Earthlings
“EARTHLINGS is a powerful and informative documentary about society’s tragic and unforgivable use of nonhuman animals, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix with soundtrack by Moby. Directed by Shaun Monson, this multi-award winning film by Nation Earth is a must-see for anyone who cares about nonhuman animals or wishes to make the world a better place.”
Released in 2005, EARTHLINGS premiered at the Artivist Film Festival and won the Best Documentary Feature. It then went on to win the Best Content Award and Best Documentary Film at the Boston International Film Festival and the San Diego Film Festival respectively.
What is this video that made such an impact on these renowned film recognition boards?
The 95 minute documentary was inspired by Shaun Monson. He’s a writer, producer and director who had previous shot footage of animal shelters within Los Angeles. He did it to produce a series of public service announcements… however, what he saw had such a profound effect on him that he decided to produce what became known as Earthlings.
Notable celebrities like Joaquin Phoenix (the actor from the Gladiators) and Moby then joined the project. Joaquin narrated the entire documentary and Moby featured his music. They are both long-time vegans, and like Sir Paul McCartney, they decided to use their celebrity status for a good cause.
This video covers 5 main parts: Pets, Food, Clothes, Entertainment and Scientific Research. As it was difficult to obtain footage within the relevant industries… the documentary took SIX years to make!
Companies who are within any part of the supply chain of cruelty e.g. puppy mills, slaughterhouses, experimental labs etc have A LOT to hide and A LOT to lose if exposed. With their business being very profitable, they maintain high security measures to keep what they do behind concrete walls and closed doors.
What you see in this video is footage which are mostly obtained using hidden cameras. They show day-to-day practices of some of the largest industries in the world…
When the video was released in 2005, it was nicknamed “the Vegan maker”, because whoever who watched the video with an open heart and mind would, without a doubt, stop participating in the consumption of anything animal-related.
It is also considered to be the definitive animal rights film by organizations all around the world. According to Joaquin Phoenix, “For every one person who sees EARTHLINGS, they will tell three.”
The video is very attention-grabbing and lots of people want to share it because it doesn’t just show lots of gory and scary videos of animals being abused and killed. Instead, it draws similarities with social tragedies such as the Holocaust which if you really think about it… IS THE SAME THING. One particular race overpowers another. The Germans with the Jews. The humans with the cows. The humans with the chickens. The humans with the turkeys. The humans with the elephants. The humans with the pigs etc etc etc…
Some people might say that us humans and animals are different. We all bleed, we all feel pain, we all suffer. Does a dog smile and willingly step into a gas chamber? No living being in their right mind would ever choose to live in captivity if given the option of freedom.
Even between humans, ‘those who are powerful treat the less powerful as if they were mere objects’… with the slaughter of animals, we allow the interest of our own species to ‘override the greater interest of members of the other species’. This is described as Speciesism. We see this more familiarly in modern day racism and sexism.
By eating meat you take away the option of freedom for the animals. By eating meat you allow the blood shed to continue behind concrete walls. By eating meat you send the message that it’s okay for people to grossly profit from killing animals.
Do the 3 photos below look like one big party or the holocaust? They’re cows ready for slaughter.
Please don’t run from reality, watch the film and share your thoughts with other viewers in the comments section. Thank you.
Tsem Rinpoche
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To view on YouTube with subtitles, press the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce4DJh-L7Ys
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To view the video on the server, press the link below:
http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/Earthlings.flv
The film’s official website: http://www.earthlings.com
Dear Rinpoche,
Here is the link to the Earthlings video with Japanese subtitle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thFyxG5_V4c
In everything we do, there is positive and negative effects due to the nature of our existence. It is 100% correct you don’t eat meat. HH the Dalai Lama, the highest authority within Tibetan Buddhism recommends we do not eat meat, so that is all we need to remember. Buddha said, we should not lie, or get attached to drinking, singing, dancing, intimacies,entertainments and that we should spend our energies to become enlightened. Are we doing all die and not just the meat part?? People tend to pick what is convenient from the Buddha’s teachings to suit themselves. If we are going to follow Buddha’s teachings or quote, we may ask are you following everything Buddha says? If you are not, then rejoice when others follow the best they can and as much as they can. Since it is the right path for 21st century Buddhists to follow the no meat path, let’s do it. We have so much variety of food. Let’s eat the no meat diet and get on with our practice and basically compassionately go passed the criticisms. It is very simple, do not kill. So hence animals will not die in front of you to eat them…There is no good karma in eating meat..full stop, but definitely there is good karma refraining from eat. Many of the tantras when engaged in the practice prohibit meat as taught by Vajradhara. Many rituals we do in the great Monasteries prohibit meat so the rituals are more effective…..Many who are not monks or not living in the monasteries would never understand that. Reading from books, net or from dharma centres would never be the same as in the monastery. Again, eating meat does not gather good merits for our spiritual practice, avoiding does. Listen to some of wonderful Tenzin Palmo’s views on not eating meat. She is the great yogini who meditated for the longest time in the mountains.TR
Dear Rinpoche,
Thanks for the link! I shared this on FB this morning and plan to watch it with my husband and daughter this evening. She and I were talking about the fur industry this morning so I know she’ll be interested in this documentary. She’s only 10 and had no idea that animals were skinned for their fur, she thought they were shaved. Being from Louisiana she’s seen plenty of animal skins hung and dried, but she didn’t realize there was a whole industry attached to the practice.
Sincerely,
Jessi Bryant
I hope people will watch and really consider to take up vegetarianism. I notice many people who will feel sad or sorry when they watch this types of videos, but the feeling fades away after that. There are two sides to this scenario: 1. we are compassionate toward others and ourselves, which is an inborn qualities we have, but only realized so until it is awaken; 2. we are too greedy, ignorant and addicted to meat products that it becomes a habitual food consumption which we are too attached to let go. So, in order for us to be who we really are and to deserve a happier and healthier life, it is as simple as making scenario 1. into a habituation and kicking scenario 2. away. We all deserve a better life without living in the consequences due to bad habits. Kicking bad habits is the only way to indulge ourselves in the priceless benefits that follow by “igniting” those good qualities we already have in us.
Just want to know whether your full name is Woon Lai Shan and are you from formerly Temerloh Girls School (SMK Jalan Temerloh). If you are please contact me through my email.
Thanks
I have just finished watching earthlings on Rinpoche’s blog. What I thought before watching and what I thought after watching is different. To see how the animals were slaughtered and how they were being used for various purposes makes my stomach turn upside down. I feel i was the one that was tortured in place of the animals. I am glad I am a full vegetarian and have no regrets. I think its hard for most people to be a vegetarian straight away. It must be done slowly with time where they have to decrease intake of meat slowly. Thanks to Rinpoche I was instructed by Rinpoche two years ago to go vegetarian. And I have no regrets and no problem in doing it.
For anyone who cares for animals with an opened heart and mind, should give up the consumption of meat after veiwing the above “award winning video tape”. Only for people who are somewhat “CARE-less” or perhaps are severely addicted to animals’ meat will not have the heart of compassion to turn Vegeterian. We are human-beings, not cannibals or fanatic meat eaters only confined to flesh and meat adoration irrespective. In accordance to Buddhist practice, the eating of meat is said to be the same as eating the flesh of our own kins or family people, that of our mothers, fathers, children, brothers and sisters. As can be view in the video, how horribly the animals were been abused, tortured, atrociously manhandled, and finally savagely killed and slaughtered for their flesh to satisfy our wanton desires for meat. PLEASE heed our Guru’s advice to, “PLEASE,PLEASE STOP EATING YOUR OWN CHILDREN, PARENTS, RELATIVES, AND FRIENDS FLESH IN THE MEAT THAT IS BEING SERVED TO YOU FOR LUNCH AND DINNER DAILY. GO VEGETARIAN, SAVE FELLOW SENTIENT BEINGS AND SAVE THE WORLD.” As in the golden wisdom words of H.H.The 14th Dalai Lama, “Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to a Man. Just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures.” OM MANI PADME HUM.
I cry and cry my heart out watching this. Like my 6year old niece once said, dont kill animals, we eat biscuits. May Lord Buddha bless all the poor suffering animals.
Dear Rinpoche,
In my life (till yesterday – March 24, 2011), I have always been good at avoiding confrontation, matters and reality. I was given the DVDs “Earthling” by Tat Ming from the very first day I found KECHARA, as my spiritual home and have put it aside as not to watch it as I did not want to know about the suffering that is caused by us (human beings – myself included) to the animals. It is so selfness of me, as i do not want to watch and hear the crying and suffering, as i know i will be suffering when i hear and watch this video.
Last night, I brave myself to watch the video, and was crying my heart out. The killings and the torture of human to the animals is so horrible and inhuman. I was imagining that the animals (dogs, puppies, cows, chickens, fox, bulls, whales, seals, and sharks) were actual in human forms and the human form is in the animal, what will it be then? I can sense and feel the suffering of the animals in their eyes, hear their crying, the pain of being tortured alive, living in non-conducive condition that is so small, closed and dirty. When we read news that shark attack on human, crocodile eating human, human eaten by python, baby/children taken by monkeys etc. ….this is just a minor, comparing we human killing millions of animals for our taste pleasure, entertainment, making us warm and look good (clothing).
Before watching, I was told that this animal was killed without pain and very fast……how stupid and naïve I am….how fast it takes, it is still a life with flesh and bones, and are just like us. Just a cut on my fingers, I will be screaming in pain, what about a slit on your throat, and leave to bleed till it stops, tooth extraction (without pain killers), castration (the poor piglets), marking of trademark on yr ears, face (cows), cut the chicks beak….., tearing the fur/skin from the fox when they are still conscious and leave them exposed without their skin, just flesh, the bull rodeo….tie the genital parts so tight, the torturing and sufferings goes on….
It never occurs to me, and was also told that it is fine as long that we are not the one doing the killing….how selfish I am, passing the blame to butchers. I am actually the butcher, who has directly ordered the killing!!! We are like Hitler….the Jewish Holocaust, sometimes we were worse.
Now I know the true the meaning of being a “vegetarian”, as because of my own self pleasure to taste, the animals is suffering. They have the right to live in their own circumstances, and their society.
Now, I have a strong conviction to be a vegetarian. The crying sound, the images of the eyes of suffering of the animals is so clearly communicated to the viewers, and there is another being that is similar to us, who has flesh, feelings and consciousness, and pleading to us being to stop this act.
By eating animals, we human beings are speciesism, meaning that we are more superior to the other supreme on earth, just like someone being racist, gender dominant and etc. IF we are not, then we should stop this killings and sufferings.
If even it is not because of other beings, as a selfish being we should also stop, as if we think of ourselves only, because of health, we should stop too. As this situation of non-conducive habitants and food technology of fast production, lots of genetic modification, antibiotics are been put onto this food. In addition, the disposal of sick animals, the decomposition is thrown by human into streams/river and eventually flows into the sea, and then intake by the fishes. This phenomenon has occurred and millions of fishes have died. The new virus attacking the fishes is at level 3, whereas Ebola is at level 4. The situation is very serious.
Thank you Rinpoche for this teaching and showing your compassionate to us and all beings, and creating awareness. Rinpoche has consistently emphasize and persistently posting articles on this.
OM MANI PEDME HUM
I shared this video with my staff and it really hit them. One of my Myanmar overseas Chinese staff cried “Hen Kong Pu” (very scary). Reality did not hit them until viewing of this video.