I knew before class on Tuesday that I would definitely be crying through the majority of Part 1 of Earthlings. I had only seen clips of Earthlings before and just the few clips that I saw were enough to turn me vegetarian. Since our last class, I've been considering going vegan. I had no idea that dairy cows were milked to death and treated so horribly. Initially, the majority of the feelings I was recording were angry. I felt furious, unforgiving, agitated, heartsick, disgusted, and sickened throughout the entire first half of the movie. When the clip about the treatment of dairy cows came around, I felt a whole different set of emotions. I felt so guilty, ashamed of myself for thinking I was doing all I could by being vegetarian. Cows are my favorite animal and I had been fooling myself into believing all the commercials about happy dairy cows living in California, minding their own business and living a lush life every cow deserves were true. Instead I was assaulted with the images of a poor cow being drained and dragged out of its cramped stall to be made into fast food. I thought I would be disgusted with the people involved in the animal abuse, but by drinking their milk, I feel just as guilty. I don't think the movie Earthlings' goal was to turn the world vegan, perhaps the movie just serves as a reminder to be more conscientious of where exactly our food comes from and realize the suffering those animals endure. I was shocked at the amount of times the narrator noted that all the procedures done to the animals were done without an anesthetic. So many species of animals are being mutilated just so that the average American can consume an insane amount meat per day. One line from the movie illustrates just how unbelievable American's consumption of meat has become. "Americans currently consume as much chicken in a single day as they did in an entire year in 1930."(p.346) I researched exactly how much meat an average person eats a day, Huffington Post reported that Americans eat, "At least 12 ounces of meat per day, almost 50% more than the recommended daily amount."
I wasn't prepared to see the suffering pets endure. I love my dogs so much and to actually see those dogs and cats being euthanized and thrown into the garbage made me so sick I felt like I was going to throw up. It needs to be realized that animals "shall not be measured by man." (p.338) It is not for us to decide the worth of an animal. Too many people get a pet on a whim and refuse to neuter or spay them, but when caring for their pet becomes too difficult they abandon them. Earthlings reported that "An estimated 25 million animals become homeless every year." With 9 million dying on the streets and another 16 million being euthanized each year, I feel hopeless. It amazes me that "50% of the animals brought to shelters are turned in by their caretakers."(p.339) What kind of people are so cruel as to take on another innocent life to be responsible for and then leave them to die. I don't think this is something I will ever be able to make peace with.
By watching Earthlings, I will be more prepared to witness the conditions pets like the ones pictured in the video live in and do my best to get animals adopted. I am so grateful for the volunteers at Austin Pets Alive that work so hard to continue to keep Austin a "No-Kill" city.
In comparing animal abuse to the Holocaust, I was torn. I questioned whether a comparison could even be made, but reading David Sztybel's article changed that opinion. While I do believe that the life of a human obviously bears greater weight than the life of an animal, I was able to see parallels between the two. On p.364, Sztybel explained that "it is obviously not suggested here that anyone who is a speciesist is also a racist" and that "all this is truly being indicated...is that severe oppression is equally present on both sides of the comparison." The Oxford English Dictionary defines speciesism as the "discrimination against or exploitation of certain animal species by human beings, based on an assumption of mankind's superiority"(p.399) and in looking back on the ethnic cleansing that has occurred in history, where people were most definitely treated like objects and abused because they were deemed inferior by a group of people, I wonder what it would take to have the world as a whole notice the obvious connections between racism and animal abuse and choose to value the life of all living beings.
My emotions during Earthlings : Agitated, heartsick, tearful, disgusted, sickened, nauseated, furious, unforgiving, repulsed, remorseful for drinking milk, enraged, mortified, vengeful, ashamed, angry, sorry, violent, and hopeless.
* I only used the words in the Course Anthology Vol.2 p.546 because it was harder than I expected to accurately express the emotions I was feeling during the movie.
This quote left me heartbroken:
"...dolphins never abandon wounded family members. Mothers and babies call out in distress as they are separated, hoisted up and dragged off...soon to be mercilessly hacked to death. These are benign and innocent beings...and they deserve better." (p.350)
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