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When animals receive the attention they deserve from TV networks, it's a grand occasion. HBO has once again stepped up to the plate—remember when the network aired I Am an Animal, which followed PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk in her daily work to save animals? Well, tonight, the network will be airing Death on a Factory Farm, so set your reminder now. It will also be available through On Demand.

This hard-hitting documentary follows a hog-farm investigation and gives viewers a rare glimpse at the process of trying to bring cruelty-to-animals charges against the meat industry.

As often happens, a tip was received from one of the farm's employees who claimed that workers were killing pigs by hanging them with chains. The bizarre part is that the investigator recorded the owner's son stating that the "euthanasia" guidelines followed by the farm are approved by and posted on PETA's Web site! Needless to say, it took about five minutes for our lawyers to put out a letter demanding an apology. If this investigation rings a bell, here's why: We featured it on the PETA Files in fall of 2007 when Iowa veterinarian Dr. Paul Armbrecht defended these hangings as acceptable and stated that kicking, dragging, and dropping sows off a 4-foot ledge—routine practice at this farm—are appropriate methods of transporting animals. And wife-beating is great discipline.

Tune in tonight and then come back tomorrow and leave us a comment letting us know what you thought.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Today is PETA President Ingrid Newkirk’s birthday. She will be turning … *muffled screams as blogger is pulled away from the computer by the hair*

Ahem. She will be turning a year older. Please join me in wishing her a very, very happy birthday. I’ll pick one commenter over the next two weeks to give away a free copy of the I Am an Animal DVD to. ‘Cuz birthdays make me feel generous like that. Happy birthday, Ingrid!

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P.S. What? Come on, people. Like you guys have never kissed up to your boss? Give me a break.

P.P.S. Click here to read the terms and conditions of this contest. You’ll never guess who made me say that.

-Jack

HBO’s I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA was officially released on DVD today, so you should definitely put in an order for it if you haven’t seen it yet. Although it leaves out one kind of important point, the documentary is a fascinating look at the inner workings of PETA—from how the organization’s campaign ideas are born to what goes into an undercover investigation to what Ingrid Newkirk eats for breakfast.

To save you the trouble, the answer to that last question is “oatmeal,” but if you have some more pressing questions for Ingrid after watching this documentary, now’s the time to ask them. Either leave a comment with your (polite) question, or just e-mail it to me, and I’ll compile them all and pass them onto her. I’ll send her the questions over the next few days and post a blog with the answers in a couple of weeks’ time.

Yes, HBO’s I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA was insightful, well-made, and powerful. I’ll admit that. But WTF, HBO? Didn’t you forget something kind of important? Did all those times I found an excuse to walk by the cameras when you were filming in the office mean nothing to you? Did that week we spent together camped out in a parking lot in New Orleans just completely slip your minds? Or is there something I missed?

As anyone who watched the documentary last night will know by now, this lowly PETA blogger does not appear anywhere in the final cut of the film. Like, there aren’t even any scenes where you can hear my voice off camera, or see me wandering by in the hallways. But with the exception of that massive, massive oversight on HBO’s part, the film, which aired for the first time yesterday at 8 p.m., was absolutely riveting. I won’t give away too much, since you can still catch it on HBO On Demand, but the film takes as its central theme the period leading up to the release of our Butterball investigation, and it provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes view of exactly how that campaign and a number of other PETA initiatives go from an idea in a meeting to a major media story that highlights the suffering of animals.

If you get a chance to watch the film, you’ll notice that not all the viewpoints expressed in the documentary are flattering about PETA, but as an organization, we’ve never been particularly concerned about flattery—our goal has always been to get people thinking seriously about animal rights, and whenever possible, getting them to sit down and actually confront the horrors that animals are subjected to in the meat, fur, animal-research, and other abusive industries that are so often kept hidden from the public. I Am an Animal accomplishes that in spades, and for that reason I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about why we do what we do. I just hope that when they make the sequel, they’ll give the people what they want and spend a little bit more time filming me.

As the air date for I Am An Animal, the HBO documentary about PETA, approaches, there is one important question in the minds of PETA staff members such as myself: “Am I in it?” Well, that’s what I’m wondering, anyway. From everything I’ve heard about this film, it’s an extremely compelling look at animal rights issues, PETA’s role in the movement, and more specifically, what makes PETA President Ingrid Newkirk tick. Evidently, it’s also very even-handed—it gives equal time to PETA’s detractors, and it explores opposing viewpoints and the various controversies that exist within the movement from an impartial perspective. Which is all well and good, but as we know, the real question here is, are there any scenes that have me in them? Like, even a shot where I’m standing around in the background will be fine.

Unfortunately, most of the world will have to wait for the answer to this burning question until Monday at 8 p.m. If you don’t have HBO, see if you can get yourself invited over to a friend’s house to watch it—it really does look like it’s going to be a winner. In the meantime, you can enter to win a copy of the DVD here, and by way of a teaser, here’s what Ingrid had to say about the documentary:

The folks at the Hamptons International Film Festival just announced that "I Am an Animal," the forthcoming documentary about PETA and Ingrid Newkirk, has been named Best Documentary! It's not actually coming out on HBO until next month — and I haven't seen it, so I can't tell you all that much about it — but I can definitely recommend checking out this interview with Ingrid and the film's director, Matthew Galkin. It looks like it's going to be a hell of a film. The HIFF people certainly seemed to think so anyway.