Fwd: [sensibility_as_moral_guide] Canada - Compelling film explores emotions of farm animals

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Le Petit Chien <lepetitchien wrote:To:

" Le Petit Chien "

Sun, 9 May 2004 20:03:49 +0200

[sensibility_as_moral_guide] Canada - Compelling film explores emotions

of farm animals

 

 

 

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Mary Alice ' Moonflower ' <moonflower.uk wrote:

 

" Mary Alice ' Moonflower ' "

" CVFA's Action Alert "

Canada - Compelling film explores emotions of farm animals

Sat, 8 May 2004 09:35:50 +0100

 

 

PIC Press (Kingston, ON) May 2004

 

http://www.picpress.com/May2004/articles/AE1-May2004.html

 

Compelling film explores emotions of farm animals

 

By David Langlois

 

There is an underlying presumption that farm animals are, in some

way, emotionally or psychologically inferior to the domesticated

animals that many of us consider friends and family. Or, at least,

this is what author and former-psychoanalyst Jeffrey Moussaieff

Masson believes must be the presumption, in order for so many of us

to continue supporting the destruction and enslavement of farm

animals across the world. Few people, he believes, would agree to

support the needless use of farm animals if it were shown that they

were, in actuality, no different than dogs and cats.

 

In Masson's new documentary produced by Animal Place and entitled The

Emotional World of Farm Animals (a companion film to his book, The

Pig Who Sang to the Moon), the author attempts to uncover the truth

about the emotional and psychological status of farm animals, through

a series of personal testimonies and interviews with the

veterinarians and animal behaviorists who are most familiar with

these beings.

 

Ultimately, Masson's compelling and thought provoking film comes to

some shocking conclusions about the emotional lives of these

animals. There are, he forcefully argues, no differences between the

capacities of farm animals and the domesticated animals that many of

us know so well. This being the case, Masson's film persuasively

leads his audience towards a gradual acceptance of compassion for

these emotional beings and of responsibility for protecting them

where possible.

 

The film traces Masson's journey across sections of the United

States, as he visits various sanctuaries for animals who have either

escaped or been rescued from factory farms (the harsh, concentrated,

industrialized farms which have nearly entirely replaced the " old

fashioned " farms that most of us are familiar with). Some of these

animals were found with shattered limbs on the highway, having fallen

off of trucks during transport, while some other " downed " animals

were rescued from so-called " dead piles " at factory farms. In the

author's travels, he encounters a wide array of cows, pigs, chickens

and turkeys, all of whom have been saved from lamentable conditions

and returned to relative normalcy at places such as " Farm Sanctuary "

and " Animal Place. "

 

At these safe havens, the animals interact with each other, and with

their human companions, in a distinctly emotional and expressive

fashion, which is generally unseen in farming conditions. The viewer

of Masson's film is treated to footage of cows snuggling and kissing

each other and their human friends, and images of adult pigs

playfully rolling around on the ground, much like dogs are known to

do, while being rubbed with large pieces of ice as a " cool down. "

Turkeys are seen to nuzzle deeply into Masson's chest, vibrating with

excitement and cooing softly, as he holds them and plays with their

feathers.

 

These powerful displays are visually juxtaposed with the brutal and

violent treatment and conditions of animals raised and killed in

factory farms for their meat, eggs and dairy. Unsurprisingly, the

animals in factory farms are far less emotional or expressive and

often seem to suffer from degenerative psychological

conditions. According to one behaviorist that Masson interviews, this

stark contrast in emotional expression is the result of the intense

fear and insecurity felt by the inhabitants of factory farms, which

results in a decidedly unnatural paralysis of emotional expression.

 

The viewer of Masson's film is left with a devastating and

heart-wrenching conclusion: the nonhuman animals that fill our

factory farms (and are killed at the nearly incomprehensible rate of

25 million per day in North America alone), are beings with intense

and important emotional lives. Much like the dogs and cats that sleep

on our beds and play with our children, these animals have the

capacity to be filled with joy and overwhelmed by sadness, overcome

with excitement and paralyzed by fear. How then, Masson seems to ask,

can it be justified that we continue to needlessly kill and torture

these wonderful animals? In The Emotional Wo rld of Farm Animals,

Masson emphatically draws a logical emotional connection between the

domesticated animals that many of us treat as relative equals and the

farm animals that are used exclusively as our property and resources.

 

In accepting this difficult and challenging conclusion, it seems that

a viewer of Masson's film could not help but be moved to reanalyze

their understanding of the emotional capacities of farm

animals. Moreover, as Masson recognizes and elucidates in the book

that accompanies the documentary, individuals who view this film may

be led to take the logical step of modifying their diets in an effort

to stop supporting animal agriculture, as it continues to unavoidably

cause unnecessary suffering to these psychologically and emotionally

rich animals. As Masson's work points out with conviction and

clarity, adhering to a lifestyle free from nonhuman animal products

may be the most effective way for human s to promote compassion and

justice for the farm animals who suffer so greatly and for so little

reason.

 

 

 

 

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