Nauseous, confused, helpless, angry, distraught – this is how I felt after viewing the first part of the Joaquin Phoenix-narrated and Shaun Monson-directed documentary Earthlings. I came to class naively thinking I was prepared to watch the film; even excited at the prospect of getting to watch a movie in school – as if I was back in 5th grade or something. Little did I know, my life was about to change forever.
The image that made me realize this would be no ordinary documentary, no happy-go-lucky film will probably remained burned in my memory forever: a stray dog picked up by men and tossed – without a second thought – into a trash compactor, crushed to death. ‘How,’ I asked myself, ‘can anyone be so cruel?!’ I soon watched as act after act of cruelty was performed on various animals, all for the reason of convenience or thoughtlessness or carelessness. Another image that affected me greatly was that of the tens and tens of cats and dogs placed in a gas chamber to kill them. The documentary explained that this was an extremely painful process for the animals, that it was less expensive but much more painful than the typical euthanization performed on sick or old pets. I think these scenes affected me so much because of my close relationship with animals, especially with my cat, OJ. 
(My kitty, OJ, is really a member of my family. I cannot imagine anything bad happening to him, it would be too hard. image: my own). I couldn't even begin thinking of what his life could have been like were he bred and raised in a “puppy mill” (do they have those for cats?) or to think of the pain he might have gone through were he destined to be a stray rather than live with us – well, it was hard to consider.
And then there were the slaughterhouses. I’ve eaten a lot of meat in my life. As an athlete, I’ve tried to stay away from fast food, but I have to admit I’ve even eaten a lot of that too. Never before had I taken the time to consider where this meat I was eating had come from, which cow had died for it, how it had been killed. To actually watch a cow’s throat be slit, to see it writhe in pain as it was “bled” and as it was hung upside down and sent down the slaughterhouse assembly line, it was almost enough to make me physically sick. ‘Do these people have no compassion?’ I again wondered to myself as I felt tears start to sting at my eyes.
Money, I realized after class, is what drives all of these industries.
