Our
ancestors began eating meat as early as 1.5 million years ago. It is our
instinctive, animal desire to prey upon other animals on earth. Humans have
hunted and used other animals for clothing, and many other purposes. Since
then, our perception about animal rights has improved a lot. However, the tradition
of eating meat and using animals has barely changed. A documentary “Earthlings”
addresses the issue of our ancient tradition of a mainly meat diet, along with
other animal abuses. While some people acclaim this movie, many others oppose
the ideas presented. Although I could agree with many arguments that this documentary
made, the method used is not very satisfactory.
First,
I want to point out the issue of adhering to the emotional appeal. Like many
animal rights organizations and activists, this documentary tries to persuade people
through emotional approaches, not with factual data and logical reasoning. This
documentary barely uses logic, but only uses shock therapy through selected
footages. The problem is that emotional approaches can be misleading. Actually,
the question of whether eating meat is harmful or beneficial for human beings,
animals, and the environment is very substantial and needs to be addressed
prudently. Other than emotional aspects, there are many other aspects that we
need to consider. Some people actually argue that eating a moderate amount of
meat is healthy for the environment. For instance, animals kept on small farms
also produce benefits such as fending off predators and pests and fertilizing
soil. Also, meat diet can be healthier. Many scientists and doctors say that
humans cannot live without consuming protein, and we need to eat meat which
contains complete protein. Plant proteins are incomplete which means they do
not contain all of the amino acids needed by the human body. Also, meat is
highly efficient, which means that it cancels out the resources that were used
to produce meat. The documentary failed to deal with these oppositions.
In
my personal opinion, the act of using animals for purposes like getting meat or
leather itself should not be blamed. Even animals eat and hunt other animals
for food and other reasons like territories. Also, any people or documentary does
not have the right to force people to become vegetarians or vegans. Just as we
can’t force lions and cheetahs to become vegetarians because it is not right to
kill another living creature, we can’t force people to stop eating meat because
we think it is wrong.
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| The example of corporate ranching |
However,
humans are different from animals that we are way over the limit. Using the
shocking imagery and video clips, Earthlings successfully conveys the message
that humans have crossed the line. In this movie, human beings exhibit total
disrespect towards the animals. Human beings raise thousands of animals in a
cage without allowing them any free space, and treat them unethically in the
process of raising. Although using animals for our good might be justified,
these acts cannot be justified at all. I fully agree with the documentary on
the point that corporate ranching and inhumane practices are terrible and
should be put to an end immediately.
The
essence of the points made in this movie is not that we should stop take
advantage of animals at all, but pointing to the fact that we are lacking basic
respect for the species on earth other than human. The movie calls this
attitude as “speciesism” and asserts that our unconscious sense of superiority should
stop, and people need to start respect all animal species. I definitely agree
that “speciesism” needs to stop. The famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy said
that “As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.” Our
unconscious superiority against animals translates into racism and disrespect
for other human beings. Speciesism and Racism share the same root, which is
disregarding another creature. If people stop treating animals as inferior
beings and start to treat them with respect, problems like racism and war will
also be improved.
Nothing
is good in an extreme level. It is too extreme to say that we should stop
killing animals for any purposes. Not getting benefit from animals at all would
be just at unnatural as exploiting animals. It would create many side effects.
We should remind that issues like eating meat and using animal skins were not a
big problem 1000 years ago. Now, it’s a huge problem. The difference is that we
are exploiting animals now. Although our perception of animal rights has
improved, humans still possess speciesism, which a belief that human beings are
above other animal species. The documentary “Earthlings” shows humans treating
other animal speices as inferior beings and ignoring their rights through real
video footage. Although the documentary “Earthlings” clearly has a limit that it
lacks a logical approach to the issue, it is a good documentary which raises
our awareness of the issue.
