Earthlings (documentary)

Infobox_Film
name=Earthlings


caption=Nature – Animals – Humankind – Make the Connection
director=Shaun Monson
narrator=Joaquin Phoenix and Persia White
music=Moby
distributor=Nation Earth
released=2006
runtime=95 minutes
website=http://www.isawearthlings.com/
language=English
imdb_id=0358456

"Earthlings" is a 2003 multi-award winning documentary written, produced and directed by Shaun Monson and co-produced by Persia White. The film was narrated by Hollywood actor and animal rights activist Joaquin Phoenix. "Earthlings" also features an original score by musician and activist Moby.

ynopsis

"Earthlings" is a documentary about mankind's dependence on animals for pets, food, clothing, entertainment and use in experimentation.

Phoenix has commented on the documentary that "Of all the films I have ever made, this is the one that gets people talking the most. For every one person who sees "Earthlings", they will tell three." [ [http://www.safe.org.nz/Education/Earthlings/ SAFE : Earthlings ] ]

Pets

Many strays and unwanted pets are killed - ideally by lethal injection but, since that is rather expensive, often by gas. Shows much disturbing footage.

Food

Over six billion animals are killed for food each year in the USA alone. Kosher slaughter: Done with huge machines, not as you might imagine. Kosher prohibitions vs. actual practice. Veal: Calves chained in a crate for 4 months before slaughter. Fed a mineral deficient diet. Pigs: Gestation crates, cannibalism, waste pits, tail docking, ear clipping, teeth cutting, castration (all done on baby pigs without anesthetics), electric prods, throat slitting, boiling, hair removal and drowning. Poultry: Americans consume as many chickens in one day in the year 2005 as they did in one year in 1930; the biggest poultry companies kill 8.5 million chickens a day.

Debeaking infant chicks, living conditions (60-90,000 chickens in some buildings), transportation, slaughter, dangled upside down on a conveyor belt, troats slit while alive so they bleed to death. If these slaughterhouses had glass walls, we might all be vegetarians - but who wants to look. Emerson quotation (1860): "You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the raceful distance of miles, there is complicity" (Source: "The Conduct of Life." Chapter on "Fate)." Sea food: What happens to all the waste? Most of it is dumped back into the oceans, huge factory trawlers. Whaling was outlawed in 1985. Dolphin slaughter in Japan - their throats are slight out of water and they die of suffocation in agony. Their blood runs back into the ocean as pollution. - Pfiesteria: A disease that is 1,000 times more potent than cyanide. Originates in hog farms and has killed many fish. -

Clothes

Leather: Where does it come from? India!Cattle slaughter is forbidden in most of India, so the cattle must be captured (often brutally)and transported to a part of India where their slaughter is condoned.

During transportation the cattle may be treated badly by their handlers and they fall or "go down." So their tails can be broken or chili pepper rubbed in their eyes to make them stand.

All this before slaughter, when their throats are cut - while they are still alive - and they bleed to death.

Tanning involves the use of harsh chemicals to prevent the hide from its natural decomposition. These chemicals can be toxic to tannery workers in India.

Most leather retail chains sell leather from Indian cattle since their hides make better leather than the hides of other cattle.

Fur: More than 100 million animals are killed each year for fur; of these, 25 million are killed in the United States.

Most of these animals are raised in cages on fur farms. Cage madness is endless circling and complete disorientation. After they are killed and their skins / furs stripped off, the remaining meat is fed back to the animals in the cages.

Canadian seal hunt.

Entertainment

Mark Twain quotation: "Of all the creatures ever made [man] is the most detestable... He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain."

Rodeos: What causes the broncos to buck? A strap that causes genital pain. Roping.

Gambling: Dog and horse racing.

Fairground animals.

Hunting: Hunters kill more than 200,000 animals a year.

Fishing: Fish feel about the same degree of pain as humans. They too are sentient organisms.

Circuses: Long sequences of brutal footage. Why do circus animals behave as they do? Their owners want us to think it is because of rewards. No! It is because of pain inflicted and fear of punishment. Training is based on punishment and fear. Animals feel and none would choose captivity. Scenes of animals who escaped retaliating against their trainers.

Zoos: Are they educational? What do they teach? All the animals in them must be captured, caged, transported and trained to do what humans want.

Bull fighting.

Commercial exploitation of wildlife. They do not exist for our pleasure. We do not take seriously the interests of the animals. We use them.

cience

Vivisection: Inflicting suffering without anesthesia. Two possible erroneous conclusions can be drawn from results.

Medical experiments.

Military research on animals.

Conclusion: It all comes down to the pain and suffering that all animals experience. Antibiotics.Hormones. Pollution. What goes around comes around. We reap just what we sow.

We must change the way we treat animals and we must change our way of thinking about animals.

References

External links

* [http://www.isawearthlings.com/ Official documentary website]
* [http://www.nationearth.org/ Organisation responsible for Earthlings]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1282796533661048967 Earthlings at Google Video]

Reviews

* [http://www.isawearthlings.com/reviews.html http://www.isawearthlings.com/reviews.html]

ee also

*Animal rights
*Animal product
*Animal testing