Since Catherine posted the video on her blog, I thought I would use Spring Break to watch it and comment on the documentary Earthlings

Earthlings DB

Since Catherine posted the video on her blog, I thought I would use Spring Break to watch it and comment on the documentary Earthlings.

Honestly, I found the documentary to be very redundant and manipulative. It appeals to the viewers emotions to an extreme extent and gives no practical advice as to how we as humans should live in light of the injustices that are being done to animals. The clips of cute animals romping around in their natural habitat are juxtaposed with clips of cows' throats being slit, which creates an emotional as well as visceral reaction, but what can we do to change the treatment of animals as a whole? The clips didn't support the point: the point is that things should change (or at least that should be the point), but I feel as though the point that comes across is just that animals' lives today really suck.

Chinese Zoos ¹

This is not to say that I didn't learn anything from the documentary and that it was a total waste of my time. It was only mostly a waste of my time. I did learn a few statistics that I wasn't aware of, which are as follows:

27% of homeless dogs are purebred.
50% of shelter animals are brought in by their caretakers.
Cows in India are used for leather goods in the US.²

The first two stats really show how the American society is wasteful. My neighbor growing up had a purebred dog that cost their family exorbitant amounts of money to buy. It would seem that getting a purebred dog from a shelter would be like getting a used Prada handbag for $20. You bet I'd do it.

Prada Advertisement ³

The third stat is a commentary on our growing lack of support for others' religious beliefs. If the demand is high enough in the U.S. that we have to resort to using a sacred animal of India to feed our desires, we've got some explaining to do. I may not understand that sanctity of cows, but it is about respect. How many people in India really know this is happening?

This documentary wasn’t life-changing for me. I don’t feel as though I should avoid meat or speak out against animal cruelty. I don’t agree with the inhumane execution of animals as depicted with the anal electrocution of foxes or the flogging of cows, but the use of euthanasia in the form of shots or even the captive bolt gun doesn’t bother me that much. You gotta do what you gotta do. It is unfortunate that we have to kill pets due to overpopulation due to lack of spaying and neutering, but we have consequences for our actions.

The documentary concluded with a quote by Leo Tolstoy, “As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.”⁴ What he says is true. Unless we decide to all go vegan and never eat animals again, people will complain about cruelty to animals. But what can we do about it? Earthlings doesn’t say.

1 Chinese Zoos, http://sinobling.sinosplice.com/animal%20abuse.JPG.

2 Earthlings, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhxKnys7Ryw.

3 The History of Prada, http://www.fashionhause.com/images/prada.jpg.

4 Earthlings, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhxKnys7Ryw.