All language subtitles for Earthlings (2003) Shaun Monson. Documentary

These are the Industry Standard
for animals bred as Pets,

Food, Clothing, for
Entertainment and Research.

Viewer discretion is advised.

THE THREE STAGES OF
TRUTH

1. RIDICULE

2. VIOLENT OPPOSITION

3. ACCEPTANCE

EARTHLINGS

earth'ling: n.
One who inhabits of the earth.

Since we all inhabit the earth,
all of us are considered earthlings.

There is no sexism, no racism or
speciesism in the term earthling.

It encompasses each and every one of us:

warm or cold blooded, mammal,
vertebrate or invertebrate,

bird, reptile, amphibian, fish,
and human alike.

Humans, therefore, being not the
only species on the planet,

share this world with millions of other living
creatures, as we all evolve here together.

However, it is the human earthling
who tends to dominate the earth,

often times treating other fellow earthlings
and living beings as mere objects.

This is what is meant by speciesism.

FESTIVAL OF THE BULLS, SPAIN

By analogy with racism and sexism,
the term "speciesism" is a prejudice

or attitude of bias
in favor of the interests

of members of one's own species and
against those of members of other species.

If a being suffers there can be
no moral justification for

refusing to take that
suffering into consideration.

No matter what the nature of the
being, the principle of equality requires

that one's suffering can be counted equally
with the like suffering of any other being.

Racists violate the principle of
equality by giving greater eight

to the interests of members

of their own race when
their is a clash between their

interests and the interests
of those of another race.

Sexists violate the principle of
equality by favoring

the interests of their own sex.

Similarly, speciesists allow
the interests of their own species

to override the greater interests
of members of other species.

In each case, the pattern is identical.

Though among the members of the human family
we recognize the moral imperative of respect

(every human is a somebody, not a something),

morally disrespectful treatment occurs
when those who stand at the power end of a

power relationship treat the less powerful
as if they were mere objects.

The rapist does this to the victim of rape.

The child molester
to the child molested.

The master to the slave.

In each and all such cases, humans who
have power exploit those who lack it.

Might the same be true of how humans
treat other animals, or other earthlings?

Undoubtedly there are differences,

since humans and animals are
not the same in all respects.

But the question of sameness
wears another face.

Granted, these animals do not have
all the desires we humans have;

granted, they do not comprehend
everything we humans comprehend;

nevertheless, we and they do have
some of the same desires

and do comprehend some of the same things.

The desires for food and water,
shelter and companionship,

freedom of movement
and avoidance of pain?

these desires are shared by
nonhuman animals and human beings.

As for comprehension: like humans,

many nonhuman animals understand the
world in which they live and move.

Otherwise, they could not survive.

So beneath the many differences,
there is sameness.

Like us, these animals embody the
mystery and wonder of consciousness.

Like us, they are not only in the world,
they are aware of it.

Like us they are the psychological
centers of a life that is uniquely their own.

In these fundamental respects humans
stand "on all fours", so to speak,

with hogs and cows,
chickens and turkeys.

What these animals are due from us,
how we morally ought to treat them,

are questions whose answer begins
with the recognition of our

psychological kinship with them.

So the following film demonstrates

in five ways just how animals
have come to serve mankind

...lest we forget.

Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer
wrote in his bestselling novel

'Enemies, A Love Story' the following:

"As often has Herman had witnessed
the slaughter of animals and fish,

he always had the same thought:
in their behavior toward creatures,

all men were Nazis. The smugness with
which man could do with other species

as he pleased exemplified the most
extreme racist theories,

the principle that might is right".

The comparison here to the holocaust
is both intentional and obvious:

one group of living beings anguishes beneath
the hands of another.

Though some will argue the suffering
of animals cannot possibly compare

with that of former Jews or slaves,
there is, in fact, a parallel.

And for the prisoners and victims
of this mass murder, their holocaust

is far from over.

In his book 'The Outermost House'
author Henry Beston wrote

"We need another and a wiser
and perhaps a more mystical

concept of animals.

Remote from universal nature,
and living by complicated artifice,

man in civilization surveys

the creatures through
the glass of his knowledge

and sees thereby a feather magnified
and the whole image in distortion.

We patronize them for their incompleteness,

for their tragic fate of having taken
form so far below ourselves.

And therein we err, and greatly err.

For the animal
shall not be measured by man.

In a world older and
more complete than ours

they move finished and complete,

gifted with extensions of the senses
we have lost or never attained,

living by voices we shall never hear.

They are not brethren;
they are not underlings;

they are other nations,

caught with ourselves
in the net of life and time,

fellow prisoners of the splendor
and travail of the earth".

PART ONE: PETS

For most of us, our relationship with animals
involves the owning of a pet or two.

So where do our pets come from?

Of course, one of the most obvious ways
animals serve man is as companions.

BREEDERS

For these pets it starts with a breeder,
though not all breeders are considered professional.

In fact, in this profession, just about anyone
and everyone can be a breeder.

PET STORES AND PUPPY MILLS

For pet stores, most of their animals
are acquired from puppy mills,

even if they may not know it.

Puppy mills are low-budget

commercial enterprises that breed dogs
for sale to pet shops and other buyers.

They are often backyard operations

that expose animals to filthy, overcrowded
conditions with no veterinary care or socialization.

Dogs from puppy mills often exhibit

physical and psychological
problems as they grow up.

STRAYS

Strays, if they are lucky,
will be picked up and taken to a

shelter or pound, where they
can only hope to find a new home again.

An estimated 25 million animals become
homeless every year.

And as many as 27% of purebred dogs
are among the homeless.

Of these 25 million homeless animals
an average of 9 million

die on the streets from disease,

starvation,

exposure,

injury, or some other hazard
of street life.

Many others are strays, some of whom were
presumably dumped in the streets by their caretakers

The remaining 16 million
die in pounds or shelters that have no

room for them and are forced to kill them.

Sadly, on top of all this,

almost 50% of the animals brought to
shelters are turned in by their caretakers.

Many people claim they don't visit shelters
because it's depressing for them.

But the reason animals are crowded
into such dreary places as these,

is because of people's refusal
to spay or neuter their pets.

Several pet owners feel,
particularly men for some reason,

that neutering a pet
emasculates the owner somehow ...

... or they may just want their children to someday
experience the "miracle of life", so to speak.

In either case, pet owners like these
unknowingly take part in the euthanasia

of over 60,000 animals per day.

Euthanasia, generally defined as the act
of killing painlessly for reasons of mercy,

is usually administered by
an injection in the leg for dogs,

and sometimes in the
stomach for cats.

It is a quick and painless procedure for
the animals, and by far the most humane,

but not always the most affordable.

Due to the increase of
euthanasia in shelters,

and the growing, constant,
demand for drugs like Euthasol,

some shelters with budget constraints
are forced to use gas chambers instead.

GAS CHAMBERS

In a gas chamber,
animals are packed very tightly

and can take as long as
20 minutes to die.

It is, by far, less merciful,

more traumatic and painful.

But the procedure is less expensive.

Perhaps some of the tough questions
we should ask ourselves about animals

that we keep as companions are:

Can we keep animals as companions
and still address their needs?

Is our keeping companion animals
in their best interest,

or are we exploiting them?

The answers to these questions may lie
in the attitudes of the human caretakers

and their abilities to provide suitable
environments for companion animals.

(CYANIDE POISON)
Most human beings are speciesists.

This film shows that ordinary
human beings (not a few exceptionally

cruel or heartless humans, but the
overwhelming majority of people),

take an active part in,
acquiesce in, and allow their taxes

to pay for practices that require
the sacrifice of the most important

interests of members of other species,
in order to promote the most

trivial interests of our own species.

STRAY OVERPOPULATION IN TURKEY

The hope for the animals of tomorrow is

to be found in a Human Culture
which learns to feel beyond itself.

We must learn empathy,

we must learn to see into the eyes

of an animal and feel that their
life has value because they are alive.

PART TWO: FOOD

"Oh, I missed. I missed you, honey.
But I'll get you again!"

"I got you! Good boy!"

What happens in slaughterhouses

is a variation on the theme of the
exploitation of the weak by the strong.

More than ten thousand times a minute,

in excess of six billion times a
year, just in the United States,

life is literally
drained from so-called "food animals".

Having the greater power,
humans decide when these animals will die,

where they will die,

and how they will die.

The interests of these animals themselves

play no role whatsoever
in the determination of their fate.

Killing an animal is,
in itself, a troubling act.

It has been said that if we had

to kill our own meat, we
would all be vegetarians.

Certainly very few people
ever visit a slaughterhouse,

and films of slaughterhouse operations
are not popular on television.

People might hope that the meat they buy
came from an animal who died without pain,

but they don't really
want to know about it.

Yet those who, by their purchases,
require animals to be killed,

do not deserve to be shielded from this
or any other aspect of the production

of the meat they buy.

So where does our food come from?

For those of us living on a meat diet,
the process these animals

undergoes is as follows.

BRANDING

For beef, the animals are all branded ...

... in this instance, on the face.

DEHORNING

Dehorning usually follows.
Never with anesthetic.

But rather a large pair of pliers.

TRANSPORTATION

In transportation, animals are packed
so tightly into trucks, they are

practically on top of one another.

Heat, freezing temperatures,
fatigue, trauma, and health conditions

will kill some of these animals
in route to the slaughterhouses.

MILKING

Milking cows are kept chained

to their stalls all day
long, receiving no exercise.

Pesticides and antibiotics are also
used to increase their milk productivity.

Eventually, milking cows,
like this one, collapse from exhaustion.

Normally, cows can live
as long as twenty years,

but milking cows
generally die within four.

At which point, their meat is
used for fast food restaurants.

MEAT

At this slaughterhouse,

the branded and dehorned
cattle are brought into a stall.

CAPTIVE BOLTS

The captive bolt gun, which was designed

to reduce animals unconscious
without causing pain,

fires a steel bolt, that is powered
by compressed air or a blank cartridge,

right into the animal's brain.

BLEEDING

Though various methods of slaughter
are used, in this Massachusetts facility,

the cattle is hoisted up
and his or her throat is slit.

Along with the meat, their blood will
be used as well.

Though the animal has received
a captive bolt to the head,

which is supposed to have rendered him

or her senseless ... as you can see
the animal is still conscious.

This is not uncommon.

Sometimes they are still alive
even after they have been bled,

and are well on their way down
the assembly line to be butchered.

KNOCKING BOXES

KOSHER SLAUGHTER

This is the largest glatt kosher
meat plant in the United States.

Glatt, the Yiddish word for "smooth",
means the highest standard of cleanliness ...

... and rules for kosher
butchering require minimal suffering.

The use of electric prods
on immobilized animals is a violation.

SHEKHITA - RITUAL SLAUGHTER

Inverting frightened animals
for the slaughterer's convenience

is also a violation.

The inversion process causes cattle to
aspirate blood, or breath it in, after incision.

Ripping the trachea and esophagi
from their throats is another

egregious violation, since kosher
animals are not to be touched ...

... until bleeding stops.

And by dumping struggling
and dying steers through metal chutes

onto blood soaked floors,

with their breathing tubes
and gullets dangling out,

this "sacred task" is neither
clean or compassionate.

Shackling and hoisting is
ruled yet another violation,

nor does it correspond to the
kosher way of treating animals.

If this was kosher, death was
neither quick nor merciful.

VEAL

Veal, taken from their mothers
within two days of birth, are tied

at the neck and kept restricted
to keep muscles from developing.

Fed an iron-deficient liquid diet,

denied bedding,
water, and light,

after four months of this miserable
existence they are slaughtered.

PIGS

Sows in factory farms are
breeding machines, kept

continually pregnant by means
of artificial insemination.

Large pig market factories
will "manufacture",

as they like to call it, between 50,000
and 600,000 pigs a year... each.

FACTORY CONDITIONS

GESTATION CRATES

RUPTURES & ABSCESSES

CANIBALISM

WASTE PITS

Tail docking is a practice derived
from the lack of space and stressful

living conditions so as to keep pigs
from biting each other's tails off.

This is done without anesthetic.

EAR CLIPPING

Ear clipping is a similar procedure,
also administered without anesthetic.

As well as teeth-cutting.

CASTRATION

Castration is also done without
painkillers or anesthetic, and will

supposedly produce a more
fatty grade of meat.

ELECTRIC PRODS

The electric prods are used for
obvious reasons: handling.

ELECTROCUTION

Electrocution is another method
of slaughter, as seen here.

THROAT SLITTING

Throat slitting, however,

is still the least expensive
way to kill an animal.

BOILING AND HAIR REMOVAL

After knife sticking, pigs are shackled,

suspended on a bleed-rail and immersed
in scalding tanks to remove their bristle.

Many are still struggling as they are dunked
upside down in tanks of steaming water,

where they are submerged and drowned.

POULTRY

In regard to poultry, Americans currently
consume as much chicken in a single day

as they did in an entire year in 1930.

The largest broiler companies
in the world now slaughter more than

8.5 million birds in a single week.

DEBEAKING

Debeaking prevents feather-pecking
and cannibalism in frustrated chickens,

caused by over-crowding in single areas, where
they are unable to establish a social order.

Today, done with infant chicks,
the procedure is carried out very quickly,

about 15 birds a minute.

Such haste means the temperature and
sharpness of the blade varies, resulting in

sloppy cutting and serious
injury to the bird.

LIVING CONDITIONS

As for their living conditions, anywhere
from sixty to ninety thousand birds can be

crowded together in a single building.

The suffering for these animals is
unrelenting. It is a way of life.

Although their beaks are severed,
they attempt to peck each other.

For hens, they live in a laying warehouse,
crammed inside so-called "battery cages".

BATTERY CAGES

Many lose their feathers and develop
sores from rubbing against the wire cage.

Crowding prevents them from
spreading their wings, and the hens cannot

even fulfill minimal natural instincts.

TRANSPORTATION

During transportation,
all animals suffer, and many die.

And they suffocate when other
animals pile on top of them

in overcrowded, poorly loaded cages.

SLAUGHTER

"THE HANG PEN"
MOOREFIELD, WEST VIRGINIA

Chickens and turkeys are
slaughtered in numerous ways.

Some may be clubbed to death
or have their heads cut off.

But most are brought through
the assembly lines of factory farms.

Dangled upside down on a conveyor belt,
their throats are slit,

and they are left to bleed to death.

Others may be placed head-first
in tubes to restrict their movement

while they slowly bleed to death.

Surely, if slaughterhouses had glass walls,
would not all of us be vegetarians?

But slaughterhouses do not have glass walls.

The architecture of slaughter is opaque,
designed in the interest of denial,

to insure that we will not see even if
we wanted to look. And who wants to look?

"Go mother fucker!
Don't fuckin' stop".

"Let's go, let's go!!!
Come on, bitch!"

It was Emerson who observed,
more than a hundred years ago,

"You have dined, and however scrupulously
the slaughterhouse is concealed in

the graceful distance of miles,
there is complicity".

SEA FOOD

And for those who think eating seafood
is "healthier" than land animals,

just remember how much irretrievable
waste and contaminated sediments

are dumped into our oceans.

In the past ... oil ... nuclear ... and chemical
industries have done little for the

protection of marine environments ...

... and dumping on or under the seabed has
always proved a convenient place

to dispose of inconvenient wastes.

COMMERCIAL FISHING

Today's commercial fishers intensify
this situation on massive scales.

They use vast factory
trawlers the size of

football fields and advanced electronic
equipment to track and catch fish.

Huge nets stretch across the ocean,
swallowing up everything in their path.

These factory trawlers, coupled with
our increased appetites for seafood,

are emptying the oceans of
sea life at an alarming pace.

Already, thirteen of the seventeen major global
fisheries are depleted or in serious decline.

The other four are
overexploited or fully exploited.

DISEASE

The recent outbreak of Pfiesteria,

a microorganism 1,000 time
more potent than cyanide,

spawned from millions of gallons of
raw hog feces and urine, poured into rivers,

lakes, and oceans, turning their
ecosystems into unflushed toilets,

is proving the most alarming.

Threatening sea life and humans alike,
Pfiesteria has killed over 1 billion fish,

the southeast's largest fishkill on record,

and it's spreading.

Traces of Pfiesteria have already been found
from Long Island to the Florida Gulf,

at distances of up to 1,000 miles.

In fact, this water-based
Pfiesteria invasion

stands as one of the worst outbreaks of
a virulent microorganism in U.S history.

It is a Level Three
Biohazard. Ebola is a Four. AIDS is a two.

And this bug mutated as a direct result
of our mass consumption of animals,

particularly pork.

With hog farms fattening millions of pigs for
slaughter, grain goes in and waste comes out.

HURRICANE FLOYD
NORTH CAROLINA, 1999

This waste finds its way into our oceans and
water-supply systems,

contaminating the animals that live in it,

as well as those that eat from it.

WHALING

Finally, whaling.

Though the International Whaling Commission
prohibited commercial whaling in 1985,

many countries continue to kill
whales for their so-called "exotic meat".

They use harpoons,

firearms,

blunt hooks,

even explosives,

or drive them into
authorized whaling bays

where they are made to beach and can
be killed with knives in the shallows.

DOLPHINS

Every winter, between the months of October
through March, thousands of dolphins are

confined and brutally killed
in small towns across Japan.

Sounding rods beneath the water's surface
interfere with the dolphin's sonar.

Once disoriented and enclosed
within the nets, the dolphins panic.

Fisherman often injure a few captive dolphins
with a spear thrust or knife slash ...

since 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.

Yet here, as they lay
stricken and needful,

wreathing helplessly on cement
floors, they are cut open with machetes

and left to slowly suffocate ...

... convulsing and contorting in the throes
of agony ... while school children walk on by.

Such images of slaughter and bloody red water
clearly show the Japanese government has

little respect for the state of the world's
oceans with their inhumane methods of

fishing ... often in violation of international
treaties, laws and conventions designed

to protect over-exploiting the oceans ...

... and the creatures that live in them.

Dolphin meat is later sold in
markets and restaurants,

though often mislabeled as "whale meat".

But as though cruelty toward animals
raised for food wasn't enough,

we've also found ways of making
use of them for all our clothes.

Jackets, shoes, belts, gloves,
pants, wallets, purses, and so on,

the next question is obviously:
where do our clothes come from?

PART TREE: CLOTHES

(LEATHER)

The demand for leather comes primarily from
the United States, Germany, and the U.K.

Just about everybody wears it,

with little or no thought of
where it came from.

(INDIA COWS)

Thousands of India cows are
slaughtered each week for their skins,

purchased from poor families
in part of rural India who sell them

only after the assurance that the
animals will live out their lives on farms.

SHOEING AND ROPING

To relocate the animals to
a state where they can legally be killed,

since cattle slaughter
is forbidden in most of India,

the animals must be shoed and roped together
in preparation for a harrowing "death march",

which could last for several days.

(TRANSPORTATION AND FATIGUE)

Forced to walk through the heat and dust without
food or water, coupled with the sheer stress of

this terrifying experience for them, many of
the animals collapse and are unable to continue.

Bear in mind that most of the cattle are
being placed in a truck for the first time in

their lives and are likely to be frightened,

especially if they have been handled hastily
or roughly by the men loading the trucks.

The noise and motion of the truck itself

is also a new experience;
one which makes them ill.

After one or two days inside the truck without
food or water, they are desperately thirsty

and hungry, especially since it is normal for
such cows to eat frequently throughout the day.

TAIL BREAKING

But when the cattle become weary and grow
faint, the bones in their tales are broken in

an effort to get them back up on their feet.

This is done by repeatedly pinching the
tail in several areas.

HANDLERS

Handlers must constantly
keep the cattle moving,

pulling them by nose ropes,

twisting their necks,

horns, or tails.

They lead, or rather force,

the cattle down embankments and
in and out of trucks without ramps,

causing injuries like
broken pelvises, legs, ribs, and horns.

CHILI PEPPER

Chili pepper and tobacco are also used

This practice is done by rubbing the pepper
directly into their eyes, in order to stimulate

the animal back onto his or her feet.

SLAUGHTER

And all this before the slaughter.

As many as half of the animals will
already be dead by the time they

arrive at the slaughterhouse.

But to make the experience even more
traumatic and terrifying, they are

often killed in full view of each other.

And instead of the required "quick slice"
across the throat with a sharp knife,

they are generally killed through
hacking and sawing with a dull blade.

TANNING

Afterwards, the skins from these animals
are sent to tanneries that use deadly

substances like Chromium and other toxins
to stop decomposition.

Remember, leather is dead flesh.

It is dead skin, and, therefore, natural for
it to decompose and rot away unless treated

with such potent substances as these.

And for people, the health effects of
such chemicals in tanneries, in lieu of the

continued demand for leather goods, is
yet another issue.

RETAIL

Ultimately, leather from Indian cattle
make their way to clothing stores

all around the world.

Most major chains sell Indian leather ...

... leather that comes from completely
different cows than those we eat.

FUR

And what about fur?

Over 100 million wild
animals are murdered

for their pelts every year, 25
million in the United States alone.

These animals, obtained by hunting and trapping,
are kept on fur farms in conditions like these.

CAGE MADNESS

Naturally, these undomesticated, wild animals
are not accustomed to being caged,

and cage madness develops when frightened
and frustrated animals are driven crazy

from the stress of confinement.

These wild, free-roaming animals,

and their offspring, find themselves
unable to live a natural life,

can never take even a few steps
or feel the earth beneath their feet.

Instead, they are reduced to
scratching, circling and pacing endlessly.

(INJURIES AND SLOW DEATH)

The physical injuries these
animals endure on fur farms ...

involve broken and exposed bones ...

... blindness ...

... ear infections ...

... dehydration and malnutrition ...

... exposure to freezing temperatures ...

... lack of veterinary care ...

... and slow death.

(KILLING)

No laws indicate the killing of
animals on fur farms, therefore,

the least expensive methods
are the most appealing.

Carbon monoxide poisoning,
Strychnine, suffocation,

breaking the neck, and anal electrocution
are some of the more common methods used.

Removed from his or her cage with a heavy
neck-pole, the animal is walked past

the rows of bodies of slaughtered foxes,
sables, raccoons and wolves, among others.

Death by anal electrocution is a crude
process that requires a probe to be inserted

in the rectum while the animal
bites down on a metal conductor.

Often times this inept procedure must
be repeated to actually kill the animal.

And the skinned carcasses seen here will later
be ground up and fed to the animals still caged.

CHINESE FUR FARM

CANADIAN SEAL HUNT

- How much is this one?

- This is... $49,500

PART FOUR: ENTERTAINMENT

And so we move on to entertainment.

Mark Twain once said,

"Of all the creatures ever made
he (man) is the most detestable.

He's the only creature that inflicts
pain for sport, knowing it to be pain".

RODEOS

In rodeos, bulls and broncos don't buck because
they're wild, but because they're in pain.

A belt, called a flank strap or a
bucking strap, is secured around

the animal's body over the genital area.

As the animal leaves the chute, a tight
jerk on the belt is enough

to start him bucking in pain.

Apart from other injuries animals
incur at rodeos ...

... such as broken legs ...

... they are also worked up by being slapped ...

... teased ...

... given electric prods ...

... and otherwise tormented ...

... to bolt out of the chute in a frenzy.

ROPING

Roping, as seen here, involves throwing a rope
around the neck of a frightened animal running

full speed, jerking the poor creature to
a halt, and slamming him or her to the ground.

GAMBLING

Like any other business, dog racing
and horse racing are industries motivated

by a common denominator:

profit.

FAIR GROUNDS

At fair grounds across the country,
animals are used to race,

bet with, and spectate over.

Training for these events is accomplished
by withholding food and sometimes water.

These animals ... unfamiliar with their
surroundings ... the noise ... the crowds ...

even what they're supposed to be doing ...
are all-too-often injured and discarded ...

(PIGEON BOWLING)
in pointless ... trivial ... outlandish contests
... designed to make profits and entertain.

HUNTING

Besides loss of habitat, hunting
is the number one threat to wildlife today.

Hunters kill over 200 million
animals every year.

Deer, rabbits, and squirrels top the list of
desirable targets.

There is no denying it, if hunting is a
sport it is a bloodsport.

The targets are living,

and they undergo violent deaths.

FISHING

Fishing is also a death sport,
wherein the nonhuman animal suffers.

Researchers have distinguished that fish show
pain behavior the same way mammals do.

Anatomically, physiologically,

and biologically, the pain system in fish is
virtually the same as in birds and mammals.

In other words, fish are sentient organisms,

so of course they feel pain.

For those who think fish die

"gentler" deaths, consider that their
sensory organs are highly developed,

their nervous systems complex,
their nerve cells very similar to our own,

and their responses to certain stimuli
immediate and vigorous.

CIRCUSES

When going to the circus, rarely do
we stop for a moment and consider:

What incites an animal to do something unnatural,
even dangerous, such as jumping through

flames, balancing on one foot, or diving into
water from shaky platforms high in the air?

Animal trainers would
like for the public to

believe that animals are coaxed into such
behaviors with the promise of rewards.

But the truth is that animals
perform because they fear punishment.

In essence, circuses condemn animal

who are wild by nature to live out their
days isolated in tiny, barren cages,

denied normal exercise and socialization,

shuttled around from place to place,

WINTER QUARTERS

and shackled in chains
for up to 95% of their lives.

TRAINING

"Elephants are taught to perform with
positive reinforcement, and never hit".

"Never hit. Never, never, never

will you see anyone use the ankus as
anything other than a guide or a tool".

Dominance, subservience, and pain
are integral parts of the training process.

- Hurt him. Don't touch him!

Make him scream!

If you're scared to hurt him,
don't come in this room.

When I say rip his fuckin' ---
you know how I am about touchin' him, right?

So if I say rip his head off ...
rip his fuckin' foot off, what does that mean?

Because it's very important to do it, right?
When he starts squirming too fuckin' much -

both fuckin' hands - BOOM!
Right under that chin!

Sit ... and he better back up.

Then when he fucks around too much,
don't grab that leg ...

... you fuckin' sink that hook and give everything
you've got ... and when it's in there go, ee-eeee-ee!!!

And he's gonna start screaming.

When you hear that screaming, then you know
you've got their attention a little fuckin' bit!

Right here in the barn.
Can't do it on the road.

She's gonna fuckin' do what I want.
And that's just the fuckin' way it is.

Alright, let's go.

Becky! Becky!!!

You motherfucker.

Get your motherfuckin' --- get up here!

Motherfucker!

Come here, Becky.

Move up, Becky.

Move up, Becky.

Alright, tubs.

Tubs!

Hey, get loony.

Hey, Becky.
Go on, move up.

Hey, I'm alive.

I'm not a dead man.

Move up.

Come in line.

Come in line, Becky.

Motherfucker!

Move, motherfucker!

Yeah, come in line. Come here, Tommy.

Why do they have to go through that because
you motherfuckers don't want to listen?

Back up.

You got a pussy-ass fuckin' attitude,
it's just the way they die.

We know animals feel.

They feel fear, loneliness, and
pain, just like humans do.

What animal would choose to
spend their entire life in captivity ...

... if they had a choice?

RETALIATION

- On the count of three.

One.

Two.

Tree.

Take him.
You've got to shoot.

ZOOS

Are zoos valuable educational
and conservation institutions?

Sure, zoos are interesting, but they are
only educational in the sense that they

teach a disregard for the
natures of other living beings.

Besides, what can we learn about
wild animals by viewing them in captivity?

Zoos exist because we
are intrigued by exotic things,

and to zoo-goers,
zoo animals are just that: things.

In both cases, at circuses or zoos,

wild and exotic animals
are captured, caged,

transported and trained ... to
do what humans want them to do.

BULLFIGHTING

At best, the term "bullfighting"
is a misnomer,

as there is little competition
between the sword of a nimble matador

(which is Spanish for killer),

and a confused, maimed, psychologically
tormented, and physically debilitated bull.

Many prominent former
bullfighters report

that bulls are intentionally debilitated
with tranquilizers and laxatives,

beatings to the kidneys, and heavy weights hung
around their necks for weeks before a fight.

Some of the animals are placed in darkness
for 48 hours before the confrontation,

then are released
blinded into the bright arena.

In a typical event, the bull enters and
is approached by men who exhaust and

frustrate him by running him in
circles and tricking him into collisions.

When the bull is tired and out of breath,

he is approached by picadors, who
drive lances into his back and neck muscles,

twisting and gouging to ensure
a significant amount of blood loss,

and impairing the bull's
ability to lift his head.

Then come the banderilleros

who distract and dart around the bull
while plunging more lances into him.

Weakened from blood loss,

they run the bull in more circles
until he is dizzy and stops chasing.

Finally, the matador, this "killer",
appears and, after provoking a few exhausted

charges from the dying animal,
tries to kill the bull with his sword.

And this bloody form of amusement ...
is bullfighting.

The pleasure derived from all these
activities and sports

(a communion with nature, some would say),

can be secured without
harming or killing animals.

The commercial exploitation of wildlife
erroneously assumes that the value of wild

animals is reducible to their
utility relative to human interests,

especially economic interests.

But wild animals are not a renewable resource,
having value only relative to human interests.

That perception
can only be that of a speciesist.

(SEAL HARVEST, ST. PAUL ISLAND)
Nevertheless, these practices exist

only because we do not take
seriously the interests of other animals.

In this light, are humans not
the most callous speciesists of all?

PART FIVE: SCIENCE

VIVISECTION

The term vivisection is used
to apply to all types of experiments

on living animals and is said to be
a form of medical science.

The reason for experimentation of this

type is to allegedly discover cures
for human ailments and illnesses.

But those who hope to find remedies
for human ills by inflicting deliberate

sufferings on animals commit
two fundamental errors in understanding.

The first is the assumption

that results obtained on animals
are applicable to mankind.

The second concerns the inevitable

fallacy of experimental science in
respect to the field of organic life.

Since animals react differently
from human beings ... every new product

or method tried out on animals must be tried

out again on man ... through careful clinical
tests, before it can be considered safe.

This rule knows no exceptions.

Tests on animals are not only dangerous
because they lead to wrong conclusions

but, furthermore,
they retard clinical investigation -

which is the only valid kind.

Just remember the fact that any disease

deliberately provoked is unlike any
disease that arises spontaneously.

MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS

Unfortunately, such
methods still sail today

under the flag of science

- which is an insult to true science,
as well as human intelligence.

And so vivisection applies to medical
experiments ...

... done with the administration of noxious
substances ...

... electric or traumatic shocks ...

... unanesthetized operations ...

... burns ...

... drawn-out deprivations of food and drink ...

... physical and psychological tortures ...

... that lead to mental imbalance ...

... infections ... and so on.

(UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA)
Head injury research involves partially

or fully conscious baboons
strapped down with restraints ...

... and their heads
cemented into a metal helmet,

which will be thrust at a 60
degree angle at a force of up to 1,000 Gs.

The purpose of this experiment
is to simulate auto crashes ...

... football ... boxing ...
and other head related injuries.

And this process is often repeated
again and again on the same animals.

MILITARY RESEARCH

And finally, military research.

This one speaks for itself.

>From sending monkeys into outer space,

and testing atomic blasts on helpless dogs,

to exposing primates to nuclear radiation.

Twenty years ago, the number of animals

dying of tortures through the practice
of vivisection was astronomical,

estimated at 400,000 per day world wide,

and growing at an annual rate of five percent.

Today that number is almost

beyond comprehension. 19,000
per minute. 10 billion per year.

Some uneducated persons pretend to

know that less intelligent animals
don't feel pain the same way we do.

In truth, we know very little about how
specific animals may "feel",

except that they must also submit to
the universal law that causes every

organism dying by unnatural means to
suffer greatly before that final release.

But it's nonsense to
say that the animals

do not suffer because they have
a lower order of intelligence.

FORCE-FEEDING GEESE
"FOIE GRAS"

Pain is pain,
conveyed by nerves to the brain,

and there are other nerves
than those of intelligence...

...nerves such as sight,
smell, touch, and hearing.

And in some animals these nerves
are much more highly developed than in man.

We know that there
has never been an epoch

in which we could learn something about
the physiology of man by torturing animals;

we only learned
something about animals.

And if there is something we can learn
from them on the psychological level,

it is not by means of steel or electricity,
much less so through psychic violences.

The systematic torture of sentient beings,

whatever the pretext and in whatever form,
cannot achieve anything more than it already has:

to show us what is the
lowest point of debasement man can reach.

If that's what
we want to know.

"As long as there are slaughterhouses,
there will be battlefields".

- Leo Tolstoy

Ignorance is the speciesist's
first line of defense.

Yet it is easily breached by anyone with the
time and determination to find out the truth.

Ignorance has prevailed so long only because
people do not want to find out the truth.

"Don't tell me, you'll spoil my dinner"

is the usual reply to any attempt to tell
someone just how that dinner was produced.

Even people who are aware that

the traditional family farm has been
taken over by big business interests...

...that their clothes come from slaughtered
cows, that their entertainment means the

suffering and death of millions of
animals... and that some questionable

experiments go on in laboratories,

still cling to a vague belief
that conditions cannot be too bad,

(PREGNAT MARE URINE AKA: "PREMARIN")

or else the government or the animal welfare
societies would have done something about it.

But it is not the inability to find out what
is going on as much as a desire not to know about

facts that may lie heavy on one's conscience
that is responsible for this lack of awareness -

- after all, the victims of whatever it is that goes on in
all these awful places

are not members of one's own group.

It all comes down to pain and suffering.

Not intelligence, not strength,
not social class or civil right.

Pain and suffering are in themselves bad
and should be prevented or minimized,

irrespective of the race, sex,
or species of the being that suffers.

We are all creatures.

And non-human animals experience
sensations just like we do.

They too are strong, intelligent,
industrious, mobile, and evolutional.

They too are capable of
growth and adaptation.

Like us, first and foremost,
they are earthlings.

And like us, they are surviving.

Like us, they also seek their own comfort
rather than discomfort.

And like us, they express degrees
of emotion.

In short, like us, they are alive;

most of them being, in fact,
vertebrae, just like us.

As we look back on how essential
animals are to human survival;

our absolute dependence on them

(for companionship ... food ...

... clothing ...

... sport and entertainment ...

... as well as medical and scientific research),

ironically ... we only see mankind's complete
disrespect for these non-human providers.

Without a doubt, this must be what it is...

... to "bite the hand that feeds us".

In fact, we have actually stomped
and spit on it.

Now we are faced
with the inevitable aftermath.

This is evident in health reports due to
our over-excessive consumption of animals.

Cancer,

heart disease,

Osteoporosis,

strokes,

kidney stones,

Anemia,

diabetes, and more.

Even our food has now been effected ...
and at its very source.

With antibiotics used to
promote weight gain in animals

(who can't gain weight under the stressful,
overcrowded living conditions in factory farms);

with the over-use of
pesticides and insecticides;

or artificial hormones

(designed to increase milk
production, litter size and frequency);

with artificial colors,
herbicides, larvicides,

synthetic fertilizers, tranquilizers,
growth and appetite stimulants ...

... it's no wonder that Mad Cow Disease ...
Foot and Mouth Disease ... Pfiesteria ...

and a host of other animal related
abnormalities have been

(POLLUTION)
unleashed on the human public.

Nature is not responsible for these actions.

(DEFORESTATION)
We are.

So a change is inevitable.
Either we make it ourselves,

or we will be forced to
make it by Nature Itself.

The time has come for each of us
to reconsider our eating habits,

our traditions,

our lifestyles and fashions,

and above all,
our way of thinking.

So, if there is any truth
to the age-old saying,

"What goes around, comes around",
then what do they get for their pain?

Do we even give it a second thought?

If what goes around comes around,
what do they get for their pain?

They are earthlings.

They have the right to be here
just as much as humans do.

Perhaps the answer is found
in another age-old saying ...

... and one equally true:

We reap just what we sow.

So of course, animals feel,
and of course they experience pain.

After all, has nature endowed these
wonderful animals with well-springs of sentiment

so that they should not feel ...

... or do animals have nerves
in order to be insensitive?

Reason demands a better answer.

But one thing is absolutely certain:
animals used for food, used for clothing,

used for entertainment,
and in scientific experiments

and all the oppression that is done to them
under the sun

they all die from pain.

Each and every one.

Isn't it enough that animals

the world over live in permanent retreat
from human progress and expansion?

And for many species ...
there is simply nowhere else to go.

It seems the fate of many animals
is either to be unwanted by man ...

... or wanted too much.

We enter as lords of the earth bearing
strange powers of terror and mercy alike ...

But Human beings
should love animals as ...

the knowing love the innocent,
and the strong love the vulnerable.

When we wince at the
suffering of animals,

that feeling speaks well of
us even when we ignore it,

and those who dismiss love for our fellow
creatures as mere sentimentality

overlook a good and
important part of our humanity.

But it takes nothing away from
a human to be kind to an animal.

And it is actually within us

to grant them a happy
life ... and a long one.

On the heath, King Lear asked Gloucester:
"How do you see the world?"

And Gloucester, who is blind, answered:

"I see it feelingly".

I see it feelingly.

Three primary life forces
exist on this planet:

Nature,

Animals

and Humankind.

We are the Earthlings.

Make the connection.

subtitles: by bobef,
because animals do not make chocolate