Norun, dedicated

I met Norun Haugen at Tallinn Vegan Fair. She traveled from Norway together with movie director Ola Waagen to present a movie “The Secret Lives of Pigs“. Very short introduction of the movie is – Norun went undercover in the Norwegian pig industry with the hidden camera.

Ironically as a kid she wanted to be a farmer. Like most of the children she thought that farming means taking care of animals. “Mom raised me to help anyone, people and animals, she gave me value. And I had a dog, who also made me focus to animal rights,” tells Norun, who used to be a teacher before undercover times. “In schools students are told that animal welfare in Norway is very good. I didn’t believe it and wanted to prove it”. Norun also studied philosophy what gave her more reasons to help animals – the ethics.

First meat company she called, didn’t allow her to visit them. She knew undercover strategies from PETAs campaigns and had also seen undercover investigation in Norwegian fur farms made by Network for Animal Freedom. Noruns first undercover visit was to the slaughterhouse. She used false name and told that she is a student who has to write about slaughterhouses. They let her in and she saw how badly animals are treated there. After that she bought a camera.

Norun went to work to a pig farm. She had told to the owner that she wants to start one herself and needs to learn. “I saw a huge building, not a typical sweet wooden farmhouse. Many different rooms, pigs cramped together. It smells bad, it’s dirty, noisy ventilation is working all the time – and pigs are very sensitive to loud noises. They don’t have anything to do, they are very bored. Sometimes they scream because they pick and bite each other in this environment. They like to dig earth, so sometimes they try to dig concrete. And they all look you with sad eyes,” Norun tells.

“I was lucky to get to know some farmers. They are normal people, having families, volunteering in local communities. They were not bad apples. One of them was also leader of the farmers society, he did the welfare inspections to the others. And he had the biggest desensitization – it means, he hurt pigs the most. It is very important to understand – it’s impossible to work as a farmer and to feel empathy at the same time. Its impossible. “

To play her role, Norun had to participate in everything farmers do. To held a piglet during he was castrated etc. She told that she went numb and desensitized herself. “It was dark times; I knew I can’t help these animals there, they were lost already. But I have to tell their story, so these sad eyes helped me to do that.”

Norun was undercover many years, from 2013-2019. It’s difficult to understand how to keep this kind of thing from ones own family. “I lied a lot”, says Norun. Her father used to be a teacher and mother is a researcer in biomedicine and they are very close. First she pretended to go to school, then started to stop calling to parents, lied that she is going to vacation for two months etc. As she had been very social person, they started to worry. “But I was worried to get exposed. My father started to cry when I finally told them what I have done for years. And they support me in every way”.

After the movie came out with all the horrors in the pig farms, the industry gave some public promises to change many things. Norun herself and the movie was in the Norwegian media hundreds and hundreds of times. But in the end nothing changed and one headline in the newspaper said “Pig industry’s broken promises”.

Norun spent time with animals in farm animal sanctuary, worked with her numbness, she is ok. In these days Norun is 33 years old and does political work. She has meetings with politicians about pig welfare, about possible changes what animal industry tells is not possible to do and sometimes she is in the media. She tells about new research in animal welfare, asks to follow rules, to follow animal welfare law. I demand smaller changes like enrichment more space and bigger – like going outside. She also believes that developing veganism is very important. 10% of people are vegans and vegetarians in Norway.

Norun is full time activist; https://www.patreon.com/norunhaugen.