‘Whole Lotta Lies’ Video Game Debunks the ‘Humane Meat’ Myth

Posted by Bridget on October 10, 2024

In this gripping video game, escape is impossible. Your only objective is to survive as long as you can, because in Whole Lotta Lies, you play as a pig on a “humane” farm—where, like all pigs raised for their flesh, your fate was sealed the day you were born.

The game follows a pig named Pixie and her friends, who were torn away from their loving mothers as babies and are being raised on a filthy, barbaric farm. They need your help to stay away from the cruel workers, who are hell-bent on shooting sick and injured pigs and sending the others on a terrifying trip to the slaughterhouse.

Pixie, like all pigs, prefers to be clean, so avoid from the game’s piles of putrid mud and feces. Run away from the workers, and try to find carrots, which will give you a much-needed boost of energy.

Zach Claxton, a recent graduate from the University of Texas–Austin, was inspired to develop a video game that was impossible to win, because anytime smart, social individuals like Pixie are raised for their flesh—whether on factory farms or small “humane” farms—they always die painfully in a slaughterhouse.

Zach is on a mission to put an end to the “humane meat” myth, propagated by stores like Whole Foods—which is based in his hometown of Austin—that use misleading labels like “humanely raised.” He felt compelled to take action after seeing a PETA undercover investigation that revealed severe crowding, lameness, and death at a Whole Foods “humane” pork supplier. PETA’s investigator observed pigs who spent almost all their time confined to crowded sheds with concrete floors. Sick and severely injured pigs were left to languish for weeks, and some were eventually shot in the head and killed. Workers hit those who were being loaded for slaughter and grabbed and lifted screaming pigs by their ears.

Zach studied advertising at the University of Texas–Austin. He has hosted numerous Starbucks sit-ins with his animal rights club, urging the company to drop its vegan milk surcharge. He took part in a protest at Circuit of The Americas in Austin over Formula 1’s ties to the Iditarod dog-sled race as well as a protest at Austin Aquarium, an indoor petting zoo and strip-mall aquarium where lemurs have bitten members of the public and staff on 27 recent occasions.

Zach traveled across Pennsylvania with other PETA supporters to protest outside several district attorneys’ offices to demand that criminal action be taken against workers who kicked, stomped on, beat, threw, and mock-raped turkeys. Following the demonstrations that they were involved in, the Pennsylvania State Police charged 12 former workers with a total of 141 counts of cruelty to animals, including six felonies, across six counties. It’s the largest number of charges in any factory-farmed animal case in U.S. history.

Keep up the amazing work, Zach!

Take Action for Pigs Like Pixie

Join Zach in helping to prevent real pigs from suffering and dying so that Whole Foods and other stores can sell their flesh using deceptive “humane meat” claims. Some orgs (like the Humane Society of the United States) betray animals and consumers by partnering with the Global Animal Partnership. Animals are going to keep suffering on “humane” farms unless we speak up. Urge these groups to stop propping up this cruel industry.