The images in the following program are very sensitive and may be as disturbing to viewers as they were to us. However, we have to show the truth about cruelty to animals.

Caring viewers, today’s Stop Animal Cruelty program features the award-winning 2005 documentary on animal suffering “Earthlings” directed by vegan US filmmaker Shaun Monson, co-produced by noted vegan US actresses Persia White and Maggie Q and narrated by Golden Globe- and Grammy-winning vegan actor Joaquin Phoenix. The film features music by the world-famous vegan DJ and musician Moby from the United States.

“Earthlings” has received numerous honors, including the Proggy Award given by the US-based animal welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and the Best Documentary Award in the Animal Advocacy category at the International Artivist Film Festival, held annually in California, USA.

“Earthlings” affects many viewers so profoundly that they immediately decide to adopt the compassionate, plant-based diet. For example, after watching the film professional ice hockey player Georges Laraque of Canada became a vegan and agreed to narrate the French language version.

Popular US talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and Australian actress Portia de Rossi both cite this film as a key reason they decided to become vegan. Snowboarder Hannah Teeter of the United States, a gold and silver medalist in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics respectively, stopped eating meat a year ago following watching Earthlings.

Today in the first installment of our six-part presentation of Earthlings, we’ll learn about the heart-wrenching cruelty perpetrated by the pet industry and about “speciesism,” a concept promoted by Dr. Peter Singer, considered the father of the animal rights movement and author of the 1975 classic “Animal Liberation.”

The images you are about to see are not isolated cases. 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 E A R T H L I N G S

earth-ling: noun. One who inhabits 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, oftentimes 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 weight to the interests of members of their own race when there's 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.

I WILL FEED YOU AND CLOTHE YOU.

Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote in his best-selling novel, “Enemies, A Love Story,” the following.... “ As often as 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. 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, 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.

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.

We would like to thank director Shaun Monson and the others involved in its production for allowing us to air this powerful, moving documentary. Let’s all immediately adopt the loving, organic vegan diet and end the heartless cruelty inflicted on our animal friends so they are allowed to live in peace and happiness.

The DVD edition of Earthlings is available at www.Earthlings.com

Thank you for joining us today on our program. Please watch Part 2 of our six part presentation of Earthlings next Tuesday on Stop Animal Cruelty. Coming up next is Enlightening Entertainment, after Noteworthy News. May the light of Heaven shine on us all.

What if one finds themselves lost in the wilderness? Who can help?

We search for lost and missing people. Our dogs are trained to work wilderness or urban (areas).

Rocky Mountain Rescue Dogs is the oldest, largest, most experienced canine search and rescue group in Utah.

Find out more about how these altruistic teams are assisting their communities on “Devoted Canine Heroes: American Search Dogs and Rocky Mountain Rescue Dogs of Utah, USA” Friday, April 2 on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants.