Every year from September to November, dead stags, hares, pheasants and others are sacrificed in churches and, over their bodies, in hallowed reverence stand the people whose entertainment and mission is to chase and kill animals (and for this purpose also to care for them). This chase and killing is being blessed by a priest, the Bible is read, people kneel, pray, wind horns and feel solemnly.
It is the St. Hubert’s mass.
It was in Austria during an investigation in a two-storey hall, from where, as I hoped, we would take some hens. I had a challenging week, several hours of driving, the day before we were in some five farms in Germany and Austria and this one was the second that night. What happened was due to my incautiousness and possibly the result of my overall tiredness. I couldn’t stop, slept little and worked a lot.
The cots for the sows are a long set of cages. A long line of animals with painfull joints and more than common irritation of the uterus. Long hours the animals, abused with boredom, are chewing to no use or only maybe a bite or are monotonously gnawing on railings. Their life is a circle of forced artificial insemination and giving birth, always in one circle, till they are utterly exhausted. Then they are loaded on a truck and driven to slaughter.
I have bad luck with this farm. In 2006, I could only shoot the video, got hit the head on the beam (and quite heavily) and then I had to disappear without making photos, because somebody appeared. A year later I made the video, avoided the beam and managed to do just a few photos and then I had to disappear again.
