Now this material shouldn’t remain stashed away on our website. We want somebody to use this material to create a short, interesting, ingenious video. Therefore, we are looking for people with the necessary skills, experience and motivation to help us.

In principle, we are wide open as to how the video clips are made – but these two videos at the end of this story will give you an example on how the clip could be put together.

Please spread this call via email, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, forums or other places to help us to find the right people who are able and willing to support us.

Anyone who thinks they could contribute to such a project can get involved by emailing: michael.hartl@pig-vision.com

The project is suitable for projects at university, too!

Following videos will show technical standard and direction which the clip should go in:

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Thomas & Campo

X15 is dead. His death was like his short life: brutal, dolorous and comfortless. A spate of emotions comes up, if you see the last pictures of his life – angriness, helplessness and shame about the fact, that everything what happened is accepted as “normal”. That is daily routine in the so called agriculture.

It is natural, if you are looking for culprits, for instance while having the wish “to kill the messenger“. In this case we are messengers, we published the destiny of X15, but we did not saved his life. Moreover we filmed his death. But we have to mention that we are not the reason for the evil: 5 million X15 die every year in Austria, X15 existed before our project began and unfortunately afterwards.

But how can we channelise the pent-up emotions, where is the culprit, who should be hated? Is it the farmer, who lives from his animals? Is it the veterinarian, who gives the paper for appropriate holding? Is it the slaughterman, who is not able to anaesthetise the pig enough, so that the animal experiences its own death? Or should we hate every housewife, every consumer, who buys brainless ham and bacon in the supermarket?

The phenomenon of modern “animal production” is monstrous, it is not possible to get simple solutions. Everyone, who wants to change anything, has to start in the surrounding. It must be shown, what happens behind the high walls. We should build an awareness for that cruelty and try to change the behaviour.

If I look back on the project PIG-VISION, I am glad to see the direct result of our project – the pig JACKPOT – that got the chance for a fantastic life on animal paradise Schabenreith. 30.000 people attended the project. But the downer is, that we could not reach enough people who are not interested in themes like animal protection. Usually we wanted to avoid the „preaching to the converted“, we tried to be interesting for those, who are sitting Sundays on a roast pork and to reconsider their attitude and discuss it. But it seemed to be only a wish – who wants to deal with displeasing truths or change the habits? But also for people with awareness for animal rights that project can be a new boosted motivation: a motivation to refer others to the consequences of their acting. On average every Middle-European kills in one year about 20 animals with his eating habits. If every second person standing behind PIG-VISION brings 3 persons to think about the own attitude concerning animal exploitation with the consequence to avoid the misery for the animals, it is possible to reach one million less cases of violence and distress every year! These are only drops in the ocean, but only drops will fill the ocean.

Finally PIG-VISION will not end with the death of X15. In the future we will report on the website about the adventures of JACKPOT with his friends. And I hope it will be possible to put this unparalleled project on DVD for sensitising people.

Thomas Winger
United Creatures

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Thomas & Campo

The aim of PIG-VISION is, to motivate people to subsist non-violent. Therefore we show the live of ONE SINGLE FARROW, we “exploit” it and gave it to a grace court, where it will live forever. This action was not easy and the transport was stressful, but in the whole we wanted to act in the interest of the animal. The farrow is called JACKPOT.

Furthermore we did not influence any mental state of the animals and we did not take responsibility for any animal. But we DOCUMENTED. The grimace of pig-breeding behind the wall of exploitation could be shown now on the monitors. To dramatize the reality, we gave one anonymous “production unit” a name, X15.

X15 does not belong to us, but to the mast factory, just like all his fellows. And although we got the permission for shooting, X15 is not ours. We may not influence its destiny.

We only want to show, what happens every year, five million times only in Austria, caused by the consumer behaviour of our friends, our relatives. And we will show it to the bitter end.

If anybody wants to blame us for this consequent view of reality, it is like „beating the messenger“, a known reaction on helpless desperation. But it is fully senseless.

In the whole it is also senseless to think about saving X15. Do you think, it would make sense to rescue X15, and one day later we film its fellow X16 or X2501? It seems to be more sensitive to use the educational potential of our campaign while showing it to meat eaters (parents, teachers…). I know that there will not be many people who want to see those films, and most of you are already Vegetarians. But sometimes also meat eaters will watch the films.

We do not want to change the world with PIG-VISION, to collect donations or become famous. We only want to give you another medium to make convincing. More and more people shall be make impossible to say “We did not know that.”.

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But there is still a chance and so we set ourselves a time limit of 4 weeks to discuss with you, how pig-vision could and should continue. At this low level, at which the campaign runs at the moment, we cannot continue. So, if you want the campaign to be continued in this form, here our deep call to you: spread information about the campaign once again as far as you can on the internet. Invite people, who might be interested in the story, to visit the website or to become a member of one of the groups. Forward pictures and videos to people, who – from your point of view – should be engaged in this issue already. Use pig-vision as a tool, to change the world a little bit. Only then quotes of access will increase and thus the probability, that we still can save this campaign.
We are curious about your proposals and happy about your help.

The Team of pig-vision

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We from Pig-Vision had a conversation with PROVIEH – Verein gegen tierquälerische Massentierhaltung e.V. to obtain an opinion about the theme of a castration without anaesthesia on farrows.

Pig-Vision: A short time ago PROVIEH recorded a big success concerning McDonalds and BurgerKing. What was the theme – and which consequences did it take?

PROVIEH: „We informed McDonalds and Burger King, that we will start a public campaign, if they should not give us a binding date for their disembarkation for the using of „castrated meat”. Both firmes thought, that it was not necessary to take this information seriously. In June 2009 we started a campaign with radio spots and letters to both companies. The consequence was, that they declared to stop using „castrated meat” until the 1st January 2011. We have chosen these firmes, because they use only less pig meat for their products. Because of this it is easier for them to get meat from companies, which do not castrate anymore. The aspired abandonment of farrow-castration without anaesthesia ist not only good for animal protection, but only for the pig industry. Meat from a boar is more delicate, the costs for the mast are lower, because boars get faster muscles and less fat than their castrated fellows. In earlier times the castration of farrows was accompanied by myths, which can be debilitated. One of these myth is, that boars argue more often. That is not right. Boars fight out their ranking and when they are accepted in their group, there will be no more fights. Only if they will be new formed with new group members, it is possible that those fights will start again.“

Pig-Vision: Which critic has PROVIEH on the castration without anaesthesia?

PROVIEH: „Provieh criticises not only the castration without anaesthesia, but also the castration with anaesthesia. In both cases the consequence is pain and apathy for days, and the cut may cause death of pathogens. In general castration is the reason for economic casualties. Experts of castration are able to castrate fast and competent. But it is evidenced, that laymen will aggravate the situation of the farrows. And there will be always laymen.”

Pig-Vision: Does it give more critical points concerning the usual pig mast?

PROVIEH: „Other critique we see in the loveless high dimensions of mast under industrial conditions. Physical complaints and conduct disorders are nearly always the consequence. Pigs are intelligent, they need a minimum on attention and opportunities to use their intelligence. When there is no offer, pigs will get conduct disorders like clipping of the tails from their fellows. That is the reason why tails are partial docked. Also this is often realized unprofessional. In this case not only the boneless part of tail will be cutted. PROVIEH speaks for the general stopping of pig castration. This demand is satisfiable, if pigs will get enough attention and employment opportunities.

Pig-Vision: How does the ideal keeping of pigs looks like for PROVIEH?

PROVIEH: „The ideal keeping of pigs should be species-appropriate. Pigs must be able to fulfil their needs. If pigs are in same groups from the beginning of their life, they have already fight out their ranking and will not argue or bite themselves anymore. The ideal keeping has to be loveful, too. This is not possible in industrial factory farmings, where are only less employees. An ideal keeping also includes a manageable amount of pig groups.”

Pig-Vision: Thanks a lot for the interview and much success for the future of your work!
The interview partner of PROVIEH was: Prof. Dr. Sievert Lorenzen and Stefan Johnigk. The interviewer were: Michael Hartl and Robert Kresse.

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In the last few days we have given two interviews – one for the Kronen newspaper and the other for Hitradio Ö3. The article in the Kronen from 15^th August 2009 read as follows:

Giant pig on the Linzer Landstraße – Animal campaigners like student Lisa Pfleger (20) from Linz hope that the giant pig will draw attention to intensive pig farming in Austria. Activists are accompanying two piglets with a video camera, Jackpot lives at an animal sanctuary while his brother X15 leads a miserable existence in an intensive pig farm – in six months he will be slaughtered. Pedestrians decide for themselves which life is better.

The interview and photo-shooting took place on Friday 14^th August. Then there was a call from Hitradio Ö3, asking me to give them an interview. The shortened version of what turned out to be a very long interview went on air on the Saturday evening. Hitradio Ö3 gave us the following recording of the interview (German only):

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[Source Castration Footage: http://www.tierschutzvideos.de]

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Don’t post videos showing bad stuff like animal abuse, drug abuse, under-age drinking and smoking, or bomb making.

On one hand, we are glad to see that YouTube shares our opinion that the conditions shown in our film amount to animal abuse. On the other hand, castrating piglets without anaesthetic is allowed in Austria, Germany and the USA. Our film shows a totally legal practice, routinely carried out in pig farming.

We are trying to get in touch with Google directly (YouTube is a Google owned company) on the phone, but as yet, we haven’t had any luck getting through. It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth to think that a scene showing an absolutely legal practice should be deactivated.

We need your help!

Because we don’t seem to be getting anywhere, we need your help. If you know anyone who is familiar with reactivating deactivated YouTube films, then please let us know! If you have any ideas yourself, then please contact us via Twitter, Facebook or leave a comment for us here.

When we have any news, you’ll see it here first. We’ll keep you posted.

Here is the film currently deactivated on YouTube:

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Piglet X11 checks out his new home filled with loads of straw

As promised, from today you can take part in the decision about the name for X11. We’ve spoken to the people at the sanctuary and they’ve told us that X11 is very active and alert. Therefore, the following five names have been chosen for the short list. You’ve got until Thursday 12.00 to get your friends and family to vote for your favourite name for X11. We can’t wait!

Update 31th July:
SURVEY IS CLOSED

You have decided: X11 will be called from now “Jackpot”!

The result of the survey:
1. Jackpot (53 votes = 46 %)
2. Halli Galli (29 votes = 25 %)
3. Paletti (15 votes = 13 %)
4. Schabernack (15 votes = 13 %)
5. Lari Fari (3 votes = 2 %)

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The asscociation of pig friend's "grunt-mobile" in mission

The campaign “pig-vision” started by United Creatures, gets much encouragement in the internet – and leads to stimulated discussions. Now the associoation of pig friends from Switzerland has got in touch with us. They want to support us to call attention for the  daily suffering of the pigs. That’s why they offered us to borrow the “grunt-mobile”!

We embrace this offer thankful – and we’ll go on tour through Austria. We will put forward our campaign in different towns.

As soon as the dates are determined, we will announce the tour-plan here.
We are looking forward to meet you in personal at one of these locations!

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