From Slaughterhouse to Out of Sight: Gail Eisnitz’s Lifelong Mission to Document Animal Suffering

In this powerful episode, we speak with legendary investigator Gail Eisnitz about her new memoir, Out of Sight: An Undercover Investigator’s Fight for Animal Rights and Her Own Survival. Eisnitz shares her remarkable journey from HSUS writer to becoming their only female national investigator, and ultimately chief investigator for the Humane Farming Association, all while battling an undiagnosed visual processing disorder. With unflinching honesty, she recounts her decades-long fight to expose the horrors of factory farming and slaughterhouses, the challenges of getting media attention for animal suffering, and the profound personal toll this work has taken. Despite countless obstacles from industry, media gatekeepers, and law enforcement, Eisnitz’s investigations have created tangible change—including the story of Bitsy, a neglected racehorse whose photograph sparked the creation of Virginia’s first equine sanctuary.

This episode explores:

• How Eisnitz became involved in investigating slaughterhouses after responding to a whistleblower’s complaint that other organizations ignored
• The emotional repression required to document animal suffering and the personal health consequences of this work
• Why slaughterhouse workers were willing to share their experiences of being forced to commit horrific acts against animals
• The systemic failures of law enforcement and media to address factory farming abuses despite overwhelming evidence
• How litigation may be the most promising path forward for creating meaningful change for farmed animals

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Gail A. Eisnitz, winner of the prestigious Albert Schweitzer Medal for outstanding achievement in animal welfare, has been working for decades to document and expose the shocking underbelly of the U.S. meat industry. She is chief investigator for the Humane Farming Association and author of the memoir, Out of Sight: An Undercover Investigator’s Fight for Animal Rights and Her Own Survival. Eisnitz and her first book, Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment inside the U.S. Meat Industry, were the driving force behind a front-page exposé in the Washington Post that resulted in an annual multimillion dollar Congressional appropriation for enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act – the first funding ever allocated for a law that had been on the books for more than forty years. Eisnitz’s work has resulted in exposés by ABC’s Good Morning America, ABC’s PrimeTime Live, and Dateline NBC, has been featured in such newspapers as the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Herald, Detroit Free Press, Texas Monthly, Denver Business Journal, Los Angeles Times, and U.S. News & World Report, and her interviews have been heard on more than 1,600 radio stations. In her new memoir, Eisnitz takes readers on a journey of self-discovery as she fights to document and expose scandalous animal abuse, all in the face of a rare visual processing disorder that she has grappled with since childhood. The disease, which was only identified in the scientific literature a mere ten years ago– was diagnosed after she began writing her memoir– and is revealed at the book’s climax.

We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.

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