I knew that we were watching Earthlings, a documentary about animal abuse, but it was far more graphic than what I expected.
This movie is not for the weak-hearted people
This movie is not for the weak-hearted people
I got to be honest. When people say the word "animal abuse," I used to think to myself, "What animal abuse?" and scoff at them. When my friends listed some of the examples of animal abuses, and I justified myself by classifying them as rare and extreme cases that have been generalized for the sake of propaganda. There was no way people could be so cruel to animals...
Earthlings served as a shocking awakening. How naive I was to think that animal abuse does not exist!! The documentary revealed some of the most abhorrent scenes that I have ever witnessed: people mercilessly slitting throats of cows; cutting pigs' ears, teeth, and tails; and killing chickens by stepping on them. Even though I never could stand blood, some of the scenes in the documentary were too gruesome to watch without cringing. Sometimes I even had to look away from the screen because I couldn't take the cruelty.
I felt very uneasy about eating meat after watching half of Earthlings. At this time, I have to make a confession, though. I felt uncomfortable about eating meat not because they were abused, but because they were raised in such unsanitary conditions. When I witnessed the way factory workers and farmers treat my food, I grew sick at the thought of eating such meat. Especially when I saw all the deformities on the pigs, I lost my appetite for pork. 
Poor pigs are getting hacked to death...
Poor pigs are getting hacked to death...
I can kind of understand why farmers are so cruel to the animals. The farmers consider animals as assets rather than living things. To the farmers, these animals are capitals that rake in profits and nothing more. Plus, they are going to die anyway, so why should the farmers treat the animals well? Another aspect is that humans are just cruel animals. In the documentary, you can see some workers cracking up and laughing as they step on live chickens. Some people must genuinely enjoy having dominance of animals and ultimately killing animals.
Just as I was shocked and shamed by the way we treat our animals, Germans must have been disgusted by the way they treated Jews in concentration camp. I bet that they still considered themselves to be superior to them, but they were disgusted by the way they treated Jews. Perhaps that is why Germans for a long time were ashamed by this time period and hushed about it just as we do not discuss the conditions at the meat factories.
Honestly I am quite disturbed by what I witnessed on Thursday and do not look forward to watching the rest of the movie.
