Earthlings: The Truth Hurts

Yesterday I heard strange music coming from my living room.  I walked out and saw it was coming from the TV.  Then I saw it was the documentary Earthlings. 

“Shit,” I said.

My boyfriend grinned and said, “Time to get back on the program.”

Earthlings is a movie I’ve been avoiding for the last year.  I’ve known about it, what it’s about and that it would most likely make me cry.  Very hard.  I’m already a crier as it stands, so I don’t need things necessarily to bring me to extended moments of empathy.  I even tried watching it earlier this year and couldn't make it through the first section on pets.

I eat a mainly vegan diet at home, although I’ve been super lax with eating meat, fish and dairy while out or at friends houses.  Eating veganish or let’s say about 80% of the time just makes me feel better than eating anything else.   Dairy makes me feel like crap.  I absolutely love seafood, but I know most of it is ridden with toxins from from pollution, chemical spills, and oil.  And in the last ten years I went from being a carnivore (eating meat at almost every meal) to rarely eating it at all namely because I feel much healthier without it. 

To watch Earthlings is to step outside of yourself as a human being.   To forget about your culture, traditions, desires, what you think you need…and see the real picture.  The cost of our lifestyle on animals, our environment, and lastly, even on ourselves.  It ain’t easy to accept.

Earthlings was more horrific than I imagined.  And I’ve seen some pretty bad stuff from Peta and other places on the web.  But I was not prepared for the extensiveness that this movie goes into.  It’s not only incredibly disgusting, but it’s unbelievably sad.  I kept thinking while I was watching it, this is a real life horror film. 

You cannot watch this movie and not have it change you in some way.  If you think animals are humanely killed, sorry, but you are living in a fantasy world.  You don’t want to know the truth because if you actually saw it, it would probably affect the way you live your life.  Trust me, I’ve been there.  For a long time, I was a major meat eater than gave my vegetarian friends a super hard time about not eating meat.  I just didn't care.  I didn't want to know.

I really don’t know who that person was.

Look, I’m not trying to be preachy.  And I don’t like labeling, I try to avoid as much as possible.  But shit, I just cannot eat meat anymore, or dairy or fish.  And it’s not just the meat industry, Earthlings goes into the fur and leather industry.  It’s disgusting what they do to these animals and then they go around and sell a fur coat for $49k?  Are you kidding me?  It’s ridiculous.  Plus the animal testing is horrific, and don’t even get me started on circus animals.  These are all documented in Earthlings and they're acts of horror that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.

So anyway, I cried for about two hours straight, wondering why Brota turned on this movie right before he was about to leave for work (I think it was on purpose).  He told me, “The truth hurts,” before he left.  And it does.

I just cannot be ignorant anymore.

I have plenty of friends and family who are meat eaters.  I completely understand why they like it, and it’s very much part of our culture here in the U.S.  I guess the reason I’m writing this post is not to ask people to stop eating meat or to stop wearing leather (although, let's be honest, I hope that's the outcome).  I’m asking you to at least watch this movie.  Regardless of what you decide to do, you should know what is really going on in the world because it does affect the way we live.

Earthlings can be seen for free on YouTube.  

Lastly, don’t worry this blog will not turn into a rant about veganism.  I just had to share that this film had an effect on me and I believe it will make a positive impact on my life.  I do think that the more people who see this movie, the better.  We have to take responsibility for our own actions so it wouldn’t be right for me to not share this.