Hollywood Comes to Life in an L.A. Slaughterhouse

At its best, Hollywood acts as a harbinger of social change. Visionary directors seek to anticipate the future and, in so doing, introduce their audience to ideas previously beyond the public imagination. This dynamic played out a few weeks ago in L.A., where animal rights activists brought Okja—a 2017 film by Academy Award-winning Bong Joon-ho—to life.

In Okja, activists attempt—and at first fail—to rescue a pig, Okja, from the grip of a malevolent multinational corporation. The film draws inspiration from the hundreds of daring Open Rescues that have successfully rescued individuals from slaughter around the world. But the film takes this precedent to a new level, as activists attempt to rescue a grown pig from a slaughterhouse.

In the early hours of September 25, 2020, mere minutes from Hollywood at the Farmer John slaughterhouse, Okja’s story unraveled in real life. A team of activists, myself included, donned the uniforms of slaughterhouse workers and entered the premises—owned by Chinese multinational corporation Smithfield Foods—to rescue a 300-pound baby pig. We entered silently in the dead of night and were met by thousands of baby pigs soon to be forced into gas chambers. While this sight alone could bring you to tears, the acrid stench of blood penetrating my mask forced them from my eyes. We saw a scared and isolated pig—who we named Greta—and moved quickly to load her onto a custom-made stretcher and ferry her to the sanctuary.

Although we came excruciatingly close, we failed to rescue Greta, just like the first attempt to rescue Okja failed, and seven of us were instead intercepted and arrested by police. Despite this failure, the action was still historic. Outside of Hollywood a rescue of this magnitude had never been attempted. While rescuing a lamb or a duck is one thing, rescuing a 300-pound pig is another entirely. We didn’t just attempt to save Greta from an isolated factory farm in the countryside. We infiltrated the largest slaughterhouse in the Western United States, a veritable urban fortress.

On September 27th, two days after being forced to leave Greta behind, upwards of 200 activists gathered around the Farmer John slaughterhouse to hold a 48-hour vigil for the pigs scheduled to be delivered to their death. However, Smithfield Foods—the largest producer and killer of pigs on earth—responded to our presence by canceling deliveries of live pigs that night. Our ability to delay the deaths of upwards of 8,000 pigs was demonstrative of our power, but the harsh reality is that ultimately no lives were saved; instead, their suffering was simply prolonged a day.

Following this empty success, we returned the next night determined to save a life. In the midst of dozens of armed security guards, one team of activists managed to slip by and enter the blood-soaked facility once again, where we peacefully used a chain and locks to block the gas chamber and prevent any killings. As this was happening, a second-team locked down the gates outside, preventing three semis filled with hundreds of pigs from entering. This night, our demand was both simple and reasonable: honor Greta by releasing one pig—just one pig—to live out their life in the sanctuary, and every activist would immediately unchain and leave peacefully.

Smithfield refused. Instead, their private security violently accosted activists sitting peacefully inside, sending one woman to the hospital. And if that wasn’t enough, Smithfield pressured the police to further arrest the team of activists sitting outside on a public sidewalk, ultimately sending myself and 25 others to jail.

As nonviolent activists, we do not wish to go to jail, especially during a pandemic. And we most certainly do not wish to be sent to the hospital. That said, we are ready and willing to do so if that is what ending animal slaughter will take.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. Just as Governor Newsom used his executive power to place a moratorium on killing imprisoned humans, so too could he move California towards becoming a slaughter-free state by placing a moratorium on the construction of new slaughterhouses and factory farms. Importantly, 68 percent of Californians already support his doing so.

Although Hollywood activists initially fail to rescue Okja, the movie concludes with her successful liberation. Just as Okja accurately anticipated our initial attempt, so too does its conclusion foreshadow our coming success. You can help bring this vision to life—and prevent the needless suffering of pigs just like Greta—by adding your name in support of a moratorium on new factory farms and slaughterhouses.