I hesitate to post this link here because this movie is probably the most horrific movie I have ever not seen in its entirety and it brings up too much that is beyond the scope of this blog. This is a movie about the most extreme animal cruelty, not the kind done to animals in dark corners by psychopathic deviants but directly and indirectly by all of us.
Like I said, I've never watched this movie in its entirety. I've hardly watched any of it actually. Last time I tried, I clicked on a scene where some men were standing around a panting dog who was lying behind a compacting garbage truck. Yes, what you think happened next happened but I clicked off before I had to watch it.
Many people say this movie has changed their lives. I believe them but I wonder if it's changed their lives for better or worse. Some things make us stronger. Some things ruin us. You have been warned.
http://www.earthlings.com/earthlings/video-full.php
Saturday, March 6, 2010
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12 comments:
*shudder*
Thanks for the warning, Fred. I am of the "I'd rather not be ruined" mindset and choose NOT to watch!
I, too, saw the video of the dog that was lifted into the compacting truck. I was so horrified by what I saw, I felt physical pain in my chest. That scene will always haunt me.
I think I'll stick with the Pedigree commercial (post above), which was fabulous. Ah, for the love of a treat!
I could barely read your description of the Earthlings video, let alone click on the link. Once you've seen some things, they stay with you for life. I guess I'm saving up my horror quotient for something unavoidable.
I cried my way through the trailer for Earthlings. It was a similar video that really put things into perspective for me and caused me to become vegan six years ago. I do see the place for a film as graphic as this though. I know all too many people that think we have every right to lord over every non-human being. And I do think people should have a picture to put to their dinner plate, we are all too disconnected from our food.
I have seen Earthlings but it's been awhile...I don't think I have the strength to sit through it again, though, at least not now. I remember the scene you described plus others I won't get into.
Watching videos like this, and reading about the subject, both in books and on the internet, are what made me become vegetarian (I'm still working on vegan but that's another story). Changing habits that have been ingrained in most of us since childhood is very difficult. I had been thinking about giving up meat for a long time but watching videos like this pushed me over the edge. It's not even that I totally disagree with raising animals for food, if the methods were humane, but they're not...and it doesn't seem like the beef, pork & poultry industries are willing to change...at least not anytime soon.
I just want to say that I know these videos are horrific to watch, but if nobody ever did, we would all have our heads stuck in the sand and nothing would ever change... and we seriously need to change how we treat animals we share this earth with.
I saw this movie last year and it literally made me want to start farming ASAP. I've been wanting to raise my own meat for years but could never do so and since as I'm still in university. I still can't, however I know where my meat comes from and have for a very long time. I went to a slaughter house eariler this year to see where my meat becomes meat.
Many people see videos like this and become vegetarian/vegan but I have never felt the need to do this as I feel that the best way to overhaul the industry is to give people options. I eat meat that's what I do, and for me that my life choice. If you've never seen these acts being carried out firsthand I don't think you cna say you really know what goes on. People draw conclusions from movies like these when all they really are are movies showing the worst of the peopl on our planet. I'm positive there are people who would throw a child into the back of a garbage truck and feel no remorse.
You can "use" animals and still treat them respect. I will be adopting an aboriginal ideology toward the animamls on my farm.
Some people learn about meat and become vegetarianns, or vegans...while I'll be a butcher, I guess everyone views things differently.
I agree - I saw the video a couple of years ago, and had to turn it off half way through. I have seen some horrific videos in the past, but this is unrelenting in its horror. Most blatent evidence of man's inhumanity towards animals . It's just too much, which in a way is a shame, as it could have been a really useful tool to educate those who do have their heads in the sand. However, I don't believe anyone could actually sit and watch the whole thing.
As Ghandi says: "The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated"
Human beings are the most vicious animals on the planet.
Dee - your argument makes absolutely no sense. I fully support your desire to continue eating meat, but until you personally enact a HUMANE way of doing it, by just continuing to purchase meat from large corporations, you are still supporting the cruelty you see in the video.
You say it is just a video, how can we know for sure? That also makes no sense to me. We believe LOTS of things we've never experienced first hand. Have you ever been to Tanzania? No? But you still believe it exists, right? Because people have given first hand accounts, right? The sheer volume of video footage and first hand accounts coming out of factory farms says something. The same way that the volume of complaints eventually had to be taken seriously at the THS.
Your argument in this respect really smacks of a double standard to me.
In terms of options, if enough people STOP BUYING products from a company, they will be forced into that overhaul you spoke of, at which point you could start buying their product again, this time feeling sure that you're not contributing to cruelty. Otherwise, I'm not really sure how you're intending to get large corporations to offer "other options".
I became a vegetarian on my own about 5 years ago and now I am so shocked that I didnt do it sooner. I can't watch films like this because the horrors never fully leave me. I watched part of "The Cove" and had to turn it off because I couldn't stomach it. Unfortunately, most of the people who should watch this, wont.
None are so blind as those who will not see.
I feel like I should watch, since I've heard so much about the movie, but I'm not up for it either. The link with The Cove is interesting -- I have a friend who had to leave the room when he knew the climactic scene was coming, and, at the same time, finally became vegetarian after years of talk. I guess the film brought something home to him that not even having animals as part of his family could. So as distressing as they are -- and as redundant as they are to people who already are working to help non-human animals -- perhaps such films are necessary?
Anyway, I really appreciated how your precis of the film included a reminder that all of us, even those of us working to help non-humans, are complicit in the kinds of cruelty explored by the movie.
Dee, your honesty and approach as a fellow carnivore is refreshing. Lately, I've been feeling that if we had to kill our own food as people customarily did a hundred years ago on the farm, we'd at least me more alert and aware of where and how our animal food was treated before it showed up in cellophane at the market. We'd eat less meat and enjoy it more mindfully, honoring the sacrifice--rather than scarfing down that 99 cent burger built from cows in 8 different countries while speeding down I-80...
I don't think I could ever give up meat (it tastes too good! and I'm not crazy about the all-veggie tofu alternatives), but the next best thing that we can do is to ensure that livestock animals live a good free-range life outside, are well treated, healthy, and deserve a quick, humane slaughter... And learn to cook Indian food! (the only all veggie meals where I never miss the meat!)
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