Did Johnston's try to suppress disturbing slaughterhouse video?
Latest example of urban-based animal rights organizations going undercover on Fraser Valley farms to get incriminating footage
A Toronto-based animal cruelty organization says Chilliwack pork producer Johnston's attempted to suppress a video from inside their slaughterhouse on Promontory Road.
Animal Justice posted the video on Vimeo in December 2024, a video that includes disturbing images of pigs in the process of be slaughtered that the organization says amounts to animal cruelty.
The video is also interspersed with Johnston's own marketing materials. It was because of these clips that Johnston's was apparently able to get the video temporarily removed from the Vimeo video-hosting website. On Jan. 7, 2025, however, Animal Justice issued a news release saying the video is back online.
The organization dubs itself as Canada's National Animal Law Advocacy Organization with offices on King Street West in downtown Toronto.
"Unable to deny the authenticity of the legally obtained whistleblower video, Johnston’s resorted to flagging the limited use of the company’s marketing material, which Animal Justice included in its exposé, well within the 'fair dealing' boundaries of Canadian copyright law."
The organization says the video includes "animal cruelty and a blatant disregard for animal protection laws."
"Though the damning footage was temporarily removed while Animal Justice’s counterclaim was reviewed by Vimeo, where the video is hosted, it is now back online," the release states. "The streaming platform found no issue with the Animal Justice exposé."
The footage is just the latest in a long line of such cases where animal rights activists, usually based out of large cities, have people to go undercover to get jobs at Fraser Valley farms to shoot videos deemed incriminating.
There have been cases at pig farms, there was the case of the Chillliwack chicken catchers, and the most high profile goes back a decade when Mercy for Animals took hidden video of cattle abuse inside Chilliwack Cattle Sales in 2014.
That case ended with jail time for five men and six-digit fines for the farm's owners, the Kooyman brothers.
MORE: Seven men sentenced in Chilliwack cattle abuse case
Johnston's has not commented on the Animal Justice video. Progress reporter Jennifer Feinberg reached out back in December when the case first came out, but reported that the company had not yet responded. They still have not, although I have not reached out.
"That’s despite the fact the video has prompted parallel investigations by the BC SPCA and the province’s Ministry of Agriculture," according to Animal Justice.
Because of those investigations, it is unlikely the company will respond.
The BC SPCA confirmed to other media in December it has opened an investigation file after receiving the complaint.
“Rather than acknowledge the horrors revealed by this disturbing whistleblower video, Johnston’s Meats has instead tried to slide the door shut on public discussion and criticism of its unethical and unlawful activity,” said Camille Labchuk, lawyer and executive director at Animal Justice.
“To avoid accountability, Johnston’s is employing an increasingly standard industry playbook of gaslighting the public while stifling journalists seeking to report on these abuses.”
The latter comment is a stretch given that the meat industry is nothing new so it is hard to see how the company conducting its normal business is gaslighting the public. It's also not uncommon for company's facing extreme negative press to decline to comment at least right away, something hard to call "stifling."
(WARNING: I've included the video in question from Animal Justice for the sake of journalistic openness. However, I think it is safe to say that most people really will not want to watch the disturbing portions of it. Proceed with caution or better yet, don't watch. - PJH)
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Paul J. Henderson
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