Earthlings

Earthlings exposes the atrocities committed against animals, that if viewed in human terms would amount to the most evil crimes against humanity, and should (I hope someday will) be considered as such. It is an important and informative film, fueled by horrific images captured through an unflinching camera lens.

Go into this expecting to be overwhelmed by what you are going to see. I have seen images from the holocaust and the rape of Nangjing and read stories of torture from WW2 and these are frighteningly similar. Much to my surprise it is never preachy - nor does it need to be. The nightmarish images, which to my mind resemble a reasonable facsimile of Hell itself, with the innocent being tortured by their evil overlords, are more than enough. Evil is not the only word that comes to mind when you hear what the workers and trainers say to their sorry subjects as they inflict their torture. But I do not hate the evil men, I somehow pity them, both for the lives they lead and their loss of something I deeply value - empathy and compassion.

What makes Earthlings so powerfully convincing is actually quite simple if you believe that inflicting pain and suffering on an innocent living being is wrong. This kind of suffering could be the result of something as simple as not spaying/neutering your pet. Unfortunately as history shows us, we have a lot to learn about how to treat each other, let alone the animals that share our world. Earthlings gives voice to those that are powerless and cannot speak out on their own behalf.

The film makes a strong argument for some form of compromise on the meat eater/vegetarian debate, but it also delves into the issue of fur trading, animals as a form of entertainment (ie zoos), and as test subjects in the name of science. The footage in each segment is nothing short of incredible and is surely the result of years of effort, on the shoulders of many impassioned individuals, in order to be collected. To those who contributed to this effort, I salute you.

Its true that Earthlings does not offer solutions to all of the problems it seeks to expose. Nor could it hope to do so. The viewer is challenged to seek their own answers and carry the voice of the voiceless to the lawmakers. I can only hope that more people see this and make changes in how they live their lives, and the laws that govern the treatment of animals. The devastating reality is that this potentially life-changing documentary contains only a microscopic portion of what is happening every single day, in every single country, around the world.

This is a must see and should be required viewing in high school classrooms. In case you decide not to watch Earthlings, particularly if it is because you believe animals are ignorant and don't deserve to be treated humanely, I want you to know that ignorance is NOT bliss if you walk on four legs.

I can totally understand how someone can have a lack of compassion for animals. By the end of this documentary I felt somewhat numb myself, from the ceaseless onslaught of horror contained within. So if you're brought up, for instance, in a hunting culture, or a biblical culture, or an "animal manufacturing" culture, or the outskirts of a bull-fighting ring, you're probably numb to the suffering of living things, too. What this movie sets out to do is climb into the minds of those who have lost perspective for whatever reason and remind them that if they're still mistreating animals, or participating in the mistreatment of animals, then they're not fulfilling a major responsibility of being human, and are therefore part human, semi-human, sub-human.

Call me a softy, but I've felt for a long, long time that there's really no fundamental difference between humans and other animals. Therefore, animals experience things like pain, despair, horror and fear the same way we do. To me this just makes logical, common sense. But again, I can totally understand how someone can disagree. I, and the creators of this film, just ask those naysayers to remember, to look deep within ourselves, beyond their conditioning, that it is possible for humans to err when it comes to such belief systems. The Nazis are a good example - they treated Jews like animals. But honestly, the stuff in this documentary are the same - and far worse, in many cases - than what the Nazis did to the Jews. Nazis still had a relative modicum of respect and restraint for other humans compared to the way animals are treated by humans. If you disagree then you need to get a grip, and look at the images in this movie, and compare the number of Jews (in the millions) to the number of animals (in the billions). Let's be frank.

The truth is this documentary is not going to change those who are like the people depicted in the movie who are completely blind to what they're really doing. Many humans are beyond hope in that respect. But it will change those who are straddling the fence. It will give them the knowledge they prayed would never interrupt their meals. It's not a message. It's a reality. A grim, horrific, and terribly sad reality.

People should be disgusted by this piece because it represents what is true in today's society and what is disgusting. If you cannot kill your own meat humanly, you should not be eating it. Lethargy and turning a blind eye hurts you just as much as anyone. This is the reason for heart disease and obesity being rampant in the USA. If you need to run and kill your own prey (and most often unsuccessful) to survive then meat is a calorie packed choice for your sustenance - if you graze and meander all day (like most couch potatoes and most in the US) than you should be eating a grazer's diet of veggies. Meat from suffering dirty animals is not necessary in a modern human's diet.

And, I disagree with the otherwise eloquent poster below. I have never felt drained or tired from my diet - in fact I feel lean and energetic.... and guilt-free.

In the end, there is every reason to watch this film. It is every persons obligation to know what exists in their own backyard and what they are contributing to. If you are fine with your actions after that - at least it is your informed choice.

I feel the need to respond to some of the criticisms I read in the comments on here. In many of the low reviews people cite two main reasons, they call it vegan/PETA propaganda or they say it is too violent and disgusting. Obviously it is "propaganda" for animal rights activists, that is the whole point of the movie. Everything documentary, book, pamphlet, speech etc. that was directed towards a purpose in the past was propaganda too.

Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech was propaganda for the civil rights movement, that did not mean he did not have a point or he was wrong, but he certainly did not give the arguments of white southerners equal weight did he? Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Susan B. Anthony, and every other human rights campaigner in history did the same. But please remember, none of these now famous civil rights campaigns were universally accepted in the past. Nelson Mandela was put in jail (and not just by the white South African government, the US government supported them for many many years). MLK was shot, female suffragettes were beat up and ridiculed. The pattern is the same, and the documentary identifies it in the first minute. Resistance to the truth Step 1: Ridicule (call it propaganda) Step 2: Violent Resistance Step 3: Acceptance.

For all the others who say its too violent, well that is the point, it is showing the reality of the animal product consumption industry. Do you complain that a documentary about the holocaust is too violent? Get real. Using this as a criticism is honestly sickening and it shows just how detached from reality some people are. Reality does not have a Hollywood happy ending. This is what happens, this is where your meat comes from. Shutting your eyes to the reality and ignoring it will not make it go away. How many Germans simply shut their eyes to what was happening around them?

Yes nature is cruel, yes lions kill zebra and eat them alive. Does that mean that we humans as sentient self-aware creatures are justified in doing the same? It reminds me a debate that Friedrich Hayek and John Rawls had about what constitutes a just society. Hayek said that nature is inherently "unfair" and the sooner "liberals" like Rawls deal with that fact the better off we will be. Rawls brilliantly responded that nature is neither fair nor unfair, it simply is nature, and how we deal with that fact is what makes our society fair or unfair.

I am not saying Earthlings is the best documentary ever, nor do I completely agree with all of PETA or the documentary's positions. I am also not a vegan. This film is difficult to watch, and it should be.

This is such a brilliant piece of work from Shaun Monson and Joaquin Phoenix. Using undercover footage, the film shows what the animals go through to give us the products that the human race uses every day.

The average Joe eats meat, but wouldn't kill an animal himself. He tries his best not to think about how it went from a living breathing pig or cow, to a rasher of bacon or a steak. Many people get through their whole lives protected from the horrible truth. As Phoenix said in the film "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we would all be vegetarians." Well, this documentary shows what's going on behind those walls. This film is not just about animals used for the food industry, but also shines the light on - among others - the fur industry, animal circuses and animal experimentation.

By avoiding overly emotive language the film has a tremendous impact and the biggest shame is that not more people have seen it - or even heard of it. Please watch this film, and tell others about it. It gives an incite into the things we take for granted.

You don't have to buy it - it's free to watch on google.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1282796533661048967

Watch it all. Take an hour and a bit out of your life for this movie - it will change it. I have been vegan ever since watching this movie.