Review for "The Earthlings"

*Video URL (Google video) : http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6361872964130308142#

                  How much do humans owe animals? Some might say “very much.” Perhaps, some others might say life without animal is impossible. However, the truth beyond this question is more serious than we usually think. It is pretty implausible to imagine our life without the products made out of animal skin. Moreover, it is difficult for average people to accept vegetarian life.

Literally, humans have defined animals as friends from the ancient times. Dogs were friendly companions, and courageous hunters. Today, annually 50,000 dogs are abandoned in the U.S alone. Dolphins were respected for their intelligence and wisdom for a long time, but the fishing industry in Japan kill them for meet and skin, without any merci. The animals with “good quality” furs are captured in massive number, and slaughtered. Cows provide milk for humans, but now humans ‘extract’ milk from them, locking them up in cages. Similarly, numerous species are suffering since human need has altered into greed. With advanced technologies, humans started to utilize animals for their desire, over the reasonable need.

                  However, how many of us fully understand this situation? People don’t care where the meats on the dinner table came from, and what kinds of animals were used for their fur coat. What we only see are products: the final results. No one of us wants to know about animal murder scenes, where an uncomfortable truth is prevalent. It’s too easy to overlook human cruelty towards animals. However, we should recognize animals as same, respected creatures on the earth. People should make efforts to view animals not as property, but as dignified beings the same as humans. In the documentary “Earthlings,” there are several cases where animals are treated as no more than commodities.

                  “The Earthlings” introduces the real scenes of animal ‘utilization’ by human. The film is started with one impressive, strong argument: all men are Nazis toward animals. The first part is about pets. The documentary asks us how owning and being companions can be same. It shows the pet stores and puppy mills, where dogs, cats, and other pet animals are locked in filthy, overcrowd cages. The film also talks about the euthanasia matter: do we really address animal’s need by so-called ‘comfortable death’? Animals are also lively beings, precious creatures, the same earthlings as humans. We don’t have the right to own animals, and judge their death.

                  In the second food section, the documentary directly shows the slaughterhouse scenes which were recorded by hidden camera. It says: “we would all be vegetarians if we had to kill our own meet.” In the slaughterhouse, humans decide everything over animals. The branding, dehorning, transporting, milking, bleeding, poultry, debeaking… in every process, animals don’t have any voice. Animals cannot resist to humans. Humans force animals, threaten them with electric shock, steel stick, and others. Surely, these processes cause serious problem for animals. In the slaughterhouse, they can’t even fulfill natural instincts, sometimes suffer from mental disorder, live in harsh, dirty environments, and are later slaughtered. The film says: “slaughterhouses have opaque architecture, designed to insure that we’ll not see even if we wanted to look. And who wants to look inside?”

                  In the next segment, the documentary illuminates the clothes making process, where animals die for their skin. There is one thing people forget too often: leather is dead skin. After the animals are skinned, then their meet becomes food for other animals, which are destined to be sacrificed for leather and furs. This is an endless vicious circle that consists of human greed. The next segment is about entertainment. In this section, the documentary reminds us of one important, but not a nice fact: humans are often most detestable creatures, which often enjoy the pain of other creatures. The video introduces bullfighting and circuses. At stadiums for entertainment, the animals suffer from human’s greed. They are forced to do unnatural behaviors, like jumping into the fire ring. In the case of bullfighting, they should die at the end of the show, just for human entertainment. The animals which are ‘used’ for human entertainment, shackled in chains for 95% of their whole life.

                  In the last part which covers the animal experiences in science, the documentary shows images of medical experiments and vivisections on animals. Through these five sections, “The Earthlings” conveys one essential message: treating animals as property is the same as biting the hand which feed us. What goes around comes around. If we don’t feel the problem of mass slaughter and owning of pets, someday we will be the only, lonely beings on the earth. The film argues the dignity of animals with vivid video clips of maltreatment by humans. Especially, the film stimulates our pathos by showing uncensored images of slaughtering, animal experiments, skinning, and other terrible animal abuse. Looking at the animals which mourn in pain and despair, we understand the bloody greed of humans. Moreover, the film used dark, gloomy background music and serene narrative voice tone to amplify the effect of the video.

While “The Earthlings” focuses itself on the transmission of pathos, its logic is also very strong. How can humans decide the fate of other creatures, since human beings are also one part of the creatures on the earth? The ability of thinking doesn’t symbolize the superiority of humans over animals. Rather, we should use our ability to preserve animal species. Animals also have the right to live freely, not to be owned by anyone else. This logical appeal is on the prolongation of abolitionist’s opinion on animal rights. The abolitionist approach to animal rights maintains that all sentient beings, humans or nonhumans, have one right: the basic right not to be treated as the property of others. [1] The abolitionists called animal rights groups as "new welfarist," arguing that their intervention related to various animal rights risks making the public feel more comfortable about its use of animals, because they think owing animals and treating them properly doesn’t make sense. [2]

Animal rights expert, Tom Regan also argues the dignity of animals. He introduced “Subject-of-a-life” concept for every creature, claiming ‘inherent value.’ If this is the true basis for ascribing inherent value to individuals, to be consistent we must ascribe inherent value, and hence moral rights, to all subjects-of-a-life, whether human or non-human. According to him, humans should treat animals in a proper way: like they do to infants, who are no more than animals. The basic right of all who possess inherent value have, he argues, is the right never to be treated merely as a means to the ends of others. [3]

                  Lastly, we should seriously consider whether we really need animals for our life. The development of synthetic fiber, and other alternatives for the animal products enabled us a life without slaughtering animals. Owning and killing of animals for human need was excusable in the past, when human’s technology was not fully developed to replace animal products. Now farmers use machines instead of cows, clothing companies invented numerous synthetic fibers, and veganism has proven not harmful. Since humans accomplished the techniques which enable the life without animals possible, using animals for their fur or meat is no more than greed.

                  In conclusion, human should learn to treat animals more respectfully. Although the life without animals and animal products is hard to be imagined, logically there is no right for humans to own animals. “The Earthlings” shows how our greed completely destroyed the rights and life of animals. And the abolitionist’s view and Tom Regan’s perspective represent the animal’s right not to be owned by anyone. Plus, we should learn a way of life without animals, since human technologies overcame the need of animals in human life. We should remember, from these various examples, that there is no reasonable excuse for humans to ‘own’ animals.

Bibliography

1. Animal rights: abolitionist’s approach URL http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/about/
2. Wikipedia Article: “Abolitionism (animal rights)” URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism_(animal_rights)
3. Wikipedia Article: “Tom Regan” URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Regan

02 15 2011 Chag Woo Jung
AP Lang @ KMLA