All language subtitles for Dogs.Are.People.Too.2024.DOCU.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.LT]

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They're more important to me.

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They're... they're here,
to a human being in my eyes.

That's how pure they are.

Here.

There's nothing
fantastic about a human being.

We hurt each other, we lie to each other,

we steal from each other,
we kill each other.

Tell me what a dog does.

They love you.

They... they are loyal to you.

They never leave you.

They don't want anything from you.

Can't say the same thing
about human beings.

As a country, we love dogs.

Yeah, 180 pounds, nothing but love.

- Oh, my God...
- Dogs are children.

They're part of the family.

There's a growing
market when it comes to

pet clothing and accessories.

Oh, he's famous!

A facelift for dogs.

You might think of
dogs as sort of occupying

now a border species
between animal and human.

What? Seriously?

Pets are family.

The law needs to recognize that.

♪ Give it up to me, baby ♪

It is civil rights violations.

Instead of on people, it's on...

Can you ing believe this?

Their pets.

The dog has a lawyer.

Justice will be served!

Our relationship with
animals offered this window...

That's like raw, that's raw.

Into the human
heart and the human mind

- that's just...
- Absolute...

stunningly...

- Bite, bite, bite, bite, bite!
- Intense.

I communicate to them
like an energy, like a soul.

I call it the Me Too movement for dogs.

- Well...
- We fetishize these animals.

That's my little boy.

It's a family member.

They don't belong in this world.

It's animals perceived as legal persons.

♪ Oh, anyway ♪

Detroit, Detroit sucks.

We can have that discussion anywhere.

Detroit sucks.

Yeah, Detroit sucks.

We call it little Vietnam.

Like, how long does it take in Europe,

like after somebody gets shot,
before they come get the body?

Never seen a body.

See my point?

See, so we be over here
with PTSD as kids.

That's not like if
you go to the gas station.

Don't take your ass to
the gas station at night.

Don't do it.

Don't do it.

You want to see England again?

Don't do it.

This Babycakes right here.

Yeah, 180 pounds.

Nothing but love.

Yeah, she was going to
live at least to 11 years old.

But Detroit police
deemed that unnecessary.

Police claimed
they were looking for someone

that supposedly ran in this yard.

The dog was chained here, um,
for bathroom break.

They came in, they searched, left.

Like, the person they were
looking for, they never found.

We're not spotlighted
like a lot of other cities

when it come to, you know, police stuff.

Unless it's, like, violence.

Like, black-on-black violence.

CNN highlight that.

But anything else, they won't highlight it.

When I looked on the Internet,
there was, like,

five other cases of dogs getting shot.

I'm like, don't nobody think that's, like, a

you know, a coincidence that

it's happening here like that?

I was frustrated at the time,

and I knew somebody
could right my wrong.

So I go in my office, and I type in,

like, "United States dog lawyer."

"Michigan dog lawyer."

"Dog shot by police."

Then his name started popping
up, like, five, six cases.

I'm like, search him.

The police here have run
roughshod over its population,

and these dog shootings
are just a part of that.

It is a reflection of civil rights violations.

Instead of on people, it's on their pets.

The vast majority of, uh, my clients,

in these kind of cases,

are living in
some pretty significant poverty.

The police attitude is
that they're somehow less than.

As part of that, they are more willing

to take the extreme action
of shooting their dogs.

One of the defendants
who I've sued more than once

as a Detroit police officer has shot 80,

at least 80 dogs.

Ha! Well, it wasn't by design
or choice, I'll tell you that.

My whole career has been spent
enforcing the Constitution,

limiting the power of government.

One of the really neat
things about this country

is that we can take action
against a government

in a court and win.

Back here is where they started...

There used to be a van right here.

I mean, it shouldn't have
took them so many bullets

to kill my dogs, but it took them

like 40 shots, literally.

With assault rifles?

- Of assault rifles.
- Yeah.

They shot those dogs over this fence,

in a contained area, three of them.

And you know, when I came back here,

now it's just all coming back.

I've never been back here since.

But finding all the bullets, and...

Yeah.

This is just crazy.

And it's the aftermath. I couldn't take it.

My whole life had changed.

Even now, it's just like,
now, just the feeling, like,

remembering, looking at everything

and how it happened, just

it's not a good feeling.

The question I ask juries
when I try these cases is,

what would you pay to not see this?

Uh, people are always
surprised when they hear about,

you know, the magnitude
of these settlements,

it's like, well, it's just a dog, they say.

Some people say it's just a dog.

But it's not just a dog, right?

- Not to you.
- No.

- So, um...
- It's family.

Well, the dog
doesn't have any rights.

The owner has rights.

On the Daryll Lindsay case,
we got $100,000 for a dog.

But see, there wasn't
$100,000 for the dog.

You know, he's not a $100,000 dog.

It's $100,000 of pain and suffering

that flows naturally from
that constitutional violation.

To put it differently,

I'm representing
the property owner's interests.

And a dog is a thing that cops
just can't unreasonably take.

It's weird.

That's how you know it's just not a thing.

You know what I'm saying? Like, a thing.

Like, I got a car that got...
You know, I got a Corvette

that got stole, and
I could care less about it.

You know, we're talking about a dog.

It's not a thing.

So on the one hand,
we say that, you know,

these animals, they're our companions,

they're our children, they're all this stuff.

But under the law,
they're considered property.

I'm sitting on this stool, right?

This is my property.

Is that my horse there
who happens to be

taking hay that they're not
supposed to be taking?

Is that my property,
or is that a sentient being?

The gut reaction is,

there's something really morally wrong

about humans thinking
they can own another creature.

♪ 'Cause everybody knows,
everybody knows ♪

♪ Everybody, everybody knows ♪

Their life is their own, and
nobody has a right to own them.

As property,
you don't have rights,

and you can't go to
court to enforce those rights.

So if somebody assaults you,
if somebody kills you,

if somebody uses you or
abuses you, you have no avenue

to stop that, or no recourse to prevent it.

Yeah, I know he's
giving you sign language behind.

I can see you rolling your eyes,
looking up at Hasan.

You think I'm a fucking idiot?

No, no, I didn't.

Okay, well, I only have a film crew here

filming about your boy once in a lifetime.

Hey, hey, baby.

I still have
at the house. I can't.

If I leave the house,
the house is going to collapse.

Oh.

Okay.

Well, the justice system
in America is going to collapse.

Okay, okay, okay. Okay, got to go.

Baba, bye.

He's watched me sit here
for five years, endless nights

on a computer, seeking,
trying to sort it all out.

What's the saying?

It's, um, nothing
compares to a mother's love.

This would be
Delilah Sandalwood's ashes.

And you see Delilah, the youngie.

All of my animals,
I do private cremations.

I don't want anyone else's remains.

I just want theirs.

This is Kramer's ashes,
and I have a nice card

from the veterinarian.

Precious memories.

I... I open these boxes
sometimes when I dust the shelf.

Makes me, lets me remember and...
and reflect on the years,

all their devotion and
loyalty that they gave me.

And...

I don't have anything of Diesel.

This is... this is my urn for Diesel.

I have a Red Nubby Week Week.

Rather than get a coffee can
and shove a ball in it

and pretend that it's ashes of the dog

that the city murdered,
I decided to use this

as... my memory, my memory of Deezy.

He was a comical boy, so smart,
and he always talked back.

Every question I asked him, he said,

he always talked back.

Yeah, are you done working?

I always wanted
that opportunity to cherish

a child and let them
know that they're my world.

Those weren't the cards I was dealt.

Still a woman, almost 52 in November,

still pray every day to God
for a baby, for that miracle.

Gotta have a man, though.

I invest into the four-legged children.

They allow me to care
for something that needs me.

They need me, but I need them.

Whatever I do, I think of them first.

I know my duty as a mother.

It's a lot of work. It's hard work.

It's a lot of sleepless nights,
just like human babies.

The best way that I could describe it

to someone who would say,
it's just a dog.

You're paying all these legal fees.

You're crying every day.

You carry this awful guilt.

You're living with
PTSD because of a dog?

Imagine your daughter or your son.

In my heart of hearts,
I don't believe he's dead.

I don't have a body.
I don't have a bandana.

I have nothing.

I have nothing to tell me
that he's gone. Nothing.

For the rest of my life, I won't believe

he's dead unless I saw a body.

Our relationships with animals
offer this window into

the human heart and the human
mind that's just intense.

In our relationships with dogs,
you see the best

and the worst in what...
what it means to be human.

Anthrozoology is a relatively
new field, and it's the study

of human-animal interactions
in the broad sense.

So everything from,
you know, why we love pets,

um, to how we think about
the use of animals in research,

to why we eat some animals
and don't eat other ones.

Our interactions with animals cover

such a spectrum of human life.

It's... you know,
from... from my point of view,

it's just... it's just delicious.

Well, this is Full Moon Farm.

We're actually
Full Moon Farm Incorporated,

a North Carolina nonprofit.

We are a sanctuary
and rescue for wolf dogs.

All of the pens are color-coded,
yellow being caution.

They could be escape risks.

They could be, um, thieves.

Red is they have a bite history.

Ho, ho, ho, ho! Easy!

They have a court history,
or they're just nasty dogs.

Wolfdogs are intelligent,

opportunistic, problem-solving thinkers.

And if they had opposable thumbs,

they would probably rule the world.

And they are smarter
than the people who bought them.

So, you wind up with the failure
of the human-dog bond, right?

These guys are all sort of,
I don't want to say victims,

but they're lucky to
be living here because

what happened is someone has

a romantic fantasy about living,
living with a wolf.

A lot of people buy wolf dogs as
a quote-unquote ego experience.

Not everybody gets
a pet for the right reason.

Right there is a perfect example.

Hi, baby.

It's all right. I promise.

That animal is 16 years old.

He spent his life on a chain.

He had no quality of life.

When I got him, he was on death's door.

That's not responsible animal ownership.

Animal control took him
because he has a bite history.

He bit a vet tech.
He'd been a shelter worker.

He'd bit the guy's surviving spouse.

He's never even grumbled at me.

He loves me.

Other than that, he will eat anybody.

Would we be better off
not having wolf dogs at all?

In other words, if you had, -No.

- In the world...
- It's not their fault.

It's not because they're wolf dogs.

It's because their owner
never put the time into them.

If you cannot invest
a good part of your heart,

your soul, and your money into a pet,

don't get one.

Have you ever had
ones that were so bad

that you would have
to have them put down?

If I have to put
an animal down for aggression,

and I have had put two down,

both of them had brain tumors.

I want to be able to justify in my heart,

and my mind, why did I have to take

that animal's life.

I want to know why.

Well, that's a pretty
extraordinary track record,

given the number of animals
that you've rescued here.

There's probably been 700 through here.

700 animals, and only two of them.

- Yeah.
- And both of them...

Given the fact that they're
here because they had problems

that were so severe that other
people could not

deal with those, that's a great record.

Yeah.

I'm not normal.

I believe in the other side.

You can call it heaven.

You can call it the bridge.

You can call it
whatever the heck you want.

But when I've got
an animal that's in my lap

that's crossing to the next world, I feel it,

I see it, I hear it, I sense it,

and I go with them as they cross.

And that's the only way
I could do what I do.

If I didn't believe in that

or have that compassion,
I couldn't do this.

- Diesel?
- Yeah.

No.

Diesel is not a dangerous dog.

He was a gorgeous dog, inside and out.

He had a rough-ass life.

It took him a long time to understand

that his life was gonna be better.

For what?

For what?

It was a really warm day,
so I had the screen door locked.

And Deezy liked, he always would sit

and watch the squirrels
run up and down this tree.

Carolyn, the mail lady, came.

She walks up the driveway.

She walked up on the porch.

And Diesel's saying, rawr!

She slams the mailbox.

She comes, something, a bag,
her hand jiggles this door.

That was game over for Diesel.

I hear, he got me, he got me.

He got the back of her ankle, her shoe.

He peed all over the... the tile here,

and ran directly to his crate.

It wasn't horrible.

I mean, there was blood there,
but it didn't seem

as if it was too deep or anything like that,

so I held her leg up.

And of course, I seen a little
bit of blood dripping out,

but it wasn't like, oh, my God, like,

her leg broke off.

EMS showed up, and they treated her.

She actually walked, got up,
and walked to the gurney.

The police officer came, talked to Amy,

and then animal control showed up.

The animal control officer,

handed this form to Amy,
and she asked what it was.

The animal control officer told
Amy that the form authorizes,

uh, him to take the dog
to quarantine for 10 days.

I remember that it was
going to be $150, and I'm like,

oh, my God, 10 days, $150,
that's $1,500

that she's going
to have to pay out of pocket

for them to quarantine him.

She's very distraught and crying.

She signs the document.

There was a lot going on.
I remember Amy crying.

They're taking my son,
and it was very, very emotional.

And what happened next
is not at all what was described

by the animal control officer.

What happened, instead
of going to 10-day quarantine,

he put on the form instructions
to test for rabies,

and when you test for rabies,
um, they remove the head.

So she goes to court
10 days later for her hearing,

where she thinks,
you know, her dog's fate's

going to be decided,
and what she didn't know

was that the dog had been
dead 9 days already by then.

I just kept saying,
what happened to 10 days?

What happened to 10 days?

I need to talk to the judge.

Please, what happened?

He went for a quarantine.

I couldn't breathe.

I almost fell.

My knees wanted to buckle.

When a dog is going
to be tested for rabies,

what happens is that dog
is euthanized, the head of

the animal is removed,
that head is then placed

into a FedEx box and shipped cold to

an agency in Lansing, Michigan,
which is the state capital,

where the brain is then sliced into slides,

and it is tested to determine
whether it has rabies.

So her dog's dead within an hour.

She was duped by
an animal control officer,

which is basically a cop
who deals with animal issues.

He acted as judge, jury, and executioner,

and that's just not how this place works.

I have my baton, which we can

use this as what we call a bite stick,

or you can obviously use it on people.

I have my taser,
which will not go off now,

because I've taken the cartridge out.

You can either go direct
and tase, or with the cartridge,

it shoots out 25 feet and will tase

both humans and dogs as well with this.

You want to be really
careful where you use this

on an animal, because you can

you can really, shock and kill an animal

with this, so you have
to be really careful with that.

I've worked inner city,
and I know what it's like,

and it's tough.

You are overrun,
and you do have a lot of dogs.

I don't know this animal control officer,

so it's not fair of me to pass judgment.

In my opinion,
he wanted to rid the problem.

In the state of Connecticut, if a dog bites,

you're not euthanizing that dog,

nor is any veterinarian
euthanizing that dog,

for a term of 10 days.

Euthanasia, people think, is this,

like, great thing, and it's really not.

It's a very sad situation.

He was without his owner.

He was probably scared.

I hope to God he didn't bring him in on

a catch pole, because then you're on

the end of a steel pole with
a cable choking you up.

They feel every emotion,
everything you've got going,

they feel that through the leash.

So the guy was probably tense.

He was probably holding him tight.

And I don't know if
they did a straight stick.

Straight stick means that they take

the needle with the euthanization,

stick it right into the vein, and it goes

right through the system,
right to the heart,

and it's painful for the dog.

And when you have a dog that fights it,

and then you got to
go back at it a second time

and give him a second dose,

It's tough because

it's almost like a human with adrenaline.

You almost want to think
that he went out peacefully.

But did he? Who knows?

Who knows?

- So, we can cut this.
- Just...

Because that's like raw, that's raw.

The number one cause of
mortality for dogs globally

is humans, which I think
is kind of interesting

and a little disturbing.

We poison, we shoot, trap.

We kill dogs in a lot of different ways,

some of which we label "humane."

Typically, when there
is human-dog conflict,

it's the dog who gets blamed
and the dog who gets punished.

Biting is a natural behavior for dogs,

particularly when
they're feeling threatened.

So we shouldn't be so surprised.

People don't understand
or realize with canines' bites.

There's a bite and release,
a bite and hold.

There's pure, unadulterated
aggression, where it's bite,

bite, bite, bite, bite,
and they're going for the kill.

So a one bite to the ankle,
a bite and release,

that's to me reflexive and defensive.

Knowing canines as I do,
if the postal worker was able

to walk away, drive away,
she wasn't ripped

stem to stern,
that dog didn't deserve to die.

A dog is protecting
its territory, and its human.

But some people are sissies.

Hi, baby. Can I give kisses?

- Oh, yeah.
- Oh, my goodness.

He's fast with the mouth.

Oh, my goodness.

You're a beautiful boy.

Oh, my gosh.

Hi. Oh, my gosh. Hi.

I'm so happy to see you, too.

I'm so happy to see you.

You're just a boy.

He's just a baby.

- Yeah, he's 10 months.
- Gung-ho Sergio.

- Yes, right.
- Did I just, am I bleeding?

Yep, he got you a little bit.

- Did he nick?
- No, he didn't bite me.

His head hit me, that's it.

- Oh.
- That's it.

It's just, he was too happy to see me.

That's why they call them alligators.

- Yeah.
- Just... they do make you bleed.

He got me yesterday.

Did he?

He didn't bite me. His head got me.

He was hugging me so tight.

Yo.

Sergio's a good boy, and he's gorgeous.

Thank you.

Okay.

Assis. Assis.

No. Assis. Assis.

Assis.

And out.

Oh.

Out.

Out.

Out. Come on.

Out.

Good boy.

How's that?

Good job, Sergio.

Well, there's... I mean, it's
in a professional way.

No, but you know... but you know what?

Robert, it shows the tolerance
and their strong will.

Right.

Their strong desire for that ball.

Right, I mean, basically...

Life... life is ball.

We... we use it on..

Oh, yeah.

You didn't see me over there,
but I had tears

rolling down my face.

It's spectacular.

He does. He reminds me of
how much I loved him,

and the breed and why,
because they're so fascinating.

♪ One step as I take it ♪

♪ Sweeps me away ♪

♪ Beneath and above I am ♪

♪ Bursting passion ♪

♪ A taste of this direction ♪

When I was doing the ball,

his tail was obviously wagging.

He's happy. He's doing it for the reward.

They're not mean dogs. That's the thing.

Malinois are extremely prey-driven,

and so you just take that
prey drive, turn it into a game,

you give the dog a command,
and he says, "Okay, I'll do it",

"but I get the ball afterwards."
So it's all about the ball.

The ball is the reward. Ball is the reward.

Get loud.

Come on. Get loud.

Oh, good boy.

OPA.

You can train them
to do anything you want,

and that's the beauty of them.

But these guys can be a weapon,

you know, if they're getting
wrong people's hands.

So basically this is a training scenario,

and I give the command.

He runs about 300 feet.

And then bites the sleeve.

Those dogs are a hands-off
dog to me.

And any time I have to deal with one,

I'll be honest with you,
I do take extra precaution.

They're tough motherfucking dogs.

They're always on guard.
They're always high-strung.

They get possessive
of their house, of their yard.

That's why they're used for police.

That's why they're used for the military.

Those dogs need a job, want a job.

They need to work. They have that drive.

They don't belong as family dogs.

They are true working breed.

You can't train through something

that's instinctive and inherent. You can't.

You work with that instinct,
and you train through it.

You don't train it away.

I mean, you can put a sleeve
on in front of a Dutch Shepherd

and a Malinois that have never
ever worked a sleeve before,

and they know inherently what to do.

That's what dogs are bred for.

Those type of dogs were bred for that.

You have a place of innocence

that needs to be protected,

and there's somebody that's
on scene that can react

accordingly, as opposed
to eight minutes away,

which is the typical law
enforcement response time.

With an active shooter
canine team on scene,

hopefully you're preventing it, period.

In war, you've got to believe
or you've got to be all in.

A school shooter is war,

and what you need are people
that are trained for that.

So I was a SEAL.

Um, I did five deployments.

Basic underwater demolition SEAL.

The toughest military
training in the world.

You know, they tied our feet,
tied our hands,

you know, and dumped us in the pool.

You have to find a space in your head.

You have to be relaxed. You
have to be smooth to not panic.

That's me, actually, right here.

So when I got out of the Navy
and I started my canine company,

little did I know
that I had a puppy, Eudoris,

that had the specific drives that I wanted.

This dog was my style, okay?

I want a high level of fight.

I want a high level of hunt, and
I want a high level of defense.

He was your one in a million.

Tried to breed him multiple times.

Tried to recreate him.

Never really could have.

So then that's when
the Eudoris was first cloned,

approximately just over five years ago.

Eudoris!

He can't hear very well. Eudoris!

Come here, turd.

What's up, buddy? Yes.

He, you know, was the start
of everything,

and now it's clones of clones
and black squad, red squad,

blue squad because of that old man.

Do I see him in all the other ones?

Sure, because I look in their eyes.

I see his eyes, you know,

but there's only one, technically, of him.

He was a dog that I had
while I was in the Navy,

so he was there for me
in a lot of hard times.

So he's more, I'm more
emotionally attached to him

than, let's say, you know,
the guys that I train here

and push out.

All right, follow me, follow me.

Right now I've got 19 clones,
so I've got 25 dogs.

He's trained for Kentucky's SWAT team.

Eudoris.

They're all named Eudoris
because it's Eudoris.

The bloodline is Eudoris.

Um, I mean, at the end of the day,

on paper, they're products.

I mean, it's their inventory,

if that's how you want to look at them.

But yeah, I do...

It's very difficult for me to...

Um, um...

Hey, Jimmy Gi, move, step out?

Thanks.

Um, it's very difficult for me.

I think some of them, I would
say, have souls, if you will.

Um, there's just something about

that one in a million dog,
meaning Eudoris.

You'd be surprised
how many people are

really not into the cloning of the dogs.

You'd be surprised.

There are some people that would
not buy a dog that's a clone.

But if a person goes into
an establishment and just starts

shooting people, innocent
people, what you need is

your one in a million dog.

We're asking a lot.

I'm asking these dogs to give me

one million percent in
an active shooter situation.

Now I want you to tear

the fucking face off that person
and commit to that said person.

The 50 other screaming people,
don't pay attention to you.

And I don't have any problems
with a canine used as a canary.

I would rather have the canine
than an innocent person.

Being killed, correct.

There's people that look
at dogs as only tools.

And ain't no different than me
going to war for somebody else.

I'm just a tool over there
to make it happen.

A dog is a tool,

but I communicate to them
like a fucking...

Like an energy, like a soul.

We're in this together.

If I'm sending you into this
situation, I'm going with you.

Like if you look in the eyes
of most of these dogs,

I don't look at them as product.

I look at them as these souls
that are working for me.

We might think of
dogs as sort of occupying now

a border species,
but it's almost a border species

between animal and human.

You know, when people say,
like, you know my...

I think of my pets as my child.

But you wouldn't castrate
your child, or you wouldn't

force your dog to always
stay indoors like some of

my friends do with their cats
because they don't like the fact

that their cats really
want to go outside and hunt.

So on the one hand,
we say, you know, increasingly

animals are just like people,
but on the other hand,

if that's the case,
then we don't have the right

to buy them, sell them,

and inflict our desires on them.

I call that the pet keeper's paradox.

The more we think of animals
as autonomous creatures,

the less rights
we should have them as pets.

They do have a soul, whatever that,

I don't want to give
religious connotations,

but they do have, there's something

going on in there, you know,
that's not totally predictable.

They're sentient beings.

And then what we do is
for our own pleasure is

we impose our moral sense on them.

And, you know, to me, that's
something that I struggle with.

Let's call it what it is.

Let's don't call it guardianship.

Let's don't call it friendship.

Let's call it ownership.

I did not.

Because the form that I saw

did not have all of this congestion on it.

It was very clean.

I, you know, I don't, I can't say that.

I don't know.

I'm just saying that in that moment,

the only thing I could think of is Diesel.

The only thing I could think of is

how this boy is going to view
his mom and dad.

Here we go again.

More humans that we can't,
that I can't trust.

The court called
the matter of civil action.

DeJonghe versus the city of Detroit.

When he arrived there,
he had the animal release form

signed by the plaintiff
and described what happened,

which was a pretty severe bite
on the plaintiff's mail carrier,

which was the reason for his
transporting the dog.

Plaintiff does admit that
she signed the release form,

which does surrender
her rights and her dog.

That's admitted by her.

That's shown by the exhibit
with her signature.

At the bottom of this form is a paragraph.

"I am relinquishing ownership"

"of the following described animals."

"I will not be able to find
out what happens to the animal"

"after I surrender them."

I would like to swear up and down

until I'm blue in the face
that that's not what I signed.

And it sure as the hell
is not what I was told.

Diesel left here to go
to a 10 day quarantine.

Bottom line.

I think it is fair
to say that my client

consented to her dog being
transported for quarantine.

But that's not what happened.

What happened was the dog was
taken to the euthanasia entrance

and defendant
has provided a series of

instructions to euthanize this dog.

Surrender to ACO, bite case.

Needs HR, which is
a deposition testimony,

should not have removed him.

Yeah, they murdered him.

And he died so fucking scared.

And it's not fair that I live
my life the same way now.

I'm scared of everything.

Everything in my world is

how am I going to protect these boys?

Von Deuce and Luca.

How am I going to protect them
against what happened?

These guys have lived
in four walls their whole life.

My boys, they don't leave their gate.

They do not leave their backyard.

And it's not because they're bad boys.

It's because I'm screwed up.

Thanks to the city.

Thanks to them killing my dog.

Under conditions of
sensory under stimulation.

If you think about humans
who are incarcerated

and are kept in solitary confinement,

I mean, they actually go mad

because of the sensory deprivation

and the system gets overloaded.

I know.

Did you... did she get your
adrenaline going a little?

Yeah. She always gets
my adrenaline going.

This is Bella.

Her nickname is Mrs. Bitey.

She has a distrust of humans
that she has maintained

for 11 years quite stubbornly.

And I respect that about her.

I think I have
a distrust of humans as well.

So.

The expectation that a dog
should be a certain way is,

I think, quite strong in our culture,

that dogs should be friendly,

that they should want to be petted.

I have to kind of stand between her

and approaching people and just say,

"She'd rather not be touched by you."

I call it the Me Too movement for dogs.

I'm a bioethicist.

So all day long,
I'm writing about the ethics of

our relationships with
and interactions with dogs.

I've been interested
in the animals that we see

the most and think about
the least, which are pets.

You know, one thing that
I find really interesting about

human dog relationships is
our expectations.

About 80% of dog owners say

their dog has a behavior problem.

So we're going to ask our
dogs not to bark, not to shed,

not to roam, not to sniff butts,

not to hump.

There's this whole list of
things that we find troubling.

But those are all natural dog behaviors.

People think, well,
you give a dog a nice soft bed

and a bowl of kibble and veterinary care.

Isn't that all they
could ever want and need?

But the one thing that
you are not giving them is

the ability to be a dog.

Dogs are highly social mammals,

but it's normalized for dogs
to be intensively honed.

If you say to people
that their dog is captive,

they get their back up.

But if you think about it,

most dogs can't go where
they want, when they want.

They have to eat when we say,
what we say.

It's not so different from
an animal being in a cage.

There just aren't bars
that are so easy to see.

If you take in that your dog
is a captive animal,

with me in relation to Bella,

it made me think, okay then,
I have a responsibility to do

as much as I can to give her freedom

and make her less captive.

I've had people say sort
of sarcastic comments like,

"Oh, that dog is walking you,"

as if that's a bad thing.

And I say, yes, indeed.

That's just the way I like it.

You could imagine somebody
saying, well, my dog doesn't

care about walks and doesn't
care about just being

in the house all day.

But I say, well, that might be true,

but I'm not sure the dog has a good life.

We're going to go to Heinz
Drive and see if we can find

a spot that is quiet
with no people and animals.

And we're going to attempt
to walk these two horses

for the first time in their life,

in their five years of life.

Just go out, see something
more than their backyard.

Lucy, this is not working here.

You have him good, Tom?

Okay, hurry.

Boys!

Luca.

Okay, Luca,
something's wrong with Luca.

Shit. Oh, shit.

Oh, shit. Get the doosie.

Here, here, here.

Luca. Luca.

Chill.

And you think I could do two?

Luca. Luca.

You need to take this time
and enjoy yourself, Bubba.

Act normal.
We might do it more than once.

Uh.

Okay, come on. Let's walk a little while.

Want to run with him a little bit?

Yeah, just make sure that harness is not

going to slip over his elbows.

Okay.

Look at Luca.

So happy to see his bop-bops.

In his backyard, yeah.

But not out in public, no.

These boys, they don't know adventure.

You know, I always used
to make a joke that

when Delilah and Sage would
take a walk around Tecumseh,

it's like they went to Paris and back.

When someone comes over,

Von Deuce will sniff them
from head to toe.

It's almost like his way of traveling.

Come on.

My blood sugar's going to nothing.

Never.

Maia, Maia, Maia, Maia, Maia.

Hey, come on over here, Maia, Maia.

Come on, sit down, sit down.

Mr. Finley, Mr. Finley, sit down.

Sit down. Daphne, sit down.

Okay, this is their vegan turkey.

We don't have any meat in the house,

but we have this fake stuff.
I don't eat it, they eat it.

And see, this is domestication.
I'm oppressing them right now.

Are you feeling oppressed?

Good boy.

Would you sit down?

I guess I would describe
myself as a radical.

On the other hand,
I would also say that my ideas

make perfect common sense
and that most people,

if they thought about it,

would agree with me,
at least a good part of the way.

The Abolitionist Approach
is an animal rights theory

that I have developed.

It is a theory that requires
that if you regard animals

as having moral value,
that is, not being things,

you have an obligation to stop
eating them, wearing them,

using them, and you should
conduct your life

in a nonviolent way
and not discriminate against

any sentient beings,
human or nonhuman.

Come on. One aspect of
The Abolitionist Approach is

that we should eliminate domestication.

This is Duncan. Say hello, Duncan.

Hello. Um, Duncan came from a shelter

in northern New Jersey,
a city called Newark.

Lovely dog, as you can see, very loving.

And Duncan was found almost dead.

Someone had taped his face shut

so that he could not eat or drink.

This dog was very, very badly
abused, very badly abused.

Finley is a white sheltie.

White shelties are obtained
by breeding gray shelties

or merle shelties together,

and you sell them for a lot of money.

And the problem is, 25% of every
litter is blind, deaf, or both.

Finley is both deaf and blind.

The person who had him was
going to drown him,

and we said, no, no, we'll take him.

We've had blind dogs before.
We've had deaf dogs before.

We've never had one
that's blind and deaf.

People think that I don't like dogs.

I love dogs. That's not the point.

I adore all of them,
but they're things I own.

If I decided right now
that I want to take this dog

to a shelter, I would sign a waiver,

and it says, "If we can't
find a home for this dog",

"you give us permission...
You're transferring ownership,"

"and we have the right to kill the dog."

So when people say, well,
you know, they're my children.

I regard them as family members.

Yeah, I understand that.

Some people do, but as I said,

that's more fetishistic than
it is a statement that has

any cultural significance at all,

because as far as
our culture is concerned,

as far as our law is concerned,

as far as our social thing, they're not.

They are things that we own.

Maggie, be quiet.

Please. He's trying to film.

See, that's the thing,
you know, you don't want him

to bark, you don't want him
to disturb people.

It's like their entire life is controlled by us.

When they eat, when they sleep,
when they drink,

when they go outside,
when they go for walks,

how they go for walks,

you know, it really is,
I think it's just despicable.

If I let them go today,

they would all get sick,
they would run over by cars.

They're not able to function
the way wolves are.

We removed a lot of their
animality, and we've done that

so that we can make them
subservient to us,

and so we do with other animals too,

with cows, pigs, chickens,
everything else.

So we want them to be docile
and able to be manipulated.

I think that the whole
process is just wrong.

Never, ever, ever have
I heard an argument in favor of

domestication that makes any sense.

The best one that you get is,

well, dogs domesticated
themselves, which is nonsense.

Wolves came close to humans
because they got food,

and they alerted humans to intruders,

so it was mutually beneficial.

But if you're telling me
that what animals contracted for

was to be bred to be.

Malteses or pugs, that's ridiculous.

Hello Pet Con,

we have doctor Cathy Lund of City Kitty.

Love is a very funny word
to use in this context

because a lot of people
who participate in dog shows,

for example, they love their
dogs, but if you ever start

talking to them about not
producing breeds that have

particular health issues,

they're going to get pretty upset with you.

We fetishize these animals.

They don't belong in this world.

They're completely at your mercy.

She loves to work.

You catch her going to
the closet and pick dresses.

She seems to like pink and red the most.

Yes, he's very intellectual.
He loves books.

He's now on his second book,

and he has over 4 million
followers across all platforms.

Give me a kiss.

You know, there's a saying that

no one wants to see
a picture of your baby,

but everyone wants to see
a picture of your dog.

I'd like to think of myself

as a morally sensitive animal owner,

but I am still an animal owner.

The best that I can do is to be
a benign slaveholder, basically.

And benign slavery is still violent.

Dogs are wonderful friends.
They are wonderful friends.

That doesn't mean it's okay
to continue to produce them

to be friends for us.

The dogs that have good lives
in this world,

a small fraction...

Diesel was born in hell.

He was being starved.

He was laying on a concrete floor.

I witnessed him being kicked
by workers with work boots,

shoved in a little baby crate,
and they used

to hit the top of the crate with a stick,

and their mentality was
to make him mean,

to make him a guard dog.

Over time, Diesel learned
that he could trust me because,

let's face it, the poor dog
went through so much

in the first part of his life,
and then he could finally relax.

He picked his human, Mama.

Humans are barbarians.

We're barbarians.

Not all of us do.

That's her ankle,
where Amy's dog bit her.

In my view, it looked kind of
bad, to be honest with you,

but it wasn't to the level of serious

and permanent disfigurement.

I, Caroline Elizabeth Sholts',
during my hospitalization,

I underwent multiple operations,

an infection of skin graft

and surgical staples.

I underwent physical
therapy for four months.

The vicious attack was
a very traumatic experience.

That she had rescued him from
abusive situation.

He'll commonly go for the ankles.

That she would be putting the dog down.

The animal control officer said,
that dog destroyed, mutilated,

mutilated the mail lady.

She'll never walk again.

She'll never work again.

Am I happy that she was bit by my dog?

No.

Any dog that bites, it's wrong. I get it.

But you can't take
the instinct from a dog.

A dog is a dog.

Amy was entitled
to a legal proceeding,

and it was not, as a legal
matter, a fait accompli,

that the dog would be euthanized
following the legal proceeding.

Euthanize a dog within hours,
no. It's against the law.

You can't just pull the plug like that.

Boom.

Humans are at fault.

Somewhere along the line,
that dog got let down.

Had rescued him from
an abusive situation.

Plaintiff does admit that
she signed the release form.

I'm relinquishing
ownership of property.

You have a dog that has been
treated as such,

and will never forget it.

It will never forget it.

Just like my experiences overseas,

I'll never forget it constantly...

Right? Constantly keeps going.
Constantly keeps going.

So what she probably

needed to do, was create
a different foundation,

give it less space
to make its own decision.

The reasoning why
that dog bit somebody,

it's because of the energy of the owner.

That person, it runs down leash.

Once again, it's bullshit what they did.

Don't get me wrong.

But, big picture wise,

is was that lady going to be
able to turn anything around?

I don't know.

Probably not.

Three weeks,
it's going to be five years.

And there's not a day
that goes by I don't cry.

Some nights I lay in bed,
trying to fall asleep,

and I just watch his videos.

I'm going to get you.

He was so smart.

♪ When it all goes to hell ♪

♪ Will you still be my friend?

And I loved him so much.

♪ My face to the sea
and my back to the land ♪

I'm sorry.

♪ If you can't come with me ♪

♪ I'll understand ♪

♪ I'll understand ♪

I need to get a tissue.

♪ The end of the world
at the palm of my hand ♪

♪ When it all goes to hell
will you still be my friend ♪

♪ If you can't come with me
I'll understand ♪

When they came to me with this one,

very seriously,
I said, are you guys kidding?

What? Seriously?

You want me to try to
get a bill passed into law

that will put a lawyer in court
to represent the animal?

Wow.

Nobody is doing this.

No one in the world is doing it.

Today Representative Urban testified

at a hearing of her bill
named Desmond's Law.

This would make Connecticut
the first state that would allow

animal advocates in a courtroom
during animal cruelty cases.

I'm an advocate for animal victims.

It's a third voice to speak to the court

to articulate that animal's position.

For the purposes of these hearings,

I've asked that the animal advocates

speak on behalf
of the animals in this case.

The idea that animals are simply property

is already being questioned.

It's being questioned
in our society, socially,

and it's being questioned in the law.

Animals are not just personal property.

They are members of our families.

They live, they breathe,

and they suffer just like you and I do.

The animals do not have a voice,
so we are their voice.

So we do make all the court cases.

We're there to make sure
that they follow through.

Desmond's Army
is an amazing group of activists

who follow animal cruelty cases.

They signal to the court that
there are members of the public

who care about these cases
and care about their outcomes.

In today's case,
the defendant was charged

with animal cruelty
towards 31 cats and a dog

that were found in his house
in various states of neglect.

The defendant argued that the offenses

were not so serious and eventually,

if they don't re-offend,
have their charges dismissed.

The buildup of feces,
urine, and vomit indicates

the defendant failed
to maintain the home

for a significant period of time.

Defendant also chose to amputate
one of his cat's paws at home

rather than take him to a vet.

This left the cat's legs deformed

and in need of total amputation.

Just by having an advocate there
gets a court used to thinking

about these animals
not as simply property,

which is where they lie right now legally,

but as something more.

Innocent animals that don't have
a voice, that can't say, ouch.

Animals were starving, dying, suffering.

This court cannot find that this crime

is not of such a serious nature.

It is of a serious nature.

One of the most significant
things that happened today

was the judge acknowledging
that animals are voiceless

and that they can't say,
ouch, and that was huge.

I think the way to get our courts to see

that we really, really
care about these animals

is to deem them sentient beings.

Once we start to give legal
representation to a dog

or a cat or a bunny or whatever,

now we're starting to say
that animal is not property.

It really is an incremental step
towards the advancement

of animals perceived as legal persons.

No, because the dog is...

The dog is someone else's property.

That person has abused that property

in some way that violates the law.

And, um, I don't... I just...

This is the sort of thing
which is being touted

as some sort of great advancement.

I'm sorry, Hendrick, I just don't see it.

I really don't, and I just don't see it.

You know, it's like... It's sort of, like...

There's something else
that has been popular recently

called an animal abuse registry.

Have you run across that in your... Yeah.

An animal abuse registry is,

if you have done something
cruel to an animal,

you have to register
in the way you would have to

if you were a pedophile or something.

And I find that bizarre, too, because, um

we're all... I mean, animal abuse,

we're all guilty of animal...

Anybody who's not a vegan
is guilty of animal abuse.

I mean, we're all
participating... you know...

People who are not vegans
are directly participating

in the exploitation of nonhuman animals.

So then we take this person
who's done a particular thing

to a dog or cat, and you say,

you're a particularly bad...
You're a bad person morally.

I think that has the effect
of sort of making the rest of us

feel that we're not abusers.

You, you are the person who did
something to the dog and cat.

You're a bad person,

and you should be treated
as equivalent to a pedophile.

The rest of us
who engage in animal abuse,

we're good people because we
don't do it to dogs and cats.

I think some people might look
at that as a step forward.

I look at it as a hopeless expression

of the moral schizophrenia

that just completely surrounds
all of our dealings

with nonhuman animals.
It makes no sense whatsoever.

To me, it makes no sense whatsoever.

When we look at
our relationships with animals,

we see glaring inconsistencies.

For example, poll after poll
after poll has found that

most Americans will say
they agree to the question

animals should have the same
rights as humans to live.

But yet, 95% of Americans eat animals.

I don't know how many people
I know who say,

I love animals, I love my dogs so much,

and as they're biting into
a juicy hamburger.

I'm like, I'm glad
you don't love me that much.

If we were to decide tomorrow
that dogs are nonhuman persons,

wow, where does that leave us
with chickens and pigs and cows?

It would open up,
to use a speciesist expression,

a can of worms.

People might be willing to say,

yeah, my dog deserves an advocate,

but it's a whole other thing
for people to accept the idea

that an animal
has rights to not be harmed.

I think it frightens people
because with legal person hood

comes a forced reckoning
with our use of animals.

Dogs are sort of an ambassador species

to thinking about animals differently.

People, you know,
are increasingly thinking

that it's wrong to euthanize
a dog for behavioral reasons

because we're violating their right to live.

Well, once you go there,

then you've opened the door
to other species.

My ideal solution for animals

would be that
they have legal person hood

and standing in court
based on that person hood,

and that they can enforce rights
to not be harmed,

to be free of captivity,
to be free of assault.

I can tell you as a lawyer,
law doesn't lead social change

and social thinking. Law follows.

So as long as most of us think
that it's morally okay

to exploit animals,

then there's never going to
be any legal change.

We need a moral paradigm shift.

I could see a world in which

when we start taking pets seriously,

that we decide that
it's unethical to have pets,

that we will look back
on pet keeping as a

as something that we don't do anymore

because we're not doing
the animals right.

In my idea, the dog
would have the status

of any person that you can talk about,

that he would be a sentient
being that would have rights.

And we would then see
that animal as someone.

Not something, but someone.

That's a strange one.

Ethical to have a dog.

I don't think I can answer that.

Maybe, um...

Maybe rephrase that, counselor.

♪ You got my attention, baby ♪

♪ And I can't make a move ♪

♪ Like a child that's starved for love ♪

♪ I'll stay there as long as I have to ♪

♪ I'll cry a river of tears ♪

♪ That flows to the sea ♪

♪ Baby, if you run away ♪

♪ Baby, if you leave ♪

♪ I'm so in love with you, girl ♪

♪ You make me feel brand new ♪

♪ Come on, give it up to me ♪

♪ Let me take care of you ♪

♪ I know that your mama said ♪

♪ I'm gonna make you cry all night ♪

♪ I'll cry a river of tears ♪

♪ That flows to the sea ♪

♪ Baby, if you run away,
Baby, if you leave ♪