An Interview with Animal Rights Activist and Undercover Investigator Rich Hardy
Konrad Lozinski (Otwarte Klatki) For the past twenty years you’ve been working for various animal rights organizations gathering audiovisual documentations of systematic animal cruelty, common in factory farming. Can you tell us how did you decide to get involved in this type of animal activism?
Rich Hardy: After a short and unsuccessful spell in professional football, I became a campaigner for farm animals. This was the early 1990s and it was a lean period for pure vegan advocacy. I could, however, see it was essential to try and outlaw the very worst of the farming systems, so I began working on campaigns to end barren battery cages, sow stalls and live animal exports.
During this time, I met a lot of politicians, especially when delivering reams of scientific reports to them that explained how bad it was to confine farm animals in cages and crates. But it was never enough. They always wanted more than just black text on white paper. They wanted imagery, and I couldn’t find much, so after a campaign sabbatical I u-turned on lobbying, got myself some cheap cameras and began going undercover to document those systems the politicians were failing to take action against.
I did my first guerrilla assignment in 1999, inside a battery cage egg-laying system in New Zealand and my last in the Autumn of 2018, talking to ‘Open Cages’ activists in Ukraine about how to undertake investigations for farm animals.
KL: When you were starting your work did you have any guidance on how to conduct such investigations? At the end of the 90s. undercover materials from factory farms were still quite rare.
RH: Yes undercover investigations were rare at that time. Many organisations that are now recognised for incorporating them into their work didn’t even exist back then.
Without others to learn from, I think it’s fair to say that the few activists undertaking this work, were learning as they went. Figuring out what approaches would work, what A/V equipment to use and how to modify it to best suit our needs were constant conversations we had amongst ourselves to help improve our rates of successful documentation.
KL: This kind of activism can be physically and emotionally draining. Did you feel prepared for this kind of work?
RH: I think it helped that I had prior experience as a campaigner/lobbyist for animals, so I did have a good undertsanding of the systems used and how they caused suffering for animals. Nothing though can prepare you for your first encounter with animals incarcerated in factory farming, and I’m not sure those emotions ever leave you, no matter how many factory farms or slaughterhosues you visit.
KL: How did you cope with traumas you’ve faced on daily basis. I’m guessing you get used to many horrible things while it becomes your everyday work, but there must be a limit, especially for empathetic person caring for animals.
RH: I think for a long time I put the personal traumas to one side. Put them in a box, if you like, and hide it away somewhere. Ultimately though there comes a time when they all catch up with you. When that happens it’s time to stop. To be an effective advocate it’s important to be able to recognise those signs and follow what your mind and body are trying to tell you.
KL: Many undercover investigators working in animal rights movement develop some kind of understanding for farm owners and regular workers. After a while some intimacy emerges and they manage to understand their, often cruel, behaviour. What is your perspective on that?
RH: Yes I think you can put yourself in the shoes of your adversaries at times. I think there’s such a crossover with other social justice issues from investigating food production and I’ve seen many human rights injustices while documenting animal cruelty. If we are to end all cruelty then we need to find solutions that benefit both animals and humans.
KL: Your book is intimate, diary-like record of some of your assignments. Could you tell us about your intentions behind this publication?
RH: The book “Not As Nature Intended” started out as something I thought I might do about 5 years ago, but didn’t really get moving on until about two years ago when I started jotting down some of the feelings and thoughts I was left with post-assignments.
It’s not a photographic account, but a narrative non-fiction on what it’s been like to infiltrate secretive animal industries and shine a light on what happens to make them work from the inside. There are plenty of stories I tell about individual animals, but I also examine the people behind the animal suffering. To be honest it’s been a bit of a surreal experience; a real rollercoaster of emotions that swing from the bizarre to the chilling. So in addition to reporting on the secret workings of these industries, I’m recounting how I got to be there, what I saw, who I met and how I was left feeling.
I hope the book can really make a difference for animals. In particular, I’d like it open people’s eyes or attract the curious-minded to find out more about how animals are treated to put food on our plates, clothes on our backs or smiles on our faces.
I also wrote the book so it could sit within an animal rights archive of sorts. I really think it’s important for us to archive all the elements and techniques that have gone into securing change for animals. There will come a time when people look back at all these campaigns and be appalled that we ever had to fight so hard to end the abuse animals endure at the hands of humans, but like all social justice issues it’s important to remember and learn from hard-won battles. Undercover investigations have been a big part of our movement and I feel it should be recorded in a format that others can access to learn from and adapt to other issue-based campaigns. This would be my contribution.
KL: Part of preparations to publication was profile you’ve launched on Instagram were you are regularly posting photogrammes from your videorecords gathered throughout the years of undercover. Could you tell more about this project?
RH: Before the book I thought I should start the storytelling process by posting some of my work on a social media platform. I started looking through my archive of images and footage and cross-checking it against my notebooks and found myself reliving moments. I also discovered important stories that were lost within a bigger project and tragic encounters with individual animals that I’ve never expressed to others.
I set up an Instagram account and began sharing these moments from the unique perspective I’ve had as an eyewitness in a world of suffering. I usually focus on posting images that tell the story of an individual animal, through the experiences of another individual — myself.
KL: Even though you quit going undercover, you continue work for animals. Could you tell what are you engaged in now?
RH: While I don’t have the strength to go undercover anymore, I will remain as a campaigner for animals. Alongside some talks I’m giving about my work and the book, I’m also setting myself up to provide training for campaigners/activists, freelancing for animal organisations on specific projects and also developing a small-scale market garden to grow vegetables and fruit.
KL: Thank you for your work Rich and this conversation.
*This interview was conducted and originally published for Polish Animal Rights organization Otwarte Klatki.
Below you will find link to Rich Hardy’s portfolio of investigations and website where you can order his book “Not as Nature Intended”.
