Last Week

I abandoned blogging for awhile, but today I really need to do my taxes so blogging has suddenly become very interesting again.  It was hard to get out of bed this morning because I rolled over and the cattle were grazing right outside my window. Watching them is sometimes like watching reality tv...in a foreign language. I can tell very interesting things are going on in the herd. I can see the cliques, the relationships, the friendships, the drama, but I don't quite understand the dialogue. I wish I could be a cow for a day and get in on their secret life out there in the pasture.

Highlights from the week:

Stephanie and I went to Sophia's class "Why Vegan?" and helped out with the sales of books and cupcakes. It was really interesting to go and see people be so responsive to the talk, people asked great questions and despite knowing a lot of the information I actually learned quite a bit! There is another class next week about how to move towards a vegan diet. I'm not sure if I'll be able to attend this one yet because I might be headed to San Francisco for my two days off in a row. 

We watched the movie Fowl Play last week too which is one I've wanted to see for quite sometime. This documentary focuses on all aspects of the egg industry. There is undercover video that is hard to watch, but it's spread out nicely between rescue stories. Because of this movie I've been doing a little bit of research into hatcheries and egg laying facilities. I found a website of an egg farm who is so confident their practices are "humane" that they have six live cameras you can watch at any time. It just focuses on the birds in the cages. I found it extremely interesting that they are calling themselves a humane facility based only on the livelihood of the hens in the cages.  I really would like them to put a camera in the hatcheries, more specifically on the sexing process of the birds that are born to inhabit those cages. I think anyone who could see the video of male chicks (deemed worthless by the industry) being ground up alive, suffocating to death in huge piles, or being tossed into plastic bags to suffocate would be appalled. Regardless of the treatment these egg laying chickens receive the sad fact of the matter is that male chicks are just a "worthless bi product" to the industry. I was going to post the link to this facilities live cams but I'd rather not accidentally give them free advertisement. Anyways, I just went off on a tangent, check out Fowl Play, it's definitely worth the watch. If you have Netflix it's available as a "watch now" option.

I'll try to keep updating throughout this week. I really need to get some more photos but the weather has been terrible. I even went out and bought myself a pair of rain pants....overall style. Yeah, I've got the farm fashion down. Speaking of bad weather though....even when the weather is awful we always end the day on a good note:

 Shubah took this picture. I didn't even get to see the rainbow! But it was just so gorgeous I had to share!

Bold Native

Friday, in place of our typical ed lunch, we went on a field trip to Sacramento to see John Robbins (author of Diet for a New America) and watched a screening of the film Bold Native. I really enjoyed hearing John Robbins speak because he seemed to tie in the spiritual side of being vegan, how we have lost our connection with nature and the animals, and the disconnect that exists between our ideas of "pets" and food. I've never read any of his books but I was looking at the list and there were a ton that caught my eye. The Awakened Heart and The Food Revolution are now going on my reading list.

I also wanted to talk here about the film Bold Native. This movie focuses primarily on the ideas of the Animal Liberation Front. I'd like to make a whole post about the ALF one day...once I've done more research on the topic. One of the ALF's guidelines is to do no harm to animals, human or otherwise. They are a nonviolent group known for illegally breaking into laboratories and factory farms and freeing the animals. They frequently engage in property destruction as well. We had a lot of discussion about this in the van on the way back. The ALF does not harm humans or animals...does this alone make them nonviolent? Or are the damages they inflict on buildings and equipment considered violent actions? I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about that. On the one hand violence is typically directed at one or more beings, not inanimate objects. I don't really feel you can commit violence against a computer or lab equipment. Sophia did bring up a good point though, that if someone came into your house and destroyed your things wouldn't you feel like a violent act had been committed against you? I'm not sure. I still consider the ALF to be nonviolent in their practices, but it did make me think a bit harder about the definition.


*******************SPOILERS****************
(also, I'm finding I didn't explain this too well. This movie is not a documentary it's an actual movie, full length feature film...or whatever you call it)

By far the most controversial part in the film is "the feral child" scene. It's definitely hard to watch.  One of the ALF members goes a bit rouge and captures a man involved in factory farming, ties him up and shocks and beats him. Treating him exactly as the animals are treated.  It's a vivid scene. A baby piglet runs free around the tortured man, while horrible undercover investigation videos are played on the wall. I'm going to give it away and say that in the end, the main character (not the person who originally captured the guy) frees the man. So, now that that is out of the way....apparently there was a bit of an uproar about this scene at the conference I went to last summer (I went to bed before this film was over so I didn't get to hear the commentary). Here are my thoughts. I think it was a necessary scene to put in the film. It connects the audience to the horror of  reciprocating in anger and frustration.  I can't say how many times I've heard or seen posts on animal investigation videos: "this is awful, I hope this person dies a painful death", "someone should hang that guy by a hook and make him bleed out...see how he likes it". Do we really want to see that? Really? It's extremely hard to watch the feral child scene in the movie. And I think that's WHY it's there.  To show us that we may FEEL like retribution is justice...but actually seeing it, we are able to understand how horrific that idea truly is.
**********************************************************************************
Anyways, check the movie out. And understand that it's portraying only one part of the animal rights movement. Then tell me what you all think. I really want more feed back about this movie from non vegans. How did you react to the film? What are your thoughts?

This film can be rented or purchased on iTunes as well as the Bold Native website.

You can also purchase this super soft hoodie for the animal rights activist in your life *points to self and smiles*