Mercy (2023) Movie Script
1
In court, the judges
slowed their breathing,
swallowed,
bowed their heads and put their
hands to
their mouths as they viewed the footage,
all of it caught on film.
It was a long fight for it
to be allowed as evidence.
Eventually... it was.
A custodial sentence
of six weeks was given,
so the convicted
served just three
and received a ban from
working in this profession
again.
They didnt blink.
The abattoir received
no punishment.
I remember being born.
I do.
[LOW HUM OF A CHOIR SINGING]
[CHOIR HUM BUILDING]
[CHOIR ACCOMPANIED BY
LOUD DISCORDANT DRILL SOUND]
[SOUND FADES]
I remember being slushed
out onto cold concrete,
and mum lying there
behind iron bars.
She couldnt move.
She tried.
No one came to help.
I cant imagine
how it was for her.
She was warm and I lay
there drinking up her bravery,
her endurance.
It was hers and I
sucked it from her.
I was lucky, my neediness
for her saved me.
It was dark, cold, wet.
As she lay there, I showed her
my little scampers around the
floor,
when care was not yet mine,
and her big eye
would look at me,
like a moon.
She would sing to me, the
song that meant all is well.
My brothers and sisters... I
don't know where they are now.
Some stayed with us.
[GENTLE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT]
[PIGLET SQUEALING] Then a worker
in
boots came and picked up one of the the others,
hed been so small and pale.
Maybe they were playing.
Held him by the back legs
and swung him up in the air.
Threw him.
The concrete thudded.
[OMINOUS RUMBLING]
Pound Against Concrete.
P.A.C.
One fell asleep.
I tried to wake him...
but he never did.
They say pigs can't cry.
Mum did.
Long streams from her eyes.
Her whole time on this
earth she had lain there...
having life put into
her by a metal pipe,
bearing life,
giving life.
It was on my third day into
life, the first thing happened.
My third day of dancing
and running around,
gazed on by her
eyes of glazed love.
A man came with his
boots and lifted me
high from sleep and
warmth and home...
[PIGLET SQUEALING]
and cut my teeth...
[DISCORDANT MUSIC
PLAYED BACKWARDS]
[PIGLET SQUEALING]
and cut off my tail.
I screamed...
my silvery squeal
cauterizing my little body,
jabbed with
antibiotic injection
[PIGLET SQUEALING]
[PIGLET SQUEALING]
[DISCORDANT PIANO]
[VOICES TALKING ALTOGETHER
OVER A PATCHWORK OF MUSIC]
[DISCORDANT PIANO
GENTLY PLAYING]
[DISCORDANT SOUNDS]
[HAUNTING SONG AND BIRD SONG]
[STRANGE SUSTAINED
STRINGS, GRADUALLY FADING]
When the shock wore off...
[SLOW MOURNFUL CELLO] I
was sore tailed and sore
toothed.
Head,
jaw,
ears,
tail...
a throbbing ache.
Something in my chest ached
Body bleeding.
Castrated.
Mutilated.
Injected.
This is now.
This is here.
This is me.
Such a short while I stayed
bathing in her sweet light...
Though she was
squeezed in tight...
but I lay by her nose
and slept by her brow
My mother. My Mother.
Together in our
darkened home
caring not, for what
we didnt have...
grateful and growing only
in our bonds and family unit...
strange...
unnatural and
utterly perfect.
[MINOR MELODY
STRING ACCOMPANIMENT]
Soon we were taken.
Too soon taken...
Too young taken,
stolen from her.
Three weeks is too soon.
She tried to stand to resist,
but couldnt rise
from her entombment,
craned her neck and eyes to look
at us,
as we were herded away to another place
and gates were locked...
and others like me stood
stunned, wide-eyed and pale.
I cry out but no-one hears, and
my cry merges with a sea of
cries.
Our dream with her, was over.
We now only have
each other and the dark.
[SOUND OF HORNS]
[SOUNDS OF ABATTOIR: PIGS
SQUEALING, METAL CLANKING]
I work in an abattoir.
I'm an abattoir worker.
ONE is an abattoir worker.
Slaughterhouse
to you. Got it.
You got a problem wiv that?
Cos I wanna be
straight wiv ya..
Right from the off.
Alright.
'Cos I get a bit of stick
from people nowadays.
Wot wiv the Internet.
And this.
And that.
Its a family business.
I grew up in it.
But it aint pretty.
It aint pretty at all.
Well, what dya expect it to
be, sweet and nice as pie?
[WASP FLIES BY]
And that.
Come on then sweetheart...
come on my pretty
little pink poppet...
that's right...
come to papa...
so papa can...
[SQUEALING SOUNDS]
Keep still... you
little... wriggler.
KEEP. Pigging. STILL.
Ahhh weve got a
dancer!!! Yeeehahhhhh!!!
Yeeehaahhh!
Dance for Daddy!
Dance for Daddy!
Look.
I've got a job to do.
I've got a family to feed.
So why dont you just bog right
back off to where you come from,
you know, sitting there,
looking at me,
judging me.
[SQUEALING SOUND]
So.
Some of you must
like a bit of meat?
Come on..
Own up.
Some of you must be
partial to a bacon sarnie?
Unless youre one of those,
what theyre called, err...
Vegans.
Morons more like. They
don't know what life is all
about.
Come on!
Come on! [HEAVY KICKING]
Come on! Come on!
Oh, you see what I mean?
Ive got another, load
comin' in soon, so I cant
stand around wiv you
all day avin a muvvers
soIm gonna go
and av my tea break
Erm... I might have a nice bit
o sausage roll... de do dah
day.
I gotta keep me strengf up
en all! So I'll see you lot
later.
I cant believe Im doing this.
But well. Here I am, apparently.
Me in my nice shoes and
peach scarf with lots of
well
Demonstrators.
I saw this event on Facebook,
Come along and see the
animals go into a slaughter
house...
Talk to them. Give them
some good energy before
they die and see if it
changes your mind.
I mean... Woo Hooo!!
I can honestly think
of better things to do.
I mean its not my cause, but
now Ive
been tagged, I feel like I have to come.
its only down the road.
So... here we all are...
I never even
knew it was here.
Long lonely lane in
the middle of nowhere.
Bit of an eye-opener really.
Its not something Ive ever
thought a lot
about, what with everything else going on.
I mean, its nature, isnt it,
eating meat? Its just what we
do.
Its a job, innit.
Listen to that
[PIGS SQUEALING]
I didnt think youd
be able to hear them!
Toot for the pigs.
Toot for the pigs.
Its in vogue at the moment
and Im constantly having
to change the subject,
because they really do go on.
Just stop!!! Please!
But eating meat... it's just
what you do, its just the way
it is.
To be honest, I cant stop here
long,
Ive Ive got so much on today. So...
I just hope this is
going to be brief.
[GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC]
It's my first day.
Day one.
[SOUNDS OF ABATTOIR: PIGS
SQUEALING, METAL CLANGING]
Nervous.
I don't want to mess up.
Dont want to mess it up.
There were no
other jobs for me.
I tried. This was all.
So... I find myself
in an abattoir.
A slaughterhouse.
Here I am.
[GENTLE ARPEGGIO GUITAR]
Come on my little
porky darling...
come on my little
porky princess
thats a good
girl, there we go.
[WASP BUZZING]
Yes, my son! Ohhh yes.
[HUMAN/PIG SQUEALS]
You little porker.
[WARPED DISTURBED SOUNDS]
I never saw her again.
I was three weeks old.
I wasn't meant to be
weaned yet, it was too soon.
[SOFT MOURNFUL
PIANO AND STRINGS]
Incarcerated in a concrete
pen with the others...
so many of us...
no space... there were fights...
there was constant boredom
And while I grew and was
fattened,
she was impregnated again...
her loss filled
once more with life.
And so it was, that my short
time
on Earth was being rounded up...
injected with
antibiotics and drugs.
Kept in this dark squalor.
Nothing to do.
Some didn't make it.
Then one day The final day
The lorries came. I
was five months old.
Suddenly the
big doors opened,
and a gush of sweet,
clean air rushed in
where before was
only dark and dirt.
A bright blue
blaze of daylight.
My eyes blinked.
All our noses rose above our
heads... a phenomenon was before
us.
Something was different.
Something stilled us
from our numbed oblivion,
lifted us up with
a hopeful scent.
The outside. The world.
The unknown...
from which we had
been imprisoned since the
moment consciousness
entered our tiny bodies.
The men came in their
boots with their bats,
each day to give
us food and water...
but today as yesterday... no
food... I was hungry and
hopeful.
Perhaps at last we were
going from this place
to a better place...
The men came in.
[GENTLE PIANO AND STRINGS]
[WEIRD GHOSTLY LOW WHOOSHING]
The gates of our pens opened.
The glee of something wild
and calling, rushed into my
blood.
Something wild, open
and free, beckoned my feet,
grateful of movement,
of change, of oxygen.
Daylight. Outside.
And I ran with the others.
Out. Out. Out.
We ran and ran,
and they herded us
with bats and I didnt care,
for there it was, the day!
The sky, blue! Blue! [BIRDSONG
AND UPLIFTING PIANO]
and the bright white light of
air
and cloud and sun, hot on my skin.
Thirsty for it, soaking it
up. I jumped jumps of joy.
I had forgotten
the joy of being
But now here and out,
I felt the touch of hope..
The touch of some great
spirit, all embracing and
uplifting.
I took in a long, long
gulp of this sweet day,
and suddenly as soon as out...
we're in...
and a drawbridge came up on my escape,
and I was captive once more.
An engine started...
there was vibration
engine moan... shunting
movement... fuel smoke...
and I tried to keep
my balance as it jerked,
lurched forward and
we all squashed...
a sea of us... so tight together
now, as the world ran by us.
I looked back and saw the sheds
where I had spent my first days
grow smaller and smaller,
and a roar of engine
labouring at our weight...
three tiers high
of all my kind
with bars through
which we looked.
My primal self was called
and I watched as the world spun
past,
blurring close and mesmerising far...
wondrous, warm,
abundant, life.
[GENTLE PIANO AND STRINGS]
[TRUCK RUMBLING ALONG]
[STRINGS AND PIANO
BUILDING GRADUALLY]
[PIG SQUEALS]
[STRINGS AND PIANO BUILDING
INTO A HOPELESS CRESCENDO]
[DESPERATE PIG SQUEALS]
[MORE DESPERATE PIG SQUEALS
AND THE SOUNDS OF A VIGIL
GATHERING]
Thank you to everyone who has
travelled here today to bear
witness.
We have invited you
to witness that today,
850 non-human people
will be murdered here.
This may be distressing
for you to see and hear,
but please know that your
presence will not be in vain.
Although we cannot
halt this mass execution,
we can give kindness, comfort
and
compassion to those who have known none.
Ultimately we need
to close them down,
but until then, we need to
ensure that
every slaughterhouse and factory farm
has mandatory,
independently monitored CCTV,
so that the animals can
no longer be abused...
behind closed doors!
[CHEERING]
We call upon this
slaughterhouse NOW...
to put down their weapons of
mass
destruction and make the connection.
We all implore you...
to look into their eyes
Are you all gonna
be here long?
Are you gonna be
staying here long?
Just wanna keep you safe this
morning
so please just keep to the footpaths...'
A lot of lorries No
standing in the road
[PROTESTOR] Are
you going to do anything
about whats
going on in there?
Im obviously impartial..
Obviously impartial
Keep it clean!
[PROTESTOR] Is it OK for
them to murder pigs, then?
Theyre trying to
run a business...
Trying to run a business...
[PROTESTOR] Yeah, theyre
trying to run a business that
kills!
What about all the murders
that are going on in there?
Just remember they are
trying to run a business,
so dont block the
highway and no swearing...
that is obviously
the important thing.
[SPEAKER] ...innocent
natures, who have known nothing
but mans greed and
mans indifference...
You all have your
right to protest
You have every right for a
peaceful
protest but keep it clean... all right?
born only to die! The most
vulnerable creatures on earth
[SOUND OF A
BUTTERFLY FLYING BY]
[SPEAKER] Born in
confinement... raised in
squalor...
Well be going to have a
word with the owner later...
Going in to have a
chat with the owner.
[SPEAKER] Sentenced to death
between three and six months
old...
not allowed to roam
freely in the fields...
So no one wants
to, er, talk to us today?
[SPEAKER] to make
a nest, in which to bear
and nurture their young
kept in confinement
Wots goin' on ere
look at these guys idiots
- Bunch o wallies!
- Waste o time
- Look at the state o ya
- Caused a traffic jam!
Look at the state of you!!!
We just been stuck in
traffic 'cos o you lot...
Hang on a minute
Shes wearing
leather shoes! Look!
- No excuse me
- Yes, you are!
Go and get a job!
Excuse me... theyre vegan
and we all have got jobs.
- Vegan?!
- Yeah.
Wots Vegan then?
No meat. No animals
You're nuts, the
lot of ya! I tell ya!
- Yes, you are!
- No wait...
- Causing traffic congestion..
- Yeah... get yerself a job!
See ya later, then.
Whats she doin' wearin'
levva shoes then... if you...
Theyre not leather...
theyre vegan...
- Bye, bye.
- Car coming.
[CAR HORN]
Dont drive off...
- Stop wasting time.
- Yeah, go and get yerself a
proper job...
Gonna have a nice
bacon sandwich.
- Oi!
- Its you thats wasting time,
you dick.
Shame on you, Scum,
Animal abusers, Shame on you.
Scum, Scum, Animal
abusers, SHAME ON YOU!
Stop! Stop!
Shame on you!
SHAME ON YOU! SHAME
ON YOU! SCUM! MURDERER!
Pigs rank number four
in animal intelligence,
behind chimpanzees,
dolphins and elephants.
Theyre more intelligent
than dogs, yet if dogs
were treated the way pigs
were treated in the U.K,
The farmers and
slaughterers would be in prison,
but because there are
virtually no laws protecting
pigs,
their ill treatment is
legal and the farmers
and slaughter men
are making profit.
Philip Lymbery of Compassion
in World Farming says.
The viral hot-house of keeping
animals... caged, cramped
and confined are conditions
that allow viruses to mutate.
The United Nations said,
A global shift towards a vegan
diet
is vital to save the world from hunger,
fuel poverty and the worst
impacts of climate change.
I feel a bit hot I get
her point and everything,
but weve been eating
meat for a long time,
and what would
happen to all the pigs and
cows and chickens if
we didnt breed them...
theyd all become extinct.
I mean the way
animals are raised in
intensive farming is a
horrible thing, I agree.
I dont know..
My husband died
when he was fifty.
His heart. High cholesterol.
But, thats
genetic, isnt it
They say that you can reverse
medical conditions by what you
eat...
but I mean no one would be sick
if that was the case, would
they
wed all be eating plants
if that was the case
I mean
if hed eaten differently
it wouldnt necessarily
We are brainwashed by
the aggressive marketing
of the animal
agricultural industry.
The United Nations state
that Animal Agriculture
is one of the major
causes of climate change
and the Eco Disaster.
Its reversible by humans
adopting a plant-based vegan
diet.
What are we waiting
for? We have to act now!
Juliet Gellatley, founder
and director of Viva!, said,
Three quarters of
the worlds new and
emerging infectious
diseases come from animals,
mainly from trading in wild
life or from factory farming.
Covid 19, SARS, MERS, Bird Flu,
Ebola and AIDS to name but a
few,
are some zoonotic
diseases which come from
the exploitation and
consumption of animals.
Fifty-six zoonotic
diseases are responsible for
an estimated 2.5 billion
cases of human illness,
and 2.7 million
deaths a year.
Veganism is not being
acknowledged as a
key preventative measure for future outbreaks
by any government
or health organisation,
because too much
money is made from and
invested into the animal
agricultural industry.
We ALL have the power
to change our future by
protecting our planet
and ALL of its inhabitants...
human and non-human.
The simplest, most economical
and effective solution,
is to end the global
trade in wild animals,
and to stop eating animals.
Thank you for stepping outside
of your comfort zones today,
to be here with
them... for them.
Soon the lorries will come.
Be safe.
And when the lorries stop...
feel free to talk softly to
those on board
who are bound for un-peaceful deaths...
which ALL will resist...
none will go freely...
and as we stand here
together, briefly... with
them...
we are saying, We see you,
we are trying and were sorry.
[A BELL TOLLS]
[OMINOUS SLOW
BEAT TECHNO MUSIC]
The smell hits me... its
intense... its unearthly.
Move away from
the lorry please.
[LOUD LORRY HORN]
[LORRY HORN]
[FAST TECHNO MUSIC]
[PIGS SQUEALING]
[PIGS GRUNTING]
[EERIE MUSIC]
I peer through
into the gloom.
Haaaa... so many
still.
Covered in
bruises scratches.
Their eyes look
at me... inquisitive.
[EERIE MUSIC]
They raise their noses.
Im worried about
stroking them. Do pigs bite?
I remember being born I do.
[PIGS GRUNTING]
One of them is looking at
me... right near the bar...
an almost human eye
"Hello. Looks back at
me... as if wondering
seems to know that I am
speaking to him. Or her.
Hello.
Hot, cold, tired,
hungry, thirsty...
Crammed in so tight...
Weve stopped suddenly.
There are different
human faces.
Faces and words that
seem... Kind. And sad.
Hands touching us
gently, for the first time.
EVER. Soft, gentle
hands with a tenderness.
I remember only
once from my mother.
But no other.
Except this
gentle human soul,
[SOFT SAD PIANO MUSIC]
who looks at me with some
unconscious thought rising in
her eyes,
and in her eyes
I see reflected,
my own unconscious dread.
I feel myself aware
that I want to help.
I want to help.
I look at this
being
in front of me..
Just present.
Present with me.
It...
becomes Him or Her...
You.
Ive said it.
You.
Now Im damned.
Now Ive recognised.
Made the connection.
You"
are at... our... mercy.
Have I just named you?
[SAD CELLO
ACCOMPANIES THE PIANO]
Im aware that I cant seem to
comprehend what Im doing or
seeing.
I hear someone speak softly.
Im sorry."
Im sorry."
And then I realise its me.
The drivers are
getting angry
more police are here now
someone is being led away
for giving the pigs water
You look at me
[DRAMATIC PIANO AND CELLO]
I have to stand away
as the truck moves off,
and I watch you go...
trapped inside all of you,
and its my fault.
Im responsible.
Im the consumer paying
them to do my dirty work...
that could endanger us all.
[CELLO, PIANO AND STRINGS
BEAR THE ANIMALS AWAY]
[MUSIC SWELLS TO A
HEART-RENDING CRESCENDO]
[BELL RINGS]
[SOUND OF LORRY
AND BIRD SONG]
[DRUMS INTO REGGAE MUSIC]
[SINGING] I like
to move it move it...
[SINGING ALONG]
[SOUND OF STICK
BANGING ON METAL]
Move it! [LAUGHS]
The lorry jerked
finally to a halt.
It was a bad place.
[PIG SQUEALS]
I heard the screams
of a thousand sisters.
I smelt the blood
of a billion brothers.
The evening was coming.
[UPTEMPO REGGAE BEAT]
Get in there! NOW!
Move it! Get in there
now! Get in there now!
Get in. Go. Get in there now!
Get in there, now! Eughhh!
Get in there now! Get in!
Wotve we got
ere?!? Little piggy eh?
Now! Get up!
Eughhh!
Cmon!!!
Oi! Get a move
on! Oi! Get up!
Oh, about time
Wots so funny?!
Here comes Johnny
Reggae, Here comes Johnny.
Reggae Reggae, Johnny
Reggae Reggae... Lay it on me...
- Fuck off!
- Oooh hooo!
Wot?
Ohhh, bless
Now listen boys and girls, a
little bit of work wont go
amiss...
Tosser!
Weve got a load
in. Pull yer socks up.
For fucks sake.
Wot?
Fuckin 'ell.
[ELECTRIC GUITAR
CONCLUDES THE REGGAE SONG]
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
I sicken
pull myself into a crevice.
It's just me and them now.
I can't get away...
[FOOTSTEPS IN BOOTS
AND CLANGING METAL]
[PIG SQUEALS AND
SOUNDS OF ABATTOIR]
[PIGS SQUEAL]
[PIG SQUEAL]
[LAUGHING]
Nice shot. Mug.
[LAUGHING]
- Go on - Hit it!
Wot, like this you mug?
[LAUGHS]
You missed!
Euh... [SQUEAL]
[LAUGHTER]
[SOUND OF URINATING]
[LAUGHTER]
Come on, you mug.
[SOUND OF BOTH MEN URINATING]
Your pissing on my boots...
you fucking melt! Ughhh sick!
Didnt ya know? Your
the melt you fucking prick.
Fucking mug,
pissing on my boots!
[LAUGHS]
Come on! [SOUND
OF HIM KICKING HER]
Stop please stop...
Come on! [SOUND OF KICKING]
- STOP! Please stop! Stop,
please!
- Only got a couple of pricks...
COME ON!
[SQUEALS]
OH. COME. ON!
Please stop kicking
me, youre hurting me!
[PIG SQUEALS]
[GENTLE ARPEGGIO CLASSICAL
GUITAR, NEW GUYS THEME]
Mine was not the usual
run of the mill job interview.
"I would like you
to skin this sheep".
They were very
pleased with me.
I am thorough and precise.
The training was short.
The herding.
The stun.
The kill.
The hanging.
The drawing.
The quartering.
The rutting.
The mess.
The smell.
The gore.
I knew I would
need to keep hosing.
Keep it as clean
as I can make it.
Some of the
others work dirty.
[GENTLE ARPEGGIO CLASSICAL
GUITAR, NEW GUYS THEME]
This morning I put
on my hard head.
I'm not a hard man.
[GENTLE ACOUSTIC GUITAR BALLAD:
MALE VOICE] Have to get this
right,
I'm in love.
Have to get this right,
Dont want suffering, no
other voices talk this way,
Keep my thoughts to myself,
shown how to kill,
Full of sound and
fury, unrelenting,
Do you know,
death has a smell,
Sweet, sickly sweet,
Hyacinths.
Summer wasps
swarm around like flies.
Sweet, sickly sweet,
Hyacinths. Hyacinths.
[GENTLE GUITAR CONTINUES]
[GUITAR FADES]
[SCRAPE OF GUITAR STRINGS]
When the transporters come...
echoing silence is shattered
by an unearthly porcine chorus.
Swine scream.
They always do.
They set each other off.
But this time it's different.
This time, the men are making
it worse. Even I can hear that.
Theyre goading them to
upset the protesters outside.
Theyve been coming
here a long time now.
Every week... since the leak.
I heard about that. But
I keep that to myself.
I know what they
get up to in here.
I know.
I see.
The pigs stampede off
just to get some movement.
But after that, they freeze.
They just seem doped.
They can smell
death in the air.
They're animals. They
live on their senses.
But its not my
job to think that.
The workers bash
their bats around.
The pigs are covered in great
big red weals and welts of
bruises.
Looks as if theyve been
smacked with red paint powder
at a Holi festival. The
process is so quick
Usually.
Its high-pressured.
Stressful. On everyone.
The workers to get it done.
The animals to
maintain life. At any cost.
They buck and rear and run.
Theyre anxious. Panic-stricken.
Youll be busy at work and
you'll look round at the line
and you'll see some of them
have just dropped stone dead.
Their hearts just stop.
From the stress.
They know. They know.
How could they not?
The noise and
smell is dreadful.
They go dashing about the walls
in a desperate attempt to
escape.
Some of them are sick,
have broken
bones, they cant run.
I pity them the most.
Ive seen them dragged.
Thrown by their ears,
prodded with electric prongs
brutally,
over and over just to make them move.
[MALE VOICE, ACOUSTIC
GUITAR, ARPEGGIO]
[SINGING] Group mentality,
mob mentality,
Worlds away from me, no
other voices talk my way.
Keep my thoughts to myself,
Oi mate, where you been,
we been looking for ya,
Fucking mug!
[SONG] Full of sound
and fury, un-consenting.
We are all,
entering hell.
Sweet, sickly sweet,
Hyacinths.
And the summer wasps
swarm around like flies,
Sweet, sickly sweet,
Hyacinths,
Hyacinths,
Hyacinths,
Hyacinths...
[ABATTOIR SOUNDS
AND PIGS SQUEALING]
[GENTLE ARPEGGIO CLASSICAL
GUITAR: NEW GUYS THEME]
[SQUEALING]
[GENTLE ARPEGGIO CLASSICAL
GUITAR: NEW GUYS THEME]
[NEW GUYS THEME]
[PIG SCREAMS]
[LIVELY ACOUSTIC
GUITAR: MALE VOICE]
[SINGING] The next panics
in pushed sliding on the gore,
More difficult to
catch, six months old,
Eyes wide, mouth gaping,
panicking, trafficking,
This is the fight
mans rigged to win,
Man wrestles beast, is this
the lure? The primal war,
Blood... lust... up!
[ACOUSTIC GUITAR]
He fights to live...
his right to live,
Man's rigged to win, its
a computer game to him,
Animals are victims to
our hunger and our salary,
Its not a fair fight but
stimulates adrenalin,
Stimulates the primal win,
Privately annihilating kill by
kill,
Privately
annihilating kill by kill,
Kill by kill, kill by kill,
Want out but Im in,
Sold out now I'm in,
Kill by kill by kill by kill,
Sold my
soul, Sold my soul, soul my soul.
Man dont care, fists punch the
air,
Sold my soul, sold my soul, sold my soul,
Kill by kill, kill by kill, kill
by kill, Sold
my soul, sold my soul, sold my soul,
Sold my soul,
[SOUND OF FLY
BUZZING AROUND]
[WITH REVERB] Sold my
soul, sold my soul, sold my
soul...
[FLY BUZZING CRESCENDOS]
Sold his soul, sold
his soul, sold his soul...
[PRIMAL DRUM SOLO]
[DRUM SOLO RISES TO A
BLOOD CURDLING CRESCENDO]
[CYMBAL SMASH AND A GASP]
[DRIVING ROCK TRACK WITH
A SOARING LEAD GUITAR]
[DRIVING ROCK SONG MALE
VOCAL] Industrious, youre so
industrious,
You build your
gravestone high,
and fuck the rest of us,
And business boy,
what a busy jerk you are,
The power to destroy,
is so illustrious,
Impressive pile,
you make the devil smile,
You kiss his lips,
but youre just dust to us,
Curious,
I am curious,
When I look inside of
me I always see you there,
Curious,
I am curious,
When I look inside of me,
I see you there,
Industrious, youre
so industrious.
You screw the bolts in tight,
and bottle up the pus,
And business boy, what
a creep you really are,
You dig us all in deep,
you think youre
bloody marvelous,
Conclusive wealth,
the devils in good health,
You feed him up
genius,
Curious,
I am curious,
When I look inside of
me, I always see you there,
Curious, I am curious,
When I look inside of me,
I see you there,
[BLISTERING GUITAR SOLO]
[MUSIC ENDS ABRUPTLY] NEXT!
[PIGS SQUEALING
AND SCREAMING]
[SOUNDS OF THE
SLAUGHTERHOUSE]
[ETHEREAL HIGH FEMALE
VOCAL UNDERSCORING]
There's only a few of us now.
One of the men comes...
shouting... with a bat...
he smells sweet
of hyacinths...
maybe she left me some...
the beautiful one
who came to me...
He's so mad at
me, he won't stop,
he's so mad at us
he's in a hurry his
mortgage is late...
Theyre short-staffed.
The workers they
have are no good...
his wife hates him
wants to leave...
he's moody never
talks doesn't touch her...
just drinks and
watches the TV
He's very stressed, his
blood pressures high,
his lifes meaningless,
he has to carry on...
if he stopped he'd have to
think he's trying not to think
he dare not think...
he's on the edge,
he's had enough of his torment
he's going to take it all
out... on... me
He rains down on me...
all the blows he's ever had,
all the indifference in his
life... in this one moment...
rains it... all...
down on me,
blow after blow after blow...
over and over and over,
thirty-six blows to my head
and back in less than a
minute...
I just don't want to
go in there, that's all...
please don't make
me I don't want to die...
GET A BLOODY MOVE ON!
Please don't kill me...
it hurts, that's all, please
don't hurt me, please,
Please don't hurt me...
please... please... please...
[ECHOEY SOUNDS OF THE
IMPACT OF THE HERDING STICK]
[EXHALE OF BREATH]
[THE FEMALE HIGH
VOCAL CRESCENDOS]
[ETHEREAL HIGH FEMALE
VOICES CONTINUE]
Its my turn. My
first day at this.
Forgive me for being afraid.
Forgive me for not knowing
where to go and when
forgive me for making
it difficult for you.
I don't want to die. I've
never done it before.
Forgive me for being afraid.
Itll be better to be
dead for me than this life,
but I don't know that
yet and I only want to live.
Forgive me for
making it hard for you...
I'm sorry.
Forgive me.
It's my first time.
Please don't hurt me anymore.
I only have a short time
left. A minute. Maybe two.
I haven't eaten for days.
Im weak so scared.
Forgive me for making
your life so hard.
I don't know how
not to be afraid
I cant help
wanting to live...
forgive me
[ETHEREAL HIGH FEMALE VOICES
BEGIN TO SLOW AND FADE INTO
NOTHING]
[A JANGLING PIANO CHORD
STRIKES] In one comes,
[GUITAR AND PIANO ACCOMPANY
] racing, bolting,
panic-stricken.
The cage door slams shut.
Its just him and me now.
I pick up the tongs.
My hands are clammy and cold.
My face is hot.
I try to corner him.
Terror darts his eyes
and the scream hurts
the drums of my ears
as if they would burst.
[THE GUITAR SCREAMS]
I aim the tongs at his head.
His fight for life is so
admirable
that my fight to do my job rises.
Im sweating,
nauseous with effort.
I have to be quick. Tongs. To
head. Contact. Trigger. Shock.
He pulls back, partial shock.
I don't know where I got
him... the face, but not the
brain.
He staggers, runs, jerking,
tripping, my panic rises with
his,
I have to stamp him out,
stamp out his
terror and confusion,
stamp out his pain,
and, along with it, mine.
I come in again,
Position!
Contact!
Trigger!
Shock!
[SHOCK WAVES OF
PIANO AND GUITAR]
I feel power race through
me as if I am Zeus...
Lightning courses through
my veins and out of my hands,
and bolts straight
into his brain.
I feel it that
time. The Stun.
The power surges as
he drops heavy as if shot.
I stand above my kill
as though a matador,
triumphant in the bull ring,
taking applause from a rapturous
bloodthirsty invisible crowd
I soar from the precipice of
self... into a sky of elation...
with wide wings circling around
the universe as if it were mine.
As if it were mine.
[ELECTRIC GUITAR
TRANSCENDENTALLY SOLOS]
And slowly,
on rapturous
curtain calls of sound,
down and down, I glide...
While hands,
seemingly not mine
pick up the knife.
[THE GUITAR SOLO ENDS AND IN
COMES A
STRANGE SLOWED DOWN GUITAR STRING DRONE]
The blade looms larger
than the world before my face,
and in it, I catch my
reflection and my pallor.
I bring the blade to rest,
on the soft spot of the neck.
Slowly I stroke the soft
silk throat with razor blade,
deep red blood cascades
a roll of red silk erupting
operatically
from the shining black wound...
flooding the floor like a
deep shining red aura
surrounding me
with a macabre lake,
on which I seem to skate
in my new white boots,
that absorb the
stain like shroud.
I watch as he
struggles to breathe.
Drowning.
Gasping,
and bleeding
Pupil still registering.
Still alive.
We share a look.
Something draws
me deeply in...
as an astronaut in space is
drawn
to gaze back down upon Earth.
In the bright and
beautiful glistening globe,
I am suspended,
in a dark abyss.
I feel our being locked in.
As life fades
something of me is taken...
and what is left of me...
stays until the end.
[A CHOIR OF ANGEL
VOICES FILL THE AIR]
Thine is the task of blood.
Discharge thy
task with mercy.
Let thy victim feel no pain.
Let sudden blow bring death;
Such death as thou
thyself would ask for.
[ANGELIC CHOIR CONTINUES]
It was all so fast.
So furious.
My adrenaline raced
and lifted me out of myself.
I saw the tongs
come to my head.
I can't remember pain now.
Maybe death is like birth.
I smile because Im free.
He slit my throat and
my blood flew from me,
a hot red flag.
He stayed with
me while I died.
I was grateful
not to be alone.
He had kind eyes.
His eyes witnessed my death,
as others had
witnessed my short life.
Bred for food.
Born to be killed.
All of us.
So many of us.
We share the planet you and I
and merely by the
simple fluke of... chance...
were born to be those
wholl be cherished,
or born to be those
wholl be abused.
When you walk
away from my story...
remember me.
He hung me to half mast,
and enchanted,
I fly,
ethereal voices singing
me to merciful nothing.
[FLIGHTS OF ANGELS,
CRESCENDO AND FADE TO SILENCE]
Id had enough of it anyway.
Id become a murderer,
in a murdering job.
Meat and Dairy:
The more you eat,
the more you want.
Its a mugs game,
and its dying.
I can see,
all them slaughterhouses
becoming Plant Production
Facilities.
Plant Plants!
No-one would have
to lose their jobs,
and it would be a
lot more peaceful,
and cleaner.
Id be able to
sleep at night.
[MANIACAL LAUGHING
AND SLAUGHTER SOUNDS]
[SCREAMING PIGS
AND MEN SHOUTING]
[FUNEREAL ORGAN CHORDS]
[FEMALE VOICE SINGING] Through
the bars of the truck the world
goes by,
Through the bars of
the truck I see the sky,
I cry mercy,
mercy,
mercy,
mercy,
Through the bars of
the truck you see my eye,
Through the bars of
the truck I see you cry,
- Yee-ha! Yee-ha!
- For mercy,
for mercy,
for mercy,
for mercy,
Through the bars of the
truck we say goodbye,
Through the bars of the
truck Im scared to die,
They show no mercy,
no mercy,
[PIGS SCREAMING]
no mercy,
no mercy,
No mercy,
No mercy.
No mercy,
No mercy,
No mercy,
[SOUNDS OF THE ABATTOIR]
No mercy.
[ANGELIC CHOIR FADES IN]
Your honour, the animals
are not the only victims.
The cold hard truth
is that the workers are
not encouraged to see
the animals as alive,
independent, thinking,
feeling beings but to
disassociate from
them and their feelings,
which has its own dire
consequences for
them as humans.
As the animals are
driven off the trucks,
the workers must see
them as pieces of meat,
to be killed as quickly and
efficiently as possible,
on the highly pressurised
assembly line...
the...
disassembly line.
There are many
shocking practices,
in factory farms and
slaughterhouses
that are standard and legal,
to which the workers
have to develop immunity
in order to do their
laborious and stressful jobs.
PTSD, trauma, anxiety
and other mental health
issues go largely undocumented,
and many are trapped in this
line of work through lack of
choice,
and become
themselves, victims,
in the animal agricultural
industrys powerful,
secret and hidden world.
Philip Lymbery, from
Compassion in World Farming,
says that the caged, crammed and
confined conditions of factory
farms,
provide the ideal breeding
ground for
new and more deadly strains of virus.
Swine flu and highly pathogenic
avian flu, being but two
examples.
At the same time,
the global desire
for ever more meat,
means clearing more forest
worldwide for farm land,
encroaching on wild lands
and their novel viruses.
In short,
our treatment of animals
in the natural world,
risks new and deadly
disease pandemics.
[ETHEREAL CHOIR]
[UPBEAT PRO-VEGAN
SPOKEN WORD SONG]
[REFLECTIVE FOLK SONG]
In court, the judges
slowed their breathing,
swallowed,
bowed their heads and put their
hands to
their mouths as they viewed the footage,
all of it caught on film.
It was a long fight for it
to be allowed as evidence.
Eventually... it was.
A custodial sentence
of six weeks was given,
so the convicted
served just three
and received a ban from
working in this profession
again.
They didnt blink.
The abattoir received
no punishment.
I remember being born.
I do.
[LOW HUM OF A CHOIR SINGING]
[CHOIR HUM BUILDING]
[CHOIR ACCOMPANIED BY
LOUD DISCORDANT DRILL SOUND]
[SOUND FADES]
I remember being slushed
out onto cold concrete,
and mum lying there
behind iron bars.
She couldnt move.
She tried.
No one came to help.
I cant imagine
how it was for her.
She was warm and I lay
there drinking up her bravery,
her endurance.
It was hers and I
sucked it from her.
I was lucky, my neediness
for her saved me.
It was dark, cold, wet.
As she lay there, I showed her
my little scampers around the
floor,
when care was not yet mine,
and her big eye
would look at me,
like a moon.
She would sing to me, the
song that meant all is well.
My brothers and sisters... I
don't know where they are now.
Some stayed with us.
[GENTLE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT]
[PIGLET SQUEALING] Then a worker
in
boots came and picked up one of the the others,
hed been so small and pale.
Maybe they were playing.
Held him by the back legs
and swung him up in the air.
Threw him.
The concrete thudded.
[OMINOUS RUMBLING]
Pound Against Concrete.
P.A.C.
One fell asleep.
I tried to wake him...
but he never did.
They say pigs can't cry.
Mum did.
Long streams from her eyes.
Her whole time on this
earth she had lain there...
having life put into
her by a metal pipe,
bearing life,
giving life.
It was on my third day into
life, the first thing happened.
My third day of dancing
and running around,
gazed on by her
eyes of glazed love.
A man came with his
boots and lifted me
high from sleep and
warmth and home...
[PIGLET SQUEALING]
and cut my teeth...
[DISCORDANT MUSIC
PLAYED BACKWARDS]
[PIGLET SQUEALING]
and cut off my tail.
I screamed...
my silvery squeal
cauterizing my little body,
jabbed with
antibiotic injection
[PIGLET SQUEALING]
[PIGLET SQUEALING]
[DISCORDANT PIANO]
[VOICES TALKING ALTOGETHER
OVER A PATCHWORK OF MUSIC]
[DISCORDANT PIANO
GENTLY PLAYING]
[DISCORDANT SOUNDS]
[HAUNTING SONG AND BIRD SONG]
[STRANGE SUSTAINED
STRINGS, GRADUALLY FADING]
When the shock wore off...
[SLOW MOURNFUL CELLO] I
was sore tailed and sore
toothed.
Head,
jaw,
ears,
tail...
a throbbing ache.
Something in my chest ached
Body bleeding.
Castrated.
Mutilated.
Injected.
This is now.
This is here.
This is me.
Such a short while I stayed
bathing in her sweet light...
Though she was
squeezed in tight...
but I lay by her nose
and slept by her brow
My mother. My Mother.
Together in our
darkened home
caring not, for what
we didnt have...
grateful and growing only
in our bonds and family unit...
strange...
unnatural and
utterly perfect.
[MINOR MELODY
STRING ACCOMPANIMENT]
Soon we were taken.
Too soon taken...
Too young taken,
stolen from her.
Three weeks is too soon.
She tried to stand to resist,
but couldnt rise
from her entombment,
craned her neck and eyes to look
at us,
as we were herded away to another place
and gates were locked...
and others like me stood
stunned, wide-eyed and pale.
I cry out but no-one hears, and
my cry merges with a sea of
cries.
Our dream with her, was over.
We now only have
each other and the dark.
[SOUND OF HORNS]
[SOUNDS OF ABATTOIR: PIGS
SQUEALING, METAL CLANKING]
I work in an abattoir.
I'm an abattoir worker.
ONE is an abattoir worker.
Slaughterhouse
to you. Got it.
You got a problem wiv that?
Cos I wanna be
straight wiv ya..
Right from the off.
Alright.
'Cos I get a bit of stick
from people nowadays.
Wot wiv the Internet.
And this.
And that.
Its a family business.
I grew up in it.
But it aint pretty.
It aint pretty at all.
Well, what dya expect it to
be, sweet and nice as pie?
[WASP FLIES BY]
And that.
Come on then sweetheart...
come on my pretty
little pink poppet...
that's right...
come to papa...
so papa can...
[SQUEALING SOUNDS]
Keep still... you
little... wriggler.
KEEP. Pigging. STILL.
Ahhh weve got a
dancer!!! Yeeehahhhhh!!!
Yeeehaahhh!
Dance for Daddy!
Dance for Daddy!
Look.
I've got a job to do.
I've got a family to feed.
So why dont you just bog right
back off to where you come from,
you know, sitting there,
looking at me,
judging me.
[SQUEALING SOUND]
So.
Some of you must
like a bit of meat?
Come on..
Own up.
Some of you must be
partial to a bacon sarnie?
Unless youre one of those,
what theyre called, err...
Vegans.
Morons more like. They
don't know what life is all
about.
Come on!
Come on! [HEAVY KICKING]
Come on! Come on!
Oh, you see what I mean?
Ive got another, load
comin' in soon, so I cant
stand around wiv you
all day avin a muvvers
soIm gonna go
and av my tea break
Erm... I might have a nice bit
o sausage roll... de do dah
day.
I gotta keep me strengf up
en all! So I'll see you lot
later.
I cant believe Im doing this.
But well. Here I am, apparently.
Me in my nice shoes and
peach scarf with lots of
well
Demonstrators.
I saw this event on Facebook,
Come along and see the
animals go into a slaughter
house...
Talk to them. Give them
some good energy before
they die and see if it
changes your mind.
I mean... Woo Hooo!!
I can honestly think
of better things to do.
I mean its not my cause, but
now Ive
been tagged, I feel like I have to come.
its only down the road.
So... here we all are...
I never even
knew it was here.
Long lonely lane in
the middle of nowhere.
Bit of an eye-opener really.
Its not something Ive ever
thought a lot
about, what with everything else going on.
I mean, its nature, isnt it,
eating meat? Its just what we
do.
Its a job, innit.
Listen to that
[PIGS SQUEALING]
I didnt think youd
be able to hear them!
Toot for the pigs.
Toot for the pigs.
Its in vogue at the moment
and Im constantly having
to change the subject,
because they really do go on.
Just stop!!! Please!
But eating meat... it's just
what you do, its just the way
it is.
To be honest, I cant stop here
long,
Ive Ive got so much on today. So...
I just hope this is
going to be brief.
[GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC]
It's my first day.
Day one.
[SOUNDS OF ABATTOIR: PIGS
SQUEALING, METAL CLANGING]
Nervous.
I don't want to mess up.
Dont want to mess it up.
There were no
other jobs for me.
I tried. This was all.
So... I find myself
in an abattoir.
A slaughterhouse.
Here I am.
[GENTLE ARPEGGIO GUITAR]
Come on my little
porky darling...
come on my little
porky princess
thats a good
girl, there we go.
[WASP BUZZING]
Yes, my son! Ohhh yes.
[HUMAN/PIG SQUEALS]
You little porker.
[WARPED DISTURBED SOUNDS]
I never saw her again.
I was three weeks old.
I wasn't meant to be
weaned yet, it was too soon.
[SOFT MOURNFUL
PIANO AND STRINGS]
Incarcerated in a concrete
pen with the others...
so many of us...
no space... there were fights...
there was constant boredom
And while I grew and was
fattened,
she was impregnated again...
her loss filled
once more with life.
And so it was, that my short
time
on Earth was being rounded up...
injected with
antibiotics and drugs.
Kept in this dark squalor.
Nothing to do.
Some didn't make it.
Then one day The final day
The lorries came. I
was five months old.
Suddenly the
big doors opened,
and a gush of sweet,
clean air rushed in
where before was
only dark and dirt.
A bright blue
blaze of daylight.
My eyes blinked.
All our noses rose above our
heads... a phenomenon was before
us.
Something was different.
Something stilled us
from our numbed oblivion,
lifted us up with
a hopeful scent.
The outside. The world.
The unknown...
from which we had
been imprisoned since the
moment consciousness
entered our tiny bodies.
The men came in their
boots with their bats,
each day to give
us food and water...
but today as yesterday... no
food... I was hungry and
hopeful.
Perhaps at last we were
going from this place
to a better place...
The men came in.
[GENTLE PIANO AND STRINGS]
[WEIRD GHOSTLY LOW WHOOSHING]
The gates of our pens opened.
The glee of something wild
and calling, rushed into my
blood.
Something wild, open
and free, beckoned my feet,
grateful of movement,
of change, of oxygen.
Daylight. Outside.
And I ran with the others.
Out. Out. Out.
We ran and ran,
and they herded us
with bats and I didnt care,
for there it was, the day!
The sky, blue! Blue! [BIRDSONG
AND UPLIFTING PIANO]
and the bright white light of
air
and cloud and sun, hot on my skin.
Thirsty for it, soaking it
up. I jumped jumps of joy.
I had forgotten
the joy of being
But now here and out,
I felt the touch of hope..
The touch of some great
spirit, all embracing and
uplifting.
I took in a long, long
gulp of this sweet day,
and suddenly as soon as out...
we're in...
and a drawbridge came up on my escape,
and I was captive once more.
An engine started...
there was vibration
engine moan... shunting
movement... fuel smoke...
and I tried to keep
my balance as it jerked,
lurched forward and
we all squashed...
a sea of us... so tight together
now, as the world ran by us.
I looked back and saw the sheds
where I had spent my first days
grow smaller and smaller,
and a roar of engine
labouring at our weight...
three tiers high
of all my kind
with bars through
which we looked.
My primal self was called
and I watched as the world spun
past,
blurring close and mesmerising far...
wondrous, warm,
abundant, life.
[GENTLE PIANO AND STRINGS]
[TRUCK RUMBLING ALONG]
[STRINGS AND PIANO
BUILDING GRADUALLY]
[PIG SQUEALS]
[STRINGS AND PIANO BUILDING
INTO A HOPELESS CRESCENDO]
[DESPERATE PIG SQUEALS]
[MORE DESPERATE PIG SQUEALS
AND THE SOUNDS OF A VIGIL
GATHERING]
Thank you to everyone who has
travelled here today to bear
witness.
We have invited you
to witness that today,
850 non-human people
will be murdered here.
This may be distressing
for you to see and hear,
but please know that your
presence will not be in vain.
Although we cannot
halt this mass execution,
we can give kindness, comfort
and
compassion to those who have known none.
Ultimately we need
to close them down,
but until then, we need to
ensure that
every slaughterhouse and factory farm
has mandatory,
independently monitored CCTV,
so that the animals can
no longer be abused...
behind closed doors!
[CHEERING]
We call upon this
slaughterhouse NOW...
to put down their weapons of
mass
destruction and make the connection.
We all implore you...
to look into their eyes
Are you all gonna
be here long?
Are you gonna be
staying here long?
Just wanna keep you safe this
morning
so please just keep to the footpaths...'
A lot of lorries No
standing in the road
[PROTESTOR] Are
you going to do anything
about whats
going on in there?
Im obviously impartial..
Obviously impartial
Keep it clean!
[PROTESTOR] Is it OK for
them to murder pigs, then?
Theyre trying to
run a business...
Trying to run a business...
[PROTESTOR] Yeah, theyre
trying to run a business that
kills!
What about all the murders
that are going on in there?
Just remember they are
trying to run a business,
so dont block the
highway and no swearing...
that is obviously
the important thing.
[SPEAKER] ...innocent
natures, who have known nothing
but mans greed and
mans indifference...
You all have your
right to protest
You have every right for a
peaceful
protest but keep it clean... all right?
born only to die! The most
vulnerable creatures on earth
[SOUND OF A
BUTTERFLY FLYING BY]
[SPEAKER] Born in
confinement... raised in
squalor...
Well be going to have a
word with the owner later...
Going in to have a
chat with the owner.
[SPEAKER] Sentenced to death
between three and six months
old...
not allowed to roam
freely in the fields...
So no one wants
to, er, talk to us today?
[SPEAKER] to make
a nest, in which to bear
and nurture their young
kept in confinement
Wots goin' on ere
look at these guys idiots
- Bunch o wallies!
- Waste o time
- Look at the state o ya
- Caused a traffic jam!
Look at the state of you!!!
We just been stuck in
traffic 'cos o you lot...
Hang on a minute
Shes wearing
leather shoes! Look!
- No excuse me
- Yes, you are!
Go and get a job!
Excuse me... theyre vegan
and we all have got jobs.
- Vegan?!
- Yeah.
Wots Vegan then?
No meat. No animals
You're nuts, the
lot of ya! I tell ya!
- Yes, you are!
- No wait...
- Causing traffic congestion..
- Yeah... get yerself a job!
See ya later, then.
Whats she doin' wearin'
levva shoes then... if you...
Theyre not leather...
theyre vegan...
- Bye, bye.
- Car coming.
[CAR HORN]
Dont drive off...
- Stop wasting time.
- Yeah, go and get yerself a
proper job...
Gonna have a nice
bacon sandwich.
- Oi!
- Its you thats wasting time,
you dick.
Shame on you, Scum,
Animal abusers, Shame on you.
Scum, Scum, Animal
abusers, SHAME ON YOU!
Stop! Stop!
Shame on you!
SHAME ON YOU! SHAME
ON YOU! SCUM! MURDERER!
Pigs rank number four
in animal intelligence,
behind chimpanzees,
dolphins and elephants.
Theyre more intelligent
than dogs, yet if dogs
were treated the way pigs
were treated in the U.K,
The farmers and
slaughterers would be in prison,
but because there are
virtually no laws protecting
pigs,
their ill treatment is
legal and the farmers
and slaughter men
are making profit.
Philip Lymbery of Compassion
in World Farming says.
The viral hot-house of keeping
animals... caged, cramped
and confined are conditions
that allow viruses to mutate.
The United Nations said,
A global shift towards a vegan
diet
is vital to save the world from hunger,
fuel poverty and the worst
impacts of climate change.
I feel a bit hot I get
her point and everything,
but weve been eating
meat for a long time,
and what would
happen to all the pigs and
cows and chickens if
we didnt breed them...
theyd all become extinct.
I mean the way
animals are raised in
intensive farming is a
horrible thing, I agree.
I dont know..
My husband died
when he was fifty.
His heart. High cholesterol.
But, thats
genetic, isnt it
They say that you can reverse
medical conditions by what you
eat...
but I mean no one would be sick
if that was the case, would
they
wed all be eating plants
if that was the case
I mean
if hed eaten differently
it wouldnt necessarily
We are brainwashed by
the aggressive marketing
of the animal
agricultural industry.
The United Nations state
that Animal Agriculture
is one of the major
causes of climate change
and the Eco Disaster.
Its reversible by humans
adopting a plant-based vegan
diet.
What are we waiting
for? We have to act now!
Juliet Gellatley, founder
and director of Viva!, said,
Three quarters of
the worlds new and
emerging infectious
diseases come from animals,
mainly from trading in wild
life or from factory farming.
Covid 19, SARS, MERS, Bird Flu,
Ebola and AIDS to name but a
few,
are some zoonotic
diseases which come from
the exploitation and
consumption of animals.
Fifty-six zoonotic
diseases are responsible for
an estimated 2.5 billion
cases of human illness,
and 2.7 million
deaths a year.
Veganism is not being
acknowledged as a
key preventative measure for future outbreaks
by any government
or health organisation,
because too much
money is made from and
invested into the animal
agricultural industry.
We ALL have the power
to change our future by
protecting our planet
and ALL of its inhabitants...
human and non-human.
The simplest, most economical
and effective solution,
is to end the global
trade in wild animals,
and to stop eating animals.
Thank you for stepping outside
of your comfort zones today,
to be here with
them... for them.
Soon the lorries will come.
Be safe.
And when the lorries stop...
feel free to talk softly to
those on board
who are bound for un-peaceful deaths...
which ALL will resist...
none will go freely...
and as we stand here
together, briefly... with
them...
we are saying, We see you,
we are trying and were sorry.
[A BELL TOLLS]
[OMINOUS SLOW
BEAT TECHNO MUSIC]
The smell hits me... its
intense... its unearthly.
Move away from
the lorry please.
[LOUD LORRY HORN]
[LORRY HORN]
[FAST TECHNO MUSIC]
[PIGS SQUEALING]
[PIGS GRUNTING]
[EERIE MUSIC]
I peer through
into the gloom.
Haaaa... so many
still.
Covered in
bruises scratches.
Their eyes look
at me... inquisitive.
[EERIE MUSIC]
They raise their noses.
Im worried about
stroking them. Do pigs bite?
I remember being born I do.
[PIGS GRUNTING]
One of them is looking at
me... right near the bar...
an almost human eye
"Hello. Looks back at
me... as if wondering
seems to know that I am
speaking to him. Or her.
Hello.
Hot, cold, tired,
hungry, thirsty...
Crammed in so tight...
Weve stopped suddenly.
There are different
human faces.
Faces and words that
seem... Kind. And sad.
Hands touching us
gently, for the first time.
EVER. Soft, gentle
hands with a tenderness.
I remember only
once from my mother.
But no other.
Except this
gentle human soul,
[SOFT SAD PIANO MUSIC]
who looks at me with some
unconscious thought rising in
her eyes,
and in her eyes
I see reflected,
my own unconscious dread.
I feel myself aware
that I want to help.
I want to help.
I look at this
being
in front of me..
Just present.
Present with me.
It...
becomes Him or Her...
You.
Ive said it.
You.
Now Im damned.
Now Ive recognised.
Made the connection.
You"
are at... our... mercy.
Have I just named you?
[SAD CELLO
ACCOMPANIES THE PIANO]
Im aware that I cant seem to
comprehend what Im doing or
seeing.
I hear someone speak softly.
Im sorry."
Im sorry."
And then I realise its me.
The drivers are
getting angry
more police are here now
someone is being led away
for giving the pigs water
You look at me
[DRAMATIC PIANO AND CELLO]
I have to stand away
as the truck moves off,
and I watch you go...
trapped inside all of you,
and its my fault.
Im responsible.
Im the consumer paying
them to do my dirty work...
that could endanger us all.
[CELLO, PIANO AND STRINGS
BEAR THE ANIMALS AWAY]
[MUSIC SWELLS TO A
HEART-RENDING CRESCENDO]
[BELL RINGS]
[SOUND OF LORRY
AND BIRD SONG]
[DRUMS INTO REGGAE MUSIC]
[SINGING] I like
to move it move it...
[SINGING ALONG]
[SOUND OF STICK
BANGING ON METAL]
Move it! [LAUGHS]
The lorry jerked
finally to a halt.
It was a bad place.
[PIG SQUEALS]
I heard the screams
of a thousand sisters.
I smelt the blood
of a billion brothers.
The evening was coming.
[UPTEMPO REGGAE BEAT]
Get in there! NOW!
Move it! Get in there
now! Get in there now!
Get in. Go. Get in there now!
Get in there, now! Eughhh!
Get in there now! Get in!
Wotve we got
ere?!? Little piggy eh?
Now! Get up!
Eughhh!
Cmon!!!
Oi! Get a move
on! Oi! Get up!
Oh, about time
Wots so funny?!
Here comes Johnny
Reggae, Here comes Johnny.
Reggae Reggae, Johnny
Reggae Reggae... Lay it on me...
- Fuck off!
- Oooh hooo!
Wot?
Ohhh, bless
Now listen boys and girls, a
little bit of work wont go
amiss...
Tosser!
Weve got a load
in. Pull yer socks up.
For fucks sake.
Wot?
Fuckin 'ell.
[ELECTRIC GUITAR
CONCLUDES THE REGGAE SONG]
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
I sicken
pull myself into a crevice.
It's just me and them now.
I can't get away...
[FOOTSTEPS IN BOOTS
AND CLANGING METAL]
[PIG SQUEALS AND
SOUNDS OF ABATTOIR]
[PIGS SQUEAL]
[PIG SQUEAL]
[LAUGHING]
Nice shot. Mug.
[LAUGHING]
- Go on - Hit it!
Wot, like this you mug?
[LAUGHS]
You missed!
Euh... [SQUEAL]
[LAUGHTER]
[SOUND OF URINATING]
[LAUGHTER]
Come on, you mug.
[SOUND OF BOTH MEN URINATING]
Your pissing on my boots...
you fucking melt! Ughhh sick!
Didnt ya know? Your
the melt you fucking prick.
Fucking mug,
pissing on my boots!
[LAUGHS]
Come on! [SOUND
OF HIM KICKING HER]
Stop please stop...
Come on! [SOUND OF KICKING]
- STOP! Please stop! Stop,
please!
- Only got a couple of pricks...
COME ON!
[SQUEALS]
OH. COME. ON!
Please stop kicking
me, youre hurting me!
[PIG SQUEALS]
[GENTLE ARPEGGIO CLASSICAL
GUITAR, NEW GUYS THEME]
Mine was not the usual
run of the mill job interview.
"I would like you
to skin this sheep".
They were very
pleased with me.
I am thorough and precise.
The training was short.
The herding.
The stun.
The kill.
The hanging.
The drawing.
The quartering.
The rutting.
The mess.
The smell.
The gore.
I knew I would
need to keep hosing.
Keep it as clean
as I can make it.
Some of the
others work dirty.
[GENTLE ARPEGGIO CLASSICAL
GUITAR, NEW GUYS THEME]
This morning I put
on my hard head.
I'm not a hard man.
[GENTLE ACOUSTIC GUITAR BALLAD:
MALE VOICE] Have to get this
right,
I'm in love.
Have to get this right,
Dont want suffering, no
other voices talk this way,
Keep my thoughts to myself,
shown how to kill,
Full of sound and
fury, unrelenting,
Do you know,
death has a smell,
Sweet, sickly sweet,
Hyacinths.
Summer wasps
swarm around like flies.
Sweet, sickly sweet,
Hyacinths. Hyacinths.
[GENTLE GUITAR CONTINUES]
[GUITAR FADES]
[SCRAPE OF GUITAR STRINGS]
When the transporters come...
echoing silence is shattered
by an unearthly porcine chorus.
Swine scream.
They always do.
They set each other off.
But this time it's different.
This time, the men are making
it worse. Even I can hear that.
Theyre goading them to
upset the protesters outside.
Theyve been coming
here a long time now.
Every week... since the leak.
I heard about that. But
I keep that to myself.
I know what they
get up to in here.
I know.
I see.
The pigs stampede off
just to get some movement.
But after that, they freeze.
They just seem doped.
They can smell
death in the air.
They're animals. They
live on their senses.
But its not my
job to think that.
The workers bash
their bats around.
The pigs are covered in great
big red weals and welts of
bruises.
Looks as if theyve been
smacked with red paint powder
at a Holi festival. The
process is so quick
Usually.
Its high-pressured.
Stressful. On everyone.
The workers to get it done.
The animals to
maintain life. At any cost.
They buck and rear and run.
Theyre anxious. Panic-stricken.
Youll be busy at work and
you'll look round at the line
and you'll see some of them
have just dropped stone dead.
Their hearts just stop.
From the stress.
They know. They know.
How could they not?
The noise and
smell is dreadful.
They go dashing about the walls
in a desperate attempt to
escape.
Some of them are sick,
have broken
bones, they cant run.
I pity them the most.
Ive seen them dragged.
Thrown by their ears,
prodded with electric prongs
brutally,
over and over just to make them move.
[MALE VOICE, ACOUSTIC
GUITAR, ARPEGGIO]
[SINGING] Group mentality,
mob mentality,
Worlds away from me, no
other voices talk my way.
Keep my thoughts to myself,
Oi mate, where you been,
we been looking for ya,
Fucking mug!
[SONG] Full of sound
and fury, un-consenting.
We are all,
entering hell.
Sweet, sickly sweet,
Hyacinths.
And the summer wasps
swarm around like flies,
Sweet, sickly sweet,
Hyacinths,
Hyacinths,
Hyacinths,
Hyacinths...
[ABATTOIR SOUNDS
AND PIGS SQUEALING]
[GENTLE ARPEGGIO CLASSICAL
GUITAR: NEW GUYS THEME]
[SQUEALING]
[GENTLE ARPEGGIO CLASSICAL
GUITAR: NEW GUYS THEME]
[NEW GUYS THEME]
[PIG SCREAMS]
[LIVELY ACOUSTIC
GUITAR: MALE VOICE]
[SINGING] The next panics
in pushed sliding on the gore,
More difficult to
catch, six months old,
Eyes wide, mouth gaping,
panicking, trafficking,
This is the fight
mans rigged to win,
Man wrestles beast, is this
the lure? The primal war,
Blood... lust... up!
[ACOUSTIC GUITAR]
He fights to live...
his right to live,
Man's rigged to win, its
a computer game to him,
Animals are victims to
our hunger and our salary,
Its not a fair fight but
stimulates adrenalin,
Stimulates the primal win,
Privately annihilating kill by
kill,
Privately
annihilating kill by kill,
Kill by kill, kill by kill,
Want out but Im in,
Sold out now I'm in,
Kill by kill by kill by kill,
Sold my
soul, Sold my soul, soul my soul.
Man dont care, fists punch the
air,
Sold my soul, sold my soul, sold my soul,
Kill by kill, kill by kill, kill
by kill, Sold
my soul, sold my soul, sold my soul,
Sold my soul,
[SOUND OF FLY
BUZZING AROUND]
[WITH REVERB] Sold my
soul, sold my soul, sold my
soul...
[FLY BUZZING CRESCENDOS]
Sold his soul, sold
his soul, sold his soul...
[PRIMAL DRUM SOLO]
[DRUM SOLO RISES TO A
BLOOD CURDLING CRESCENDO]
[CYMBAL SMASH AND A GASP]
[DRIVING ROCK TRACK WITH
A SOARING LEAD GUITAR]
[DRIVING ROCK SONG MALE
VOCAL] Industrious, youre so
industrious,
You build your
gravestone high,
and fuck the rest of us,
And business boy,
what a busy jerk you are,
The power to destroy,
is so illustrious,
Impressive pile,
you make the devil smile,
You kiss his lips,
but youre just dust to us,
Curious,
I am curious,
When I look inside of
me I always see you there,
Curious,
I am curious,
When I look inside of me,
I see you there,
Industrious, youre
so industrious.
You screw the bolts in tight,
and bottle up the pus,
And business boy, what
a creep you really are,
You dig us all in deep,
you think youre
bloody marvelous,
Conclusive wealth,
the devils in good health,
You feed him up
genius,
Curious,
I am curious,
When I look inside of
me, I always see you there,
Curious, I am curious,
When I look inside of me,
I see you there,
[BLISTERING GUITAR SOLO]
[MUSIC ENDS ABRUPTLY] NEXT!
[PIGS SQUEALING
AND SCREAMING]
[SOUNDS OF THE
SLAUGHTERHOUSE]
[ETHEREAL HIGH FEMALE
VOCAL UNDERSCORING]
There's only a few of us now.
One of the men comes...
shouting... with a bat...
he smells sweet
of hyacinths...
maybe she left me some...
the beautiful one
who came to me...
He's so mad at
me, he won't stop,
he's so mad at us
he's in a hurry his
mortgage is late...
Theyre short-staffed.
The workers they
have are no good...
his wife hates him
wants to leave...
he's moody never
talks doesn't touch her...
just drinks and
watches the TV
He's very stressed, his
blood pressures high,
his lifes meaningless,
he has to carry on...
if he stopped he'd have to
think he's trying not to think
he dare not think...
he's on the edge,
he's had enough of his torment
he's going to take it all
out... on... me
He rains down on me...
all the blows he's ever had,
all the indifference in his
life... in this one moment...
rains it... all...
down on me,
blow after blow after blow...
over and over and over,
thirty-six blows to my head
and back in less than a
minute...
I just don't want to
go in there, that's all...
please don't make
me I don't want to die...
GET A BLOODY MOVE ON!
Please don't kill me...
it hurts, that's all, please
don't hurt me, please,
Please don't hurt me...
please... please... please...
[ECHOEY SOUNDS OF THE
IMPACT OF THE HERDING STICK]
[EXHALE OF BREATH]
[THE FEMALE HIGH
VOCAL CRESCENDOS]
[ETHEREAL HIGH FEMALE
VOICES CONTINUE]
Its my turn. My
first day at this.
Forgive me for being afraid.
Forgive me for not knowing
where to go and when
forgive me for making
it difficult for you.
I don't want to die. I've
never done it before.
Forgive me for being afraid.
Itll be better to be
dead for me than this life,
but I don't know that
yet and I only want to live.
Forgive me for
making it hard for you...
I'm sorry.
Forgive me.
It's my first time.
Please don't hurt me anymore.
I only have a short time
left. A minute. Maybe two.
I haven't eaten for days.
Im weak so scared.
Forgive me for making
your life so hard.
I don't know how
not to be afraid
I cant help
wanting to live...
forgive me
[ETHEREAL HIGH FEMALE VOICES
BEGIN TO SLOW AND FADE INTO
NOTHING]
[A JANGLING PIANO CHORD
STRIKES] In one comes,
[GUITAR AND PIANO ACCOMPANY
] racing, bolting,
panic-stricken.
The cage door slams shut.
Its just him and me now.
I pick up the tongs.
My hands are clammy and cold.
My face is hot.
I try to corner him.
Terror darts his eyes
and the scream hurts
the drums of my ears
as if they would burst.
[THE GUITAR SCREAMS]
I aim the tongs at his head.
His fight for life is so
admirable
that my fight to do my job rises.
Im sweating,
nauseous with effort.
I have to be quick. Tongs. To
head. Contact. Trigger. Shock.
He pulls back, partial shock.
I don't know where I got
him... the face, but not the
brain.
He staggers, runs, jerking,
tripping, my panic rises with
his,
I have to stamp him out,
stamp out his
terror and confusion,
stamp out his pain,
and, along with it, mine.
I come in again,
Position!
Contact!
Trigger!
Shock!
[SHOCK WAVES OF
PIANO AND GUITAR]
I feel power race through
me as if I am Zeus...
Lightning courses through
my veins and out of my hands,
and bolts straight
into his brain.
I feel it that
time. The Stun.
The power surges as
he drops heavy as if shot.
I stand above my kill
as though a matador,
triumphant in the bull ring,
taking applause from a rapturous
bloodthirsty invisible crowd
I soar from the precipice of
self... into a sky of elation...
with wide wings circling around
the universe as if it were mine.
As if it were mine.
[ELECTRIC GUITAR
TRANSCENDENTALLY SOLOS]
And slowly,
on rapturous
curtain calls of sound,
down and down, I glide...
While hands,
seemingly not mine
pick up the knife.
[THE GUITAR SOLO ENDS AND IN
COMES A
STRANGE SLOWED DOWN GUITAR STRING DRONE]
The blade looms larger
than the world before my face,
and in it, I catch my
reflection and my pallor.
I bring the blade to rest,
on the soft spot of the neck.
Slowly I stroke the soft
silk throat with razor blade,
deep red blood cascades
a roll of red silk erupting
operatically
from the shining black wound...
flooding the floor like a
deep shining red aura
surrounding me
with a macabre lake,
on which I seem to skate
in my new white boots,
that absorb the
stain like shroud.
I watch as he
struggles to breathe.
Drowning.
Gasping,
and bleeding
Pupil still registering.
Still alive.
We share a look.
Something draws
me deeply in...
as an astronaut in space is
drawn
to gaze back down upon Earth.
In the bright and
beautiful glistening globe,
I am suspended,
in a dark abyss.
I feel our being locked in.
As life fades
something of me is taken...
and what is left of me...
stays until the end.
[A CHOIR OF ANGEL
VOICES FILL THE AIR]
Thine is the task of blood.
Discharge thy
task with mercy.
Let thy victim feel no pain.
Let sudden blow bring death;
Such death as thou
thyself would ask for.
[ANGELIC CHOIR CONTINUES]
It was all so fast.
So furious.
My adrenaline raced
and lifted me out of myself.
I saw the tongs
come to my head.
I can't remember pain now.
Maybe death is like birth.
I smile because Im free.
He slit my throat and
my blood flew from me,
a hot red flag.
He stayed with
me while I died.
I was grateful
not to be alone.
He had kind eyes.
His eyes witnessed my death,
as others had
witnessed my short life.
Bred for food.
Born to be killed.
All of us.
So many of us.
We share the planet you and I
and merely by the
simple fluke of... chance...
were born to be those
wholl be cherished,
or born to be those
wholl be abused.
When you walk
away from my story...
remember me.
He hung me to half mast,
and enchanted,
I fly,
ethereal voices singing
me to merciful nothing.
[FLIGHTS OF ANGELS,
CRESCENDO AND FADE TO SILENCE]
Id had enough of it anyway.
Id become a murderer,
in a murdering job.
Meat and Dairy:
The more you eat,
the more you want.
Its a mugs game,
and its dying.
I can see,
all them slaughterhouses
becoming Plant Production
Facilities.
Plant Plants!
No-one would have
to lose their jobs,
and it would be a
lot more peaceful,
and cleaner.
Id be able to
sleep at night.
[MANIACAL LAUGHING
AND SLAUGHTER SOUNDS]
[SCREAMING PIGS
AND MEN SHOUTING]
[FUNEREAL ORGAN CHORDS]
[FEMALE VOICE SINGING] Through
the bars of the truck the world
goes by,
Through the bars of
the truck I see the sky,
I cry mercy,
mercy,
mercy,
mercy,
Through the bars of
the truck you see my eye,
Through the bars of
the truck I see you cry,
- Yee-ha! Yee-ha!
- For mercy,
for mercy,
for mercy,
for mercy,
Through the bars of the
truck we say goodbye,
Through the bars of the
truck Im scared to die,
They show no mercy,
no mercy,
[PIGS SCREAMING]
no mercy,
no mercy,
No mercy,
No mercy.
No mercy,
No mercy,
No mercy,
[SOUNDS OF THE ABATTOIR]
No mercy.
[ANGELIC CHOIR FADES IN]
Your honour, the animals
are not the only victims.
The cold hard truth
is that the workers are
not encouraged to see
the animals as alive,
independent, thinking,
feeling beings but to
disassociate from
them and their feelings,
which has its own dire
consequences for
them as humans.
As the animals are
driven off the trucks,
the workers must see
them as pieces of meat,
to be killed as quickly and
efficiently as possible,
on the highly pressurised
assembly line...
the...
disassembly line.
There are many
shocking practices,
in factory farms and
slaughterhouses
that are standard and legal,
to which the workers
have to develop immunity
in order to do their
laborious and stressful jobs.
PTSD, trauma, anxiety
and other mental health
issues go largely undocumented,
and many are trapped in this
line of work through lack of
choice,
and become
themselves, victims,
in the animal agricultural
industrys powerful,
secret and hidden world.
Philip Lymbery, from
Compassion in World Farming,
says that the caged, crammed and
confined conditions of factory
farms,
provide the ideal breeding
ground for
new and more deadly strains of virus.
Swine flu and highly pathogenic
avian flu, being but two
examples.
At the same time,
the global desire
for ever more meat,
means clearing more forest
worldwide for farm land,
encroaching on wild lands
and their novel viruses.
In short,
our treatment of animals
in the natural world,
risks new and deadly
disease pandemics.
[ETHEREAL CHOIR]
[UPBEAT PRO-VEGAN
SPOKEN WORD SONG]
[REFLECTIVE FOLK SONG]