Feeling Guilty?
Dear students and friends,
I read this article online and found it to be quite shocking. Many of my students know that I enjoy reading stories about human kindness towards animals, and animals showing kindness towards humans. However, this is the first story that I’ve come across regarding a suicide being committed due to guilt from animal cruelty.
Stephen Brown is an animal farmer who owns a 500-acre farm with 4,000 pigs. He shot himself after his farm was exposed by animal rights activists, and he saw footage of the cruel treatment his workers carried out on the animals on his farm. The workers starved, beat, shot and bludgeoned the pigs to death… they were such graphic and cruel acts that even the farm owner, Mr Brown was shocked to the point that he ended his life. Although Mr Brown was said to have never abused an animal, he must have felt tremendous guilt towards what his workers did to the animals on his farm. I do not recommend anyone to take their own life for whatever guilt they have, as we can make up for our wrongs in positive ways.
When we don’t do our work well, the consequences from our lack of care and responsibility always results in others suffering… Whether it be not doing your work in the office, and someone else has to take on more… or in this case, where the pigs suffered incredibly and someone took his life.
Although in an ideal situation, pig farms should never exist… but in today’s reality, they do, and the least that we can give the animals while they are alive is decent treatment before they are sent to be slaughtered. Please always be kind to animals.
Please do not harm animals and do not eat them.
Tsem Rinpoche
Pig farmer found dead in suspected suicide after animal rights activists post picture of sow being shot dead in its pen
by Vanessa Allen
- Married father-of-two Stephen Brown, 52, is believed to have shot himself
- Investigation launched this week after covert video shows pigs being kicked and slapped and one being beaten to death with an iron bar
- Farm suspended from the Red Tractor food quality assurance scheme, which aims to ensure responsible farming methods
‘Tipping point’: Pig farmer Stephen Brown was under investigation after serious allegations of animal cruelty were made about his farm
A farmer targeted by animal rights activists has been found dead days after evidence of horrific cruelty on his farm was revealed.
Stephen Brown, 52, is believed to have shot himself in a field after saying he was ‘absolutely gutted’ about the shocking exposé.
An undercover animal rights activist secretly filmed a worker on his Norfolk farm beating a pig to death with an iron bar, kicking piglets and smashing a live animal’s head on to a concrete floor.
Still photographs showed a worker aiming a powerful rifle at a sow and the apparently lifeless body in its pen.
The RSPCA described it as one of the worst cases of animal abuse it had seen and launched its own investigation after the secret footage was released by campaign group Animal Equality last weekend, and welfare and standards group Red Tractor suspended the farm from its quality assurance scheme.
There was no suggestion that Mr Brown was directly involved in the cruelty, but the film included footage of apparent long-term neglect and showed animals with large open sores and festering wounds.
Mr Brown gave an emotional interview to the BBC on Monday in which he said he was hit ‘very hard’ by the film, but claimed it had been ‘dramatised’.
He and his wife Fiona had been due to take their two daughters on a half-term ski trip but cancelled it after the video was released.
A worker at the farm in Norfolk aims a powerful rifle at a sow in its pen. The footage outraged animal rights activists as it also showed apparent long-term neglect of animals with large open sores and festering wounds.
Shocking: An undercover investigation exposed horrific acts of cruelty to animals on Stephen Brown’s farm in Thetford, Norfolk, which supplies meat to leading supermarkets.
Police were called to Harling Farm, near Thetford, on Wednesday morning and found his body. Officers said there were no suspicious circumstances.
Mr Brown kept 4,000 pigs on the 500-acre farm, which has been in his family since 1920.
He took it over from his father Michael, 82, a former parish council chairman who still lives with the family on the farm.
Hairdresser Lorraine Mitchell, 40, who once worked as a pig handler on the farm, said: ‘He was a hard-working farmer who cared a lot for his animals.
Grim discovery: This dreadful image of the place where the farm buried the pigs on site was part of evidence forming a case of animal cruelty against farmer Stephen Brown.
‘I never saw him do anything bad to the pigs or raise a hand to them.’
‘He and his father were great bosses. Whatever actually happened, it was not his fault.’
Mrs Mitchell said she was shocked by his appearance during a TV news interview about the footage, and said he looked like ‘a broken man’. Friend and fellow farmer William Nunn, the leader of Breckland District Council, said he had known Mr Brown for more than 25 years.
‘He was really shocked by the pig thing,’ he said. ‘I think because he was a soft-hearted, caring farmer it caught him off-guard.’
Horrific: Workers were caught on video beating pigs with iron bars, battering piglets, scraping knives across their backs and smashing animals onto concrete floors.
A neighbouring pig farmer, who asked not to be named, said the undercover activist had tried for jobs at other farms in the area.
He said: ‘It seems very unfair to blame Mr Brown for something that he personally had nothing to do with.
‘You can’t be responsible for all your employees throughout every minute of the day. I don’t know Stephen’s employees but I did know him, and he would never, ever treat an animal cruelly.
‘But now he and his wife and his two young daughters have paid the price for someone else’s actions.’
A spokesman for Animal Equality refused to comment. The group supports ‘non-violent direct action’.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2101693/Pig-farmer-slammed-RSPCA-horrific-cruelty-animals-dead-suspected-suicide.html#ixzz2hgcYi8AE
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Feeling guilty a pig farmer Stephen Brown committed suicide after his farm was exposed by animal rights activists. Sad and shocking video of cruel treatments by his workers resulted Stephen Brown been investigated by police. Video footage of pigs being kicked, slapped and beaten with iron bars or plastic rods repeatedly till the poor animals is left dead. He has been investigated over allegations of cruelty to pigs. The pig farmer himself after watching the video was too shocked to the point that he ended his life. Sadly he ended his life for someone cruel action . Do hope more and more animal farms be exposed if they have violated the rules of cruelty treatment to animals.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing a reminder for us to be kind to all animal .
Thank you for sharing this Rinpoche. I wish the death of Mr Brown and the uncovering of brutality towards animals will cause more people are aware of this sickening form of reality and will hopefully make more people becoming vegetarian so that businesses like Mr Brown’s will have to eventually shut down. Animal brutality is cruel on the eye and everyone should not enjoy their meals of eating meat.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. This is a shocking article. Owner of the pig farm ended his life for the actions done by his own staffs. I think no one will want to eat the meat of the pig if they how they have been tortured before they were slaughtered. Mr Brown on the other hand should not have taken his own life. There is always a way to handle the things that we have done wrong if our motivation is not to kill.
With folded palms,
Vivian
When Mr Brown decided to take over the farm from his father, he should already know thousands or millions of pigs will be killed for the pay.
When Mr Brown decided to hire the workers for his pig farming, he should already know there is possibility where the workers will torture and at the end to kill the pig for the pay too.
Whatever choices Mr Brown made yesterday, he is definitely have to responsible for the caused.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing which reminds us be kind to the animals and be more mindful and pay attention to our every action and choice.
I only wish that, the death of this farmer is not in vain. And that it raises more awareness for everyone to know that animals don’t have a good time at all, being raised for human consumption.
Factory farms are dirty places which are a pollutants of the land, I hope in the future more and more factory farms can be closed and meat is no longer considered a type of food.
Shocking, sad to read and view images of this article.Horrible to see these pictures of animals being tortured. The animal rights group did was the right thing, exposing the cruelty of animals in Mr. Brown ‘s farm.I could’nt imagine how those workers did to the helpless pigs without Mr. Brown knowledge.Mr Brown committed suicide, when he saw and knew the cruelty acts of his employees.was exposed by the activist.Mr.Brown must be feeling guilty,shameful and responsible to what happen then.He died for someone shameful act,he should have checked on his workers at his farm,
what happens is over , what we can do is to encourage more people to go vegetarian ,less consumption., less consumers demands then less slaughtering of animals.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article.
Thanks Rinpoche for sharing this article. This is really a strange case.
Personally I think the animal activist shouldn’t be blamed for Mr. Brown’s dead as everyone has their choice of how to react to such incident. Like Rinpoche mentioned, there’s always a positive method to react.
The thing is whether the activist revealing about the farm or not, the cruelty happened on daily basis with or without Mr.Brown knowing it. This shouldn’t be happened and the revealing of the video is to stop all these. Looking at the pigs in the farm who have so much sadness and fear, who are we to impose such things to them?
And people who are guilt for these are not only the farm workers, but also the people who order and chew meat in their mouth. It’s the demand for meat that people have resources to build animal farms for slaughter houses, and open more chances for people to treat animal with cruel. This cruelty can stop when we stop demanding meat.
Please be a vegetarian today.
i find this a strange story!
How can you , not knowing that all those things happend on your farm? dead pigs laying somewere , pigs with wounds.
No can’t be!!!
Thank you Rinpoche for this highlight on cruelty to animals. It really made me wants to puke and sick to my stomach reading and seeing this senseless pictures of animals being tortured. It is totally beyond my ordinary human comprehension that these farmers are still resorting to such cruel acts. It is totally outrageous, disgusting to say the least that such cruelty acts still exist in the animal’s farm. I am pretty sure that industrialized countries would have adopted a more humane way of killing these animals rather than bludgeoning them, killing them with rifles pointing at their heads. For instance like putting these animals in a cold room and they would naturally sleep without any pain instituted on them, well it is an afterthought not that I would want encourage killing of animals.
It made me wonder why humans still believe that animals meat protein is essential for their well-being this misinformation on animal protein good for human has already been debunked and human are still eating it. It has also been discovered that when fear arises in the animals about to be slaughtered they release hormones that would have contents of poison detrimental for human consumption.
However, on a religious standpoint a simply analogy would be ‘as you sow, so shall you reap’
That’s why I have stop eating meat. Once I have experience it myself how they handled pig before and after process.
Therefore, no matter due to health, morality or any reason is better to stop eating it.
Most of the farms around the world are not decent to the animals, the animals live in some of the most gruesome and filthy environment which most of us can’t even imagine. The poor animals are treated like rubbish, no respect of any sort and moreover, they are starved and beaten up in the process.
The animal rights group did the right thing, more people should know about the ugly truths behind some of these farms, those poor poor animals do not deserve this.
What the animal rights group did was the right thing, which is to expose the cruelty against animals, and they should not stop just because of one such incident. But nonetheless, this is indeed a very sad and unexpected tragedy. In Buddhism, it is never recommended that one to end his/her own life. Like what Rinpoche said, there are things we can do to make up with the wrongs that we have done. I think the employees who abused the animals must own up to their mistakes and confess and vowed not to repeat it.
I was once a heavy meat eater, but through education, I get to learn about the negative things about eating animals, and I stopped eating meat after that. Therefore, I feel education on vegetarianism is very important, and that’s why I feel we need to educate people about not eating meat.
I pray that one day, all the slaughterhouse will be closed and animals do not need to be slaughtered to become our food on the table.
This is happening around the world in all farms. Farms exist to make money because the demand is there and there are bound to be negligence or irresponsible rearing or animals. The animals are innocent.
NO doubt that it is horrifying to hear the news that Mr Brown has committed suicide when he saw the cruel acts of his employees. However, it also means that he is not involved in his farm and check on the employees. He grew up in his family farm and cannot be true that he doesn’t know the farm operations. It means that he was not hands on in the business.
Taking one own’s life is an irresponsible act. It does not solve any problems, in fact, it creates more problem for the people you leave behind. On top of that, he will reborn in the lower realms. The responsible way is to change processes in his farm and be more vigilant/involved in his farm. And to put the culprit to justice.
Studies have shown that rearing of animals for consumption creates more greenhouse gasses and leaves more carbon footprint. We should be vegetarians to save the world.
It is sad that a man had to take his life to try to repent his ways for the animals that had suffered in his farm. However, through Mr Brown’s case it shows that he does have a conscious to know what is going on and to repent his ways of how his employees treat the animals.
In my opinion, for Mr Brown to take his own life for the guilt that he felt is not necessary. However, what I felt that he should have done is to take actions towards the employees that mistreat the animals. With that, it will help the animals that are suffering to not suffer as much. If actions are not taken against these employees that mistreat the animals, the same people can be mistreating the animals in the future when Mr Brown is already gone. So even if that particular slaughter house is gone, these people that have mistreated the animals will never stopped unless they are being stopped for good.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article with all of us here for us to know that what guilt can push us to do at times.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this news with us. Mr Brown action is very wrong even though he has has a lot of guilt about his negligent for not well take care of his farm he should not because of that kill himself he should think of a way to help others animals like open up a animals shelter to rescue those animals that being abuse like what Rinpoche said we should not kill ourselves for whatever guilt we have as we can make up for our wrong in positive ways.
The most tragic thing about this whole story is that instead of doing something positive to rectify a miserable situation of callous animal cruelty happening right under his nose,the owner of the pig farm , Mr Brown, took his life when the whole ugly situation was exposed. Being kind to animals means not even giving a thought to owning a farm to rear pigs for slaughter.
When you rear animals for slaughter, how do you expect the workers you hire to handle them to be kind? Seeing these animals as only fit for slaughter and for the meat they will provide for the dinner table, how will you train them to be to be humane?
One thing I see missing is that Mr Brown had not been vigilant and had not carried out strict checks on the workers’ handling of the animals.
I see in this situation how Dharma if correctly learnt and practiced, can teach us valuable lessons about bearing the responsibility of the consequences of our actions, directly or indirectly. If we train ourselves to take responsibility for the consequences of our actions, we will not harm other beings in any way.
The repercussions of the exposé was definitely out of proportion. A good man had died, leaving his family in pain. If the workers are all released from work due to closure, many more families have to suffer.
What we can learn and improve from this situation, was for the activists to actually have a sit down and talk to the owners before putting it onto social media. If farmer Stephen Brown actually refused to improve, then only putting it onto the worldwide web to expose the cruelty and abuse would be fair.
Now a kind and guilty soul had passed.
Of course if he did more visits to the farms to actually understand the situation of the animals, would also be good. The farm is his, workers are his, animals are his.. it is not fair also to absolve all the blame onto the workers if proper work ethics were not met down.
Anyway, committing suicide from guilt is not a release, but a cowardice escape. We should look onto improve or change.
May his soul be in peace.
Thank you.
This is a tragic incident. Mr Brown should not had taken his own life. From what his former employee and neighbor said, i believe Mr Brown is an animal loving man and he would never had done such monstrosity act towards his animal. However, it is his responsibility that ensure that the animals are being taken good care of in his farm. Him being oblivious of what his employee’s actions in his farm is irresponsible and ignorant. He should had taken the necessary steps to resolve the issue rather than taking his own life. That itself is another irresponsible act. Leaving the mess to his family and went for a quick escape from the issue is an act of a coward.
News of animals being abused in supposedly good or humane place is not something new anymore. I suppose that preparing the animals to die is never humane in any way that you may do it, either the gentle way or the hard way. The only humane solution that can truly help the animals is to stop taking meat. Without the demand of meat, there will be lesser farms and lesser butchering and of course lesser animal cruelty.
It is sad that due to the actions of his farm workers that Mr. Brown faces the abuse charges and in despair took his own life. Although his staff was the guilty abusers, Mr. Brown as a Boss and Owner of the farm is also responsible to the situation and can’t claim ignorance as he should always inspect the conditions of his farm. However, I agree that Mr. Brown should not have taken the “easy” way out by committing suicide and leaving others, like his family to bear with the losses. It was very selfish to leave them without a husband, a father and even a son. Alive, he could do much more to rectify the situation of his farm and to make amends in his living by maybe charity work or educating farm workers to be more humane, etc. Dharmically it is just terrible karma to commit suicide. As Joy mentioned, definitely the 3 lower realms as at the point of death, his mind must be really disturbed and in pain.
However the people who eat meat too are the contributing factor for the existence of the animal farm. The staff working day in day out knowing the pigs will be killed for food probably stopped seeing them as sentient beings and just as product to be kept till the delivery date. With human’s taste for flesh, a chain of karmically negative events are created. All the pain and anger as the animal suffers and dies are creating the ripple of anger we faced today in the world. May more practise their compassion and turn to meatless dishes to reap the love they seek from within.
I agree with the statement made by Pastor Tat Ming: “Death is not the solution…” especially in this case. Stephen Brown‘s way of dealing with his guilt is very misguided. This is where I agree with Paul and Joy who said that the pig farm should not have existed in the first place. Instead of killing himself, Stephen Brown could have rectified the wrongs, by ensuring his employees get the punishment by law that they deserve and bring “justice” to the mistreated pigs.
A better “justice” would be to end the pig farm altogether because it is almost inevitable to see sad cases like this in the meat industry. Once animals are subjected to being pure “meat” literally speaking, and human seeing them as a money making object with no feelings or intelligence, there will be no compassionate for the animals. The true compassion would be to stop consuming meat and using products that cause suffering and pains to the animals, like leather products, eggs, dairy, and even cosmetic that tested on animals.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing with us this thought provoking article.
Humbly, bowing down,
Stella Cheang
Death is not the solution to end mistreatment of the pigs or the way to repent for one’s negative action. It is unfortunate that the late Mr. Stephen Brown had committed suicide out of guilt for the mistreatment of the pigs in his farm.
Eventhough he didn’t torture the pigs, being the owner of the farmer, he was the cause to the mistreatment and deaths of the pigs that were sold to consumers. Farming pigs to supply meat to consumers is definitely not a right livelihood because it involves the killing and harming of pigs. It is heavy negative karma to kill living beings like pigs.
I pray that these pigs be free from their sufferings.
May the late Mr Stephen Brown be free from his sufferings.
May human beings develop compassion for animals and stop harming and consuming meat.
This is horrible. Have shut down this farmer, he and the employees need to be jailed. Absolutely horrible. What idiots.
Dear Stephanie,
Thank you for your comment I do agree that these people should be jailed and pig farms or animals farms should actually seize to exist. But unfortunately we all know the reality is that it won’t for the next couple of years more, maybe even a hundred as people, the consumers demands for it. The only way we can ever make this stop and end the torture if we keep educating people and we ourselves stop eating meat and lessening the demands. That is the only way to at this moment I believe.
Do check out this blog’s extensive section on Animals and Vegetarianism and share with other as much as possible https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/category/animals-vegetarianism
The more we educate people, especially the kids as they are our future generation, the more we can change the wrong concept that eating meat/killing animals is our ‘right’. Thanks again for sharing!
It was awful to know that the animal was tortured and abused in such manner. The pig farm should not exist in the first place. The workers that abused the animals should be send to the jail. Too sad that these people don’t have dharma knowledge and education, otherwise they will not behave negatively.
This is such a sad read. In Buddhist perspective has collected so much negative karma from operating a pig farm, employing abusive handlers and then on top of all that taken his own life. I can understand the guilt he felt but taking one’s own life is literally condemning one’s soul into the deep dark abyss and with his karma and that much guilt, he would be thrown into the deep dark 3 lower realms. I feel very much sorry for him. If only he had some dharma, he would at least not kill himself and make positive changes to reduce his guilt or purify his mistakes.
True such work, business and way of making an income from killing another being such as this pig farm should have never existed in the first place. If humans never demanded for meat, then there will never be a supply. So as much as we all want to blame the industry, we should in fact blame ourselves, the consumers who demands for such things to be made available. Everyday when we consume, shop and buy meat, this is what we are doing… killing. You could say that we are the no.1 source of it all, because we are the ones asking and paying for it. Hence, the best thing we can do is stop consuming meat. It is as simple as that and we save the pigs, the people who work in such industry, and the people who make it their business.
This is an inspiring read on how those who have taken meat and even had a leather business decided to transform their guilt into something positive and stop the killing once and for all… https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/animals-vegetarianism/music-to-my-ears.html