DxE Slaughterhouse Lockdown on 9-1-1 Show

Some background: Back in May/June of this year I attended the Animal Liberation Conference (ALC) hosted by DxE San Francisco Bay Chapter. Similar to the ALCC that recently passed, the week-long conference featured many trainings, talks, workshops, and community-building activities and culminated in a mass action on the last day.

The action took place at a duck farm and slaughterhouse, where a team of activists locked themselves to equipment (there were a few other things going on as well, but since I might do a whole post on that day later I will only give the necessary background for the post at hand). One of the workers turned on the machines despite knowing that activists had locked their necks to the equipment, which resulted in one activist, Tom, being choked until the machines were turned off. I was not part of that team and only saw the activist when he was being loaded into the ambulance.

Condition One made a video showing the team locking into the equipment and what happened when the machines were turned on. We still do not know whether the machines were accidentally or purposely turn on. The video has over 700k views:

Fast forward to yesterday, at the Alameda Courthouse in Oakland. Many DxE members, including me, were waiting outside the courthouse to provide court support for the first day of court for an unrelated matter (basically DxE is sueing Diestal for false advertising). While waiting, someone was sent the following video of a promo for an upcoming episode of a show on FOX called 9-1-1:

As expected, everyone began to flip out when they saw the footage. We did not expect one of our actions to be recreated in a television show.

Since the episode has yet to air, we don't know how accurately the situation is illustrated in the show. Of course, we do know that they chose a young white guy to portray Tom, on which Tom has since commented, "I guess Chow Yun-Fat was busy."

One of our amazing DxE organizers, Paul, sums up my feelings on the matter in a Facebook post:

I’ve really enjoyed that FOX’s TV Drama 9-1-1 has used a DxE mass action as inspiration for a storyline, but it’s painful at the same time. Asian activists and other activists of color played major roles in that action, so it’s troubling to see the major role in the show go to a white actor. Thomas put his life on the line and went out in an ambulance. It hurts to see his background be erased in this adaptation. It’s also obviously painful to see ducks used for entertainment. I’m excited to see nonviolent direct action permeating our culture more and more, but it’s bittersweet here.