FOX hit show, “Bones” (starring foxy vegan activist Emily Deschanel) featured footage from factory farms last night, effectively reaching the mainstream with the truth behind their dinner. The gruesome footage showed chickens painfully being de-beaked (that’s common practice and it’s also just the tip of the iceberg for the nearly 286 chicken who are slaughtered every second in this country).

The premise of the episode centered around a mysterious dead body that was eventually identified to be the manager at Clucksten Farms, a broiler farm at the center of a scandal led by animal rights activists. (It’s worth noting that the portrayal of the animal rights activists was a bit, shall we say, cliché, and from my vantage point, inaccurate.) In one scene, dissatisfied with the behavior of the two lead characters who were asking the protestors questions about the factory farm, the activists poured yellow paint and white papers on them as an effort to mimic throwing eggs, then looked stupefied when they were told they were under arrest.

But that silly portrayal of the activists warranted nothing more than an eye-roll from me (and who really cares that much what they say about activists as long as they tell the truth about the chickens?). The point is that primetime TV went there last night, in an incredibly informative way. One character, Angela, even made it her job to guilt — I mean inspire — her colleagues to donate to rescue a cute pig who would otherwise have become bacon.

Dare I guess that Emily D. might’ve lured her producers with some vegan cupcakes? It’s probably not a stretch to imagine that she was at least somewhat responsible for this awesome and harrowing subject-matter being covered so vividly. We owe you one, Em.

SPOILER ALERT: Turns out that Mr. Clucksten Manager was killed by an unhappy and underpaid factory worker in (get this) the same nightmarish way that the chickens are killed. That’s gotta hurt!