The fox and the calf
To accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil. — Dr. Martin Luther King , Jr.
I came across the documentary Earthlings somewhere on Face Book, which is sort of amazing considering I’ve been interested (some might say mildly obsessed) with animal issues for most of my life and had never heard of it. Earthlings is the brainchild of a guy named Shaun Monson. An animal lover like myself, his path to video began with his creation of a series of PSA’s for his local animal shelter in L.A. The footage he shot there so moved him he committed himself to a six-year project to expose the suffering animals endure at the hands humans — including the suffering in factory farming, fur and leather production, vivisection, animal testing, hunting, sports, and entertainment. It is a groundbreaking piece of work that has since been nicknamed the “vegan maker” by many who have viewed it.
To say this film is horrific is putting it mildly. I have only been able to watch the trailer, which can easily be viewed at Shaun’s website earthlings.com, or his Face Book page (which has almost 20,000 fans). I’m not new to shocking videos about animal abuse, but Earthlings is, well, a whole different animal. Some of the images are so intensely painful I broke into uncontrollable sobs. People on Shaun’s Facebook page report crying for days after watching the movie. Many say they felt physically ill. Some could only watch half of it, and most have sworn-off animal products forever. The video is life changing, especially for people who think the whole vegetarian/vegan/PETA gig is just a bunch of bleeding hearts who can’t stand the idea of animals being killed. If only that were the case. Animals in the world are beaten, tortured, and butchered alive, not secretly in creepy small towns, but in licensed, regulated industries.
For me (and seriously this is the paragraph you might want to skip) the most shocking image of the Earthlings trailer comes in a section of undercover footage of a Chinese fur farm. It shows a worker standing on the body of what appears to be a fox. The fox is alive and struggling, but the worker pays it no mind. He efficiently makes a slice across the fox’s body near its hind quarters and then, with great effort, proceeds to pull its skin, fur and all, from its flesh. Remember the fox is alive. At one point, the flesh resists, but the strong, well trained worker puts a bit more muscle into it, and the job is soon complete. The animal is thrown into a pile with others that have suffered its same fate, all skinless, many still alive. The camera goes in for a close-up to show the fox’s bloodied, raw face, mouth agape and panting, wild eyes still blinking. Where moments ago there was soft fur, now is only white fat, exposed muscle, and blood.
“Why do you watch stuff like that,” is often the comment I get when I mention, not in detail mind you but simply mention, the horror of these videos. I posted the trailer of Earthlings on my Facebook page and I can say by the response I got, no one watched it. The clip of the fox is currently what keeps me up at night. It has replaced the clip of the calf born on a filthy feedlot. It is literally moments old, wet and glistening with the birth cord still hanging from its body. A worker waits for just a moment before walking up and grabbing the calf by one leg. He drags its steaming, new body away through mounds of shit in the lot, it’s bawling mother trotting along behind. You see, feedlots are no place for babies. They are the fattening pens used in the last stages of beef production before slaughter. The calf is unwanted. The mother will soon be dead.
So why would I spend my time exposing myself to horrors I could easily avoid. Why subject myself to things so intensely awful and so out of my control? For me the answer comes so simply it renders these questions mute. Looking away is not an option. I believe in the connection between me and every other living thing on the planet, and in that connection lies an inherent responsibility to continually engage myself in the world in whatever way I can. What’s more, this connection links me not only to the pain and suffering of all living things, but to the solutions as well. Every choice I make has an impact on something in the world, and if I am not doing all I can to make a difference, I am as responsible for the problem as the man skinning the fox. There is no turning away. Once I start telling myself that lie – the lie that says if I don’t see it, it’s not happening – I have removed myself not only from the problem, but from the solution as well.
The images of the fox and the calf keep me honest. They remind me that I am no more and no less important than anything else. The raw, blinking eyes are mine. The calf is mine, too, and both have broken my heart wide open.
