A Cow At My Table

Hi! Hope you had a good weekend! : ) Got a fair bit to post about so I'm gonna divide these up into a couple of posts, the first is about the documentary, "A Cow At My Table".  I heard about this online so I thought I'd check it out.  It's a really intelligently made documentary exploring "Western attitudes towards farm animals and meat, and the intense battle between animal advocates and the meat industry to influence the consumer’s mind." It pretty much does what it says on the tin! It juxtaposes images from slaughterhouses and farms with interviews with animal activists like Peter Singer and interviews with farm owners and people in the industry like Livestock Industry Spokesperson Susan Kitchen, manager of Alberta Foundation For Animal Care.

The major issue in the film is the juxtaposition of the point of view of the industry (calling dairy cows "milkers" and hens "layers", talking about them as "producers", on the one hand supposedly able to choose whether they produce or not, and on the other objectifying them as mere parts of a machine "producing" milk for the industry) with the view of the animal activists that the animals are individuals.  The point is also made that the distance in consumers minds from a pint of sterilised milk in a plastic container on a supermarket shelf to the cow that was pumped to "produce" it allows what one woman in the film calls "ethical anaesthesia". I think that is the best turn of phrase I have heard to describe the disconnect in the minds of people who eat these products without thinking about the animals that it comes from, or the conditions they were kept in.

The documentary is very well made, very persuasive in it's arguments against meat eating, and also it doesn't really use images from slaughterhouses that much, except to illustrate the hypocrisy in what the industry spokespeople are saying.  This means that it's not quite as "in your face" as Earthlings for example, but no less compelling.  I found it hard to watch at times, mainly because of the noises of the animals in the farms, and the part about downed cows is just, well unnecessary cruelty and very difficult to accept.  The ending is also highly moving and serves brilliantly to show the futility of the industry.  Obviously it's hard to be objective when watching a documentary like this and in a way, it feels like preaching to the choir, but I'm very glad I watched it, and I would encourage anyone reading this to watch it, and then to show their friends and family too.  It prompted a very interesting discussion between C and me last night and I hope it will do the same for anyone watching it.  You can watch the whole documentary for free online here.

One of the reasons I wanted to watch this documentary is because of a disturbing story I read in Private Eye about slaughterhouse conditions in North Dorset in England and examples of animal cruelty being found that were so bad that a major supermarket chain suspended their contract for meat. "Sainsbury’s decision follows the publication of video footage allegedly gained from the plant in which cows are beaten and shot multiple times in the skull with stun bolts." You can read the full article here.  It makes me really angry when I read something like this, and it actually hurts that there are people who so totally disrespect the lives of the animals that they are killing that they would intentionally inflict pain.  Whether you eat meat or not, there is no excuse for the treatment of these animals that has occured.   Stories like this make me glad that I don't contribute to the industry anymore but make me really sad that this still goes on and that not only are animals killed unnecessarily, but in many cases, extra torment is added to their lives.

Today more than ever, peace and love,
C