Earthlings

Earthlings (2005) is a multi-award winning documentary about our dependence on animals and is a must-see for any consumer in need of an empathy injection. Written and directed by Shaun Monson, the film explores the idea of speciesism and moral suffering. Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix narrates what has been called a much needed update of The Animals Film, an 80s documentary narrated by Julie Christie.

Speciesism (comparative to racism and sexism) is treating animals as objects to our own benefit, without regard for their most important interests. The word “earthling” means one who inhabits the earth, both human and animal. To fully experience this film, try to imagine that you are the animals in the footage. Combine your creativity and empathy to see and feel from their point of view and consider your role as a consumer in their suffering. 

Many people in society are sheltered from this information and still have the idyllic fairytale farm image that animals die without pain. Living in a society that presumably upholds standards of respect, integrity, and honesty, it is important that films such as Earthlings are shared to prove the overwhelming hypocrisy we live in.

Moby’s soundtrack is appropriate for the tone of the film and adds to the consumer’s ability to feel something while watching the heartbreaking footage. Phoenix’s narration is soft spoken and empathetic to the animals being abused at the hands of the human species. We do not see ourselves as callous beings, but there is complicity to the needless suffering of animals in our consumer purchases. The film does not include what consumers can do to change this, such as becoming vegan or boycotting fur and leather, but merely shows how the industries work. 

There are five parts to the film: pets, food, clothes, entertainment and science. Phoenix asks many questions that consumers do not normally consider. The viewer may even come to believe that keeping animals as pets is helping exploit a greater number of animals, allowing our taxes go to practices that strip animals of their rights. 

Many consumers have the assumption that animals do not think or feel the same way we do, but there is little we really know about how animals think and feel. If it is true that animals do not think and feel as we do, the consumer has to ask: why do we continue to use them for science and military experiments to benefit our own species? If they do not think and feel as we do, why would these experiments still be useful? 

The film explains that ignorance is the speciesist’s first line of defense and that it can be broken by anyone who has the determination to find the truth. 

“Is it the inability to find the truth or the desire not to know about facts that may lie heavy on ones conscience?” Phoenix asks. 

It is important that consumers can see for themselves how their consumptions negatively impact creatures that we are told to respect and love. The Indian cattle leather trade and Japanese dolphin hunting, whaling and fur camps are particularly disturbing. We do not think about where the material for our jackets and shoes come from. We do not see leather as dead flesh. We do not believe that animals could be purchased solely for their skin. These are things the consumer does not want to know. 

The DVD (unrated) includes deleted scenes, subtitles in ten languages, and two features that document Monson’s difficulty in distributing and marketing a film this honest. Networks that receive billions from the companies that exploit animals cannot air a film that shows what they are really selling. Although the film can be viewed online for free, it is important to support films that bring down the veil and ask for a human culture to feel beyond itself. 

Please buy the DVD. 

"As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behaviour towards 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."

-Isaac Bashevis Singer (Enemies, A Love Story)