MLA issues take down notice over lamb ad parody showing slaughterhouse scenes
Meat & Livestock Australia has demanded an animal rights organisation take down a parody video using footage from its latest Australia Day campaign and the ad’s star, Lee Lin Chin, along with graphic images from a slaughterhouse.
Non-profit organisation Aussie Farms, which makes films highlighting cruelty to animals in the meat industry, posted its version of the ad on its Facebook page this week as complaints about the MLA’s ad and a scene featuring commandoes torching furniture in the homes of a vegan reached record levels.
The Aussie Farms parody video, which uses seven seconds of footage from the MLA ad, has been posted with the clickbait headline “Hilarious behind the scenes clip from new Aus Day Lamb ad”.
The edited clip opens with Lee Lin Chin announcing “Commence Operation Boomerang” before cutting to graphic images of lambs being slaughtered in an abattior.
The footage highlights that the animals had not been properly stunned before being slaughtered.
Warning: video contains graphic images that may be offensive to some readers
Aussie Farms, founded by Chris Delforce, who produced the confronting documentary Lucent which went behind the scenes of the pig farming industry, said he produced an edited version of the ad to show people how the industry operated.
MLA sent a takedown notice to Aussie farms on Thursday night saying the use of Lee in the ad was a breach of copyright.
However, Delforce told Mumbrella that he believed his use fell under the fair use provisions.
“I would call it a paraody or a criticism and believe we have the right to use the footage under fair use,” said Delforce.
“I used a clickbait headline… in a sense to trick people to watch.”
The footage was taken at an abattoir in mid 2014 in cameras secretly placed by activists, but it is the first time Delforce has used the footage to parody a meat marketing campaign.
“I wasn’t suprised to get the letter,” he said.
“I think the demand is about intimidating and bullying and they are expecting me to fold, but I’m not going to.”
Delfoce said he though it was ironic that MLA was telling people offended by the scene featuring the vegan that it was just humour, but did not appreciate his “parody” of the ad.
“I think it’s funny that they respond to criticism saying people have to have a sense of humour, but when it comes to them that goes out the window.”
Rather than take the ad down, Delforce said he had launched a fundraising campaign to help boost its reach in the lead up to Australia Day.
Meat & Livestock Australia declined to comment on the demand that Aussie Farms take down the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i15OPuFvmA
The Australia Day ad showing Lee Lin Chin launching a rescue mission for expatriate Australians around the world to bring them home for an Australia Day lamb barbecue has been viewed more than 1.1 million times on Youtube, while it is understood the Aussie Farms parody has been viewed about 15,000 times.
Simon Canning
“I think the demand is about intimidating and bullying and they are expecting me to fold, but I’m not going to.”
Seems to run both ways doesn’t it Mr Delforce?
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@MLA it’s the reality. The truth is the truth whether you hide it or not. It’s completely f*cked up how animals are treated. You want to paint it as Australian to eat meat? Well then accept that this is also part of eating meat. Don’t just try and claim the ‘pretty’ side of something, accept every aspect of it.
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If they’re relying on “Fair Use” as a defence they might want to consult a solicitor as there’s no such thing in Australian law, only fair dealing.
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Having had a quick look at the (extremely graphic) content on Aussie Farms’ website to try to gauge what their MO is, I noticed that their videos end in the call to action, “Go Vegan” and I can’t help but feel that this has not been entirely thought through. Advocating human treatment of animals I can completely understand but if their aim is to get an entire population to turn vegan, there will be some very serious ramifications for the very beings they are trying to save. If there is no longer a demand for meat, the abattoirs will be forced to close down and the animals sent – where – back to the farms they came from? With no demand for livestock, the farms will be forced to use the lans for other means – perhaps growing crops. What happens to the animals then? In an ideal world, perhaps they are all rounded up and sent to vast tracts of land that have been set aside for the very purpose of providing them the rolling green hills and babbling streams to live out their days in peace.
Since there will be no need for these animals anymore, they will likely be left to their own devices in their animal paradise with no predatory humans to worry about. Or indeed no humans at all. No one to monitor for over population, which is certain to occur for animals with no natural predators. Then once there are too many animals for the average in which they live, they will begin to starve and die, or they will be culled. But what for? Because in this scenario, no one eats meat or uses animal by-products. So they die for nothing. Either due to over population and starvation, or by someone with a conscious to round them up and humanely euthanise them.
It might just be me, but this doesn’t sound like a dream scenario.
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Commando’s?
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What absolute cowards. The fact the MLA can’t even own up to the fact that the products they are promoting as “Australian” are actually sentient beings just like us that have had to withstand torturous deaths is despicable.
It doesn’t take a wizard to realiser that the dish you call LAMB is quite literally a DEAD LAMB….
I can’t believe anyone would support an industry that is so morally bankrupt.
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Hi Graham,
Thanks for flagging, that’s been rectified.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
@confused – please educate yourself on the ‘ramifications’ of everyone going vegan. Considering you actually are not concerned at all for the animals you eat don’t pretend to care about what will happen to the poor animals. Demand creates more breeding, less demand creates less breeding. These are all introduced species with unnatural breeding practices. Look around the country where cattle and sheep are dying from starvation because it’s such an unsustainable industry.
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Abattoir?
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The take down notice is in reference to their ad segment not the footage right? Seems like the vegans want one rule for them and one for everyone else.
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Firstly, editor, there’s a heap of typos in the article. 🙁
Secondly, thanks for running it.
Australians need to wake up to the brutality and environmental damage being wreaked by this industry. Using slick OTT marketing ploys to increase sales of body parts is unethical because it is not just a personal choice.
The industry hides the reality of production and threatens those who reveal it, it deludes consumers while mutilating and killing animals in a way that the majority would not condone if they were aware. How can you have genuine personal choice without informed decision making?
To top it off, lamb is recognised as the most environmentally detrimental meat.
To previous commenter, or anyone else, all your counter arguments or concerns have been considered and debunked ad nauseam, but of course unless you actively consider the questions and apply some research time and critical thinking yourself you won’t receive the information. When it’s multi-million dollar industries that exploit and kill, against a rag tag community of individuals who just want a animal and environmentally friendly world – guess who’s lines get the media time? Advertising dollars rule our media.
Here’s a quick reference to most common questions:
http://www.carnism.org/respons.....o-veganism
I thank Chris and Aussie Farms for not giving into MLA bullying and for shining the light into the darkness of animal agriculture to empower people to make informed decisions.
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@Confused. Somehow I don’t think Australians suddenly going vegan en masse will be a problem.
Even if does become a problem, the animals will be killed, not let go – just like a store puts on a sale when they need to remove stock. They’ll be killed either way….
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Seriously “E” is that the issue here?
Yes, the millions currently being bred to be sliced up and eaten will die, but just imagine that the hundreds of millions that would not need to be killed in the future.
So many people rattle on about animal cruelty, then sit down to a large lump of animal carcass for dinner, what makes a puppy untouchable but a pig just irrelevant?
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Sometime the truth is just too shocking ….Isn’t that right MLA?
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it is farming for God’s take. Farming means growing something, then cutting it down and preparing it for consumption. Farmers grow wheat… farmers grow sheep. Its food. Its been Food since humans were invented
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To “confused” . No wonder you are confused. Do you seriously think a vegan transformation would happen overnight? Just as with the abolition of slavery, contingencies were arranged during the transition and there were also indications of the future changes. Black slaves didn’t take over the countryside. This is an empty, tired and naive justification for murdering defenceless animals. If the situation were reversed perhaps you would be concerned that cabbages would take over the world.
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The comment from “Confused” is so pathetic I don’t even know if they’re being serious..
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I’ve seen plenty of slaughter house videos before, not to mention the bleeding of a goat before it was cooked and eaten as part of a celebration.
Meat eaters are generally fully aware of how animals are killed before consumption. We don’t particularly care either.
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Ah, truth. Gets in the way of an advertising campaign yet again.
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@Offal spokesperson. Um. I’m a vegan…
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Human beings evolved thanks to meat. We were built, designed in-fact to eat meat (we have incisors, we require high amounts of iron, etc).
If humans should be vegans then why are most iron deficient and why does practically every vegan need to have vitamin supplements?
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I am with you ‘Confused’
If we don’t eat meat what will the cows do?
I am a wombat and if people stopped eating chickens that means that chickens will move in to my burrow. My penis is already behind my testicles which i find weird, imagine if everyone was vegan and all the sausages were free to roam the bush. This will be a daily phallic reminder that my member remains trapped behind my sack because i live in a hole (a hole now filled with chickens) and that is what evolution wants for me.
#wontsomebodythinkofthewombats
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Dear left wing, inner-city, chai latté sipping tofu lovers.
I say that with a wink and a smile as I myself live in the inner city – Surry Hills in fact – and am a gluten free, lactose intolerant being. In fact I was a vegan for around four years. I have nothing against veganism, except I wasn’t particularly the best at it. I got sick quite frequently because I probably didn’t get the right amounts of nutrients / vitamins etc into my body, no matter how many pulses / mushrooms / tofu products I ate. But that was me, doing my thing without bothering anyone else.
I do eat meat now, but only 2-3 times a week. Mainly because I feel better for doing it. I sleep well and wake up with the energy I lacked as a vegan.
But if I can say something with some authority – the stuff you’re saying about how animals are treated and slaughtered, in my experience, having grown up on a farm and having an uncle who owns an abattoir – is absolute bullsh*t.
Maybe there are farms / abattoirs out there who deliberately mistreat animals and put profit over compassion. But the vast majority treat their animals well and slaughter them in the most humane way possible. Even more humanely than ‘halal’ practices, where their throat is slit and left to bleed out while the animal convulses all over the place. Yes, I’ve seen that.
Do you want to know why farms treat their animals well, let them run freely and slaughter them in the most relaxed manner possible?
It’s incredibly selfish, but it makes the meat more tender. Adrenalin gets into the muscles if the animals are spooked and it makes for incredibly tough meat.
Tough meat is hard to sell to the local butcher. Woolies, totally price driven, sure… they’ll sell whatever they want. But the local butcher, with Woolies trying to push them out of business, needs an advantage. And so does the local farmer. So not being able to beat Woolies on price, they can beat them on quality.
When you look at an animals life compared to their life in the wild, there are also some interesting parallels. A sheep in the wild is subject to all sorts of stress – dingoes, wild dogs, drought, cars, lack of feed and severe heat and cold stress.
A sheep on a farm really lives the life of a princess. Yes, there is an end to their life, but compared to being in the wild it’s a very good, but short life.
I’m not going to convince people to eat meat, just like my meat eating family who farm animals couldn’t convince me to stop being vegan. But animals treated with respect, the same animals who sustained your ancestors, the animals who are the whole reason you actually exist, they’re here and they serve a purpose.
You might find the practice disgusting, I might find the way you treat your fellow human being disgusting. But like it or lump it, people eat meat. Let’s just ensure the ‘sacrificial lamb’ is treated well, with all the respect in the world.
Because in all honesty, if lamb wasn’t a food-source, the species would undoubtedly be extinct by now – via wolves, wild dogs or even eagles.
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Farmers Boy. “A sheep on a farm lives the life of a princess” . Do you mean the ones that were locked in the tower of London and then beheaded. At least even they weren’t first castrated without painkillers, had their tails docked and their ears notched and tagged, at least they didn’t have half the buttocks removed in a process called mulesing and forced to spend days of 40 degrees without shade, at aleast they did suffer the terror of hearing smelling and watching their flock members scream and die. This is what you call “being treated well” . You are sick or delusional.
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Wow – that was confronting. I am 100% not eating Lamb on Australia day after watching that. I thought the original ad was great but when you can see the truth behind the scenes it suddenly put is all into perspective. I will not be going Vegan, I don’t imagine all animals are treated that badly but being presented with the truth does make you think. It makes you more conscious about what you consume. I’m sure a behind the scenes of McDonalds would be equally confronting.
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Farmer’s boy, do you expect everyone to just take you at your word? Anecdotal evidence is worthless.
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@Mitch and @Denise, my supposition was hypothetical. Please try not to take yourselves quite so seriously. My intention was to suggest that the Call to Action from Aussie Farms is misguided. In stead of trying to turn viewers vegan, a far more effective end goal would be to advocate for the humane treatment of animals. You obviously agree that the Australian population will not become vegan overnight after watching a propagandist video. Your reactions could not have supported my theory more succinctly. For Aussie Farms to advocate for a mass vegan population is as unlikely as it is misguided. If they aimed for more attainable goals like “please sign this petition to help eradicate the inhumane treatment of animals that will be brought before parliament etc etc etc”, they may be more successful in their efforts. As it stands, their modus operandi is to turn all viewers vegan. It’s not a sustainable end goal. Thank you for helping to prove my point.
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Everyone is going vegan. The MLA is showing that they feel threatened, as the truth speaks for itself. Meat equals animals suffering, the inconvenient truth Chris Delforce obviously isn’t scared to point out. He is a hero, one of the many speaking up for animals.
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The writing is on the wall for The MLA and they know it. The world no longer accepts such rhetoric advertising as they have attempted with their Australia Day aka ‘Invasion Day’ lamb campaign. As consumers make increased choices toward healthier plant based options this industry will dwindle and this is only the beginning. As for those who support the meat & dairy diet, obviously they have not done their research. Hundreds of athletes who have transitioned to a vegan lifestyle and require peak porformance to compete at international levels have declared dramatic performance or efficiency increases. It is no longer a myth but rather a matter of time before the masses adopt the vegan lifestyle. The motivations for adopting a vegan lifestyle are numerous. Some make the lifestyle choice for better health such as heart attack or cancer survivors and many others choose sports performance, compassion, spirituality, activism, trend, environmental protection, or it just feels right. And kudos to those such as Chris Delforce, courageous enough to stand up and be heard on behalf of the billions of sentient beings that have been enslaved by humans for their fur or flesh which clearly judging by the MLA’s fear reaction and repulsive bullying is itself a dying industry. And the response of so many who reject this advertisement including many meat eaters is a shot across the bow for the MLA, this is not how things are done in 2016.
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As someone who enjoys eating meat while not trying to think too much about how it got there the slaughterhouse scenes were troubling.
To be frank I can’t see myself going vegan so the real question I have is really around why are people treating animals in that way and how can we ensure animals are killed as humanely as possible.
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There is nothing humane about getting your throat cut …..”Humane Slaughter” is myth, an ideal the animal meat industry has come up with to help you feel good about eating meat.
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I’ve hate every lamb ad EXCEPT this one is brilliant!! what a bloody ripper, LLC is awesome casting
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