Farmer John Slaughterhouse Protest

It was supposed to be one of the hottest days of the year in LA and it felt like it. I drove away from the ocean breeze in Santa Monica to the muggy heat of the industrial district. I recognized the Farmer John building as soon as I saw it. There were mural paintings covering the entirety of the huge building. Happy playing pigs, a boy fishing with his dog and pig next to him, a mother pig nursing babies. It was insulting to know just on the other side of these painted walls was a horrifying slaughterhouse where 6000 pigs are massacred every single day. As I drove closer to the building I started to feel very anxious with bad vibes throbbing through my wrists, making my hands shake.

I parked my car down the street and across the block from the building. As soon as I got out of the car the smell hit me all at once and I was overwhelmed with nausea. I walked toward the building covering my nose and mouth with my shirt. I wondered how long I would be able to stay at the protest as I was gaging with every few stifled, heated breaths that were going in and out of my shirt. 

The crowd of protesters when I arrived was small but solid. I had learned earlier there was a group blocking the gates of the slaughterhouse so trucks with pigs couldn’t go in or out of the facility. Two women were arrested as they would not move from their seated protest in front of the gates. 

A woman gave me a roll on scent to put on my arm and I was grateful. The stench of death hung heavy in the air and a normally welcomed breeze only whipped the smell across my face and into the pit of my stomach even more. I thought if everyone who eats meat stood for one hour and smelled this disgusting stench in the air  and felt the negative energy it would probably make vegetarians out of most of them. 

The group went from small and solid to large and unified in a matter of minutes. We chanted animal rights slogans and held our fists and signs high in the air. Four different news outlets showed up, including a helicopter. This type of exposure was exactly what we wanted. How ironic that on World Farm Animal Day the pigs that were being sent to slaughter would only have seen the light of day once, on the ride from the factory farm to the slaughterhouse. I felt deep sadness for these animals, who are scientifically proven to be just as smart, if not smarter, than most breeds of dogs. That they would never be able to live. That’s it. Just live out a normal life. So seemingly simple, yet so twisted and broken from the people that enslave them, use and abuse them, because they simply like the taste of their flesh. 

I stayed for about an hour and said goodbye to the amazing people I had met. On the walk back to my car I could no longer sustain my composure. I was gagging uncontrollably and threw up. Normally, that makes me feel better, but the sickness was deep in me and I continued to gag on and off for hours after the protest. My nausea  lasted well into the next day, but the feelings and images I was exposed to at Farmer John’s will stay with me forever.