Last week I sent out an alert about a documentary premiering tonight, Monday March 16, on HBO, titled 'Death on a Factory Farm." It covers the undercover investigation of horrifying abuse at an Ohio pig farm and the resulting animal cruelty case. The DawnWatch alert with all the information is on line at http://tinyurl.com/dz6z4f

For such a film to be aired on major popular media such as HBO is truly groundbreaking. The good news today is its coverage in the New York Times. There is a television review, by Mike Hale, titled "How These Piggies Went to Market." It opens with:

"It's not something you see every day: a large sow hanging by its neck from a forklift, kicking and swinging through the air until it's dead.

"That scene, surreptitiously taped at an Ohio hog facility, is the central image in both the HBO documentary 'Death on a Factory Farm' and the court case that it chronicles. It doesn't get any easier to watch as the film goes on, and the prosecutors keep showing it. If it upsets you, then you'll also be disturbed by the shots of sows left to die in fetid pens and the sound of deformed piglets' heads being smashed.

"The fact that these things don't upset everyone is the crux of the film, an animal-rights tract and legal drama that is primarily a snapshot of the American cultural divide...."

You'll find the full review on line at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/arts/television/16farm.html

It offers us the perfect opportunity to open up the editorial page to a discussion of the issues by sending a letter to the editor. You might wish to address factory farming, or the lack of cruelty laws for animals used as food, or to discuss the health and environmental benefits of a plant based diet. The New York Times takes letters at letters@nytimes.com

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. And please be sure not to use any comments or phrases from any alerts in your letters. Editors are looking for original responses from their readers.

I send thanks to Robert Chiles for making sure we saw the New York Times review.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com to read reviews and see a fun celeb-studded video and an NBC news piece on Karen Dawn's new book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008."