21.dec.07
Animalnet From a press release

Animal protection groups from Europe and Canada have produced a gripping video titled "Do they know it's Christmas?"

The video, premiering today on YouTube, hauntingly sets scenes of the everyday brutalization of farmed animals around the world to the traditional hymn "Silent Night".

The film is a prayerful lament for the hundreds of millions of animals who are consumed with little or no thought or mercy during celebrations and family dinners this time of year. The film includes recent footage and stills by investigators from Stop Gavage/L214 (France), Varkens in Lund (The Netherlands), Der en Recht (The Netherlands), PETA (the United States) and a Canadian animal protection organization.

"We hope the video will touch people's hearts and cause them to reconsider their relationship with the animals whose dignity and life-blood are sacrificed for our dining pleasure," said Lynn Kavanagh, a director of the Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals.

"Horrific factory farming practices happen throughout industrialized nations, including Canada. The evidence is in the film," said Stephanie Brown, a director of the Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals. "It is not uncommon for severely injured and dying pigs to be abandoned with no medical treatment, food, water or straw to lie on", said Ms. Brown.

One image in the film shows an arthritic sow being electrically prodded up her vagina to force her to walk faster. "Overuse of prods is an on-going problem," said Ms. Kavanagh. "Animal transport drivers in Canada receive no mandatory training in proper animal handling. That's a problem," she said.

The video can be viewed on YouTube at: www.animalwatch.ca/c/christmas.wmv