Animal advocate seeks spy prepared to witness cruelty

Intestinal fortitude, ability to handle intense manual labour and preparedness to witness cruelty.

Those are among the qualities Mercy for Animals — an organization known for uncovering animal abuse at factory farms and slaughterhouses — is seeking in a new volunteer job posting for an undercover investigator in Vancouver.

The successful applicant will apply for work in the animal agriculture industry with unwitting potential employers. Once hired, they will labour alongside their new colleagues in an “emotionally gruelling” environment. The only difference is they will do so armed with hidden cameras and instructions to document but not engage in illegal or unethical practices.

In each of the organization’s 13 investigations to date, undercover operatives captured evidence of cruelty toward animals, said Krista Hiddema, Mercy for Animals’s vice-president.

“In each case we have gone into the facilities on a purely random basis and our whistleblowers have uncovered nothing but the most egregious cruelty,” Hiddema said Wednesday.

Hiddema said it may shock people to hear that the organization has uncovered evidence of abuse in every one of its investigations to date.

“The animal agricultural sector has been able to function for years and years behind closed doors.”

She declined to specify exactly how many active undercover investigators the organization now has deployed. But some are active now, she said.

Neither the B.C. Agriculture Council nor the Canadian Federation of Agriculture responded to requests for comment.