Animals Australia has made waves across the globe with its latest radio ads called “Lucy Speaks”. The ads feature the voice of a 3 year old girl, “Lucy”, speaking for “Lucy the pig” about the horrific conditions on Australian hog farms, which are incredibly similar to those in the US. The ads end with a narrator saying, “It is commonly accepted that a pig has the intelligence of a three year old child”. Apparently the ads have made quite an impact on Australians (rightly so), and I’ve noticed the ads showing up on a number of blogs here in the US as well. Thank you, Internet!
I think these ads are especially powerful for two reasons: 1) they examine the plight of farmed animals from a personal perspective by using one pig’s experience to highlight the horrors–they show Lucy the pig as the individual she is, an individual with feelings, thoughts and desires; and 2) the ads personalize the issue further by making the human-animal connection – by showing Lucy, an adorable 3 year old child, next to Lucy, a tormented factory farmed sow. By stating that pigs have the intelligence of young children, people who might not otherwise think about farmed animals are now looking at their own toddler and imagining what it would be like to be as smart as they know their child is, and yet be so incredibly helpless and mistreated on these farms. Brilliant, really.
Go see for yourself and listen to the Lucy Speaks ads here.
AND, please go read “Please Do Not Tap on the Glass” to learn about PETA’s recent investigation into a pig farm in Iowa – the abuses are unimaginable.
Creature Talk 