Lucent: The Dark Side Of Australia's Pig Farming Industry

Lucent by Chris Delforce is a documentary of Australis’s pig farming industry. Which explores the darker side of Australia's pig farming industry through a combination of hand-held and hidden camera footage, highlighting the day-to-day cruelty accepted by the industry as standard practice. Narrated by Lindsay McDougall, the film contains footage from over 50 farms and slaughterhouses across Australia much of this footage has never been seen before. The documentary screened in Sydney, Canberra, Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane in October through November 2014 (Delforce). Lucent starts out with a scene of health looking pigs and piglets having fun outdoor walking and running around freely. Positive information is given about the pigs

The employee’s actions toward the pigs can be seen throughout parts of the film. Activists sneaks inside the building of the pig farming industry. On the CCTV cameras, you can see how the workers treat the pigs. Some workers will randomly hit and abuse the pig to a point. Killing the sick and dying piglets can also be see on the CCTV cameras. Piglets are killed by a sharp blow to the head slam as they are being slam into the hard-concrete floor or wall leaving them to die on the floor and or in a crate full of dead piglets. Pig are left with bruises and cut on their skin due to the injury inflicted by the employees. Pigs are sent to the slaughter house when they no longer are capable of reproducing piglets. One million pigs are killed per year at the largest pig slaughter house rivalae. Hidden cameras were set up inside the slaughter house. The slaughter house uses a carbon dioxide gas chamber to slaughter the pigs stating “It’s the most humane form of slaughter.” In the hidden camera footages, you can see the pigs are electric shock then push toward a crate where the gas chamber is and will kill the pigs. Around 85% of the pigs are impregnated with artificial insemination (Delforce). The suggested ratio is 15:1 which means 15 cells and female pigs and 1 male bore (Delforce). Masturbation is a technique used to get the semen but you can also buy it in store fresh. An educational video is a technique use in the video to demonstrate the collecting of the male bores sperm. Female pigs are injected several times before being declared pregnant. When pregnant the female pigs are remove to a sow