Virtual Reality Slaughterhouse Haunts NPR Writer

Writer Barbara J. King penned a recent feature published on National Public Radio that described her experience with an interactive exhibit at the Sundance Film Festival wherein she was placed inside a pig slaughterhouse with the use of a virtual reality headset. The 12-minute video entitled “iAnimal” was compiled by animal-rights group Animal Equality and allowed King to experience 3D interactive images of pigs being partially stunned and left for dead while other pigs watched and waited for their turn. The immersive experience left her “disoriented and stupid,” and she explains that “the heightened visual closeness brings about heightened emotional attunement and, thus, the true extent of the cruelty to individual, sentient animals.” King acknowledged the power of the exhibit’s message and came to the conclusion that “we need to see and stop what we’re doing to other animals—and not only in the last few moments of their lives.”