Earthlings Movie . Are pets our slaves ?

Our View:

I’ll introduce you to this week to a really wonderful blog from Sydney NSW Australia
http://watchful-eyes-thoughtful-mind.blogspot.com/2009/06/sunday-spotlight-earthlings.html
Don’t get too discouraged by the daunting name or the big green android like eerie, watchful, eyes that look through you from blog site. It is really a very easy going, vibrant, eco- friendly, and popular blog that is indeed very informative and almost daily updated. One whose thoughtful and probing feeds are spewed out with a regular frequency from the morose grey tweet deck of *Radiance* with synthetic robotic glaze. The blogger, a nuclear scientist takes a special interest in collecting and presenting a rich harvest of scientific and social media videos that each tell extremely interesting tales of the planet both from the past and the present.

The Sunday spotlight of this blog was on a movie earthlings on google video
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7584730387826688635
A brilliant video by award winning writer, director, moviemaker Shaun Monson on the mindless exploitation of every other living species on land, water or air by humans, for companionship, food, clothing, science or sport. Painstakingly created over several years with vivid close range shots of the ruthless massacre of millions of pets, livestock, animals, fish et all by the human or rather inhuman keepers and processors, the movie must be seen to understand the exploitation and sufferings at the grass root level.

Yes. You heard me right. Massacre of pets. This is the aspect we are going to highlight in today’s blog straight out of the movie…. and tweet thereafter. According to Monson the pets including the pure breds that we buy from respectable breeders or pet stores are actually bred in overcrowded puppy mills where thousands of animals are mass produced in less than hygienic conditions to meet the ever increasing demand from pet lovers all over the world. But did you know that this mass production also leads to mass extermination of the same animals a few years down the line.http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7584730387826688635

The process starts with your urge for companionship of another species that has turned it into a marketable commodity. The excessive demand of pets by a very prosperous section of the human population has created a mega market for these animals and the possibility of huge profits. It is almost like the human slave markets of yesteryears when the African people were bought and sold by the rich white landlords of North America, to service the domestic or commercial needs of a powerful race. The close similarity between the two trades, vividly portrayed by the moviemaker makes him call them “spiciest” in line with terms such as “racist” and “sexist.” used for discriminators of race and sex.

The mega market of pets in United States alone consist of pet food, medicine, vet care, grooming, boarding etc and is to the tune of 45 Billion Dollars which also includes annual animal purchases of 2.2 Billion Dollars. According to the annual survey of National Pet Owners almost 62% of U.S. house holds owned a pet in 2008 as compared to 56 % in 1988 leading to a robust and growing pet market. Over 71 million U.S. households today have a total of 411 million pets in form of Dogs, Cats, Birds, Fresh water and Sea water fish , reptiles and small animals. The trends are similar in other parts of the world especially where family life is disintegrating and companionship without accompanying baggage of ego and equality is available only from the animal world.

This huge demand of the “lesser species” for companionship by the “higher human species” has caused commercially competitive wholesaler practices to be adopted in the animal markets for both breeding as well as exterminating the excess stock, that is no longer in demand in the markets. The puppy mills which are essentially low cost, wholesale, backyard operations are both unhygienic and overcrowded as portrayed by Monsons’ earthlings movie http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7584730387826688635. They breed and supply the pets to ultra clean and hygienic high end retailers, the pet stores or the clinics, who in turn interact with the consumer, the pet lover and buyer. It is quite understandable that the retail buyer of pets have no means to enquire or look into the sourcing of the animals. More than 180 million fresh water and sea water fish are also bought annually in the U.S. , to serve as pets. A more inconvenient truth for the fish is that almost three fourths of the fishes caught for this purpose are almost always thrown back into the rivers dead after being found unsuitable for the market.

The differentiation of appearance, hygiene and cleanliness of wholesale and retail markets exist in every trade simply due to economics, and cannot be easily avoided without increasing operating costs dramatically. The profit distribution of retail and wholesale markets is such that whereas retailers are able to sell high end accessories like faux mink coats to French feathered beds, rhinestone tiaral to self flushing toilets, the wholesale markets cannot afford basic hygiene and cleanliness, as retailers are unwilling to share the profit pie equitably. However the problems that start at the breeding end magnify many fold as the animals begin their existence as house hold pets. Unlike their human masters the pets are not encouraged to live and enjoy a normal family life. The mating of pets is often often discouraged and rarely will you have a pet owner taking responsibility of the extended family of the animal.

What happens when the pet owners refuse to take the responsibility of the animals litter? They are either turned outdoors as strays or sold back to the pet dealers and puppy mills where they are resold or exterminated. Over 25 million pets in the U.S, alone become homeless, of which 27 % are pure breds as per the earthlings movie.http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7584730387826688635 Of this 9 million die out of disease, starvations or accidents, while 16 million are exterminated legally as humans have no use for the excess animal population.

Hitler’s Gas chamber deaths are the most popular and commonly used option as they are less expensive. Here the animals are herded together and administered cyanide or other toxic gasses that takes 20 minutes to kill them after a painful nerve wracking struggle with asphyxiation. Euthanasia, an alternative and less painful death process, where dogs are administered an injection in the leg and cats in the stomach account for 60,000 animal deaths a day in U.S. alone. This being a more expensive solution for death is not so extensively in use.

The earthlings movie http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7584730387826688635 is so horrific that most of the urban, educated and highly sensitive human population will not be able to witness the ghastly truth behind the breeding and extermination of animals , including the pets we adore, for human benefit. While we will close our eyes to their misery we continue to crave for there companionship and help grow the mega markets that are behind this spiraling spiciest crimes. Our intention of blogging on the subject is to make you read what you fear to watch, to tweet your mind and arouse your social consciousness through the new media , that may perhaps help promote sustainable practices in this skewed world where all earthlings and plant life must co-exist with equal rights. Our questions to YOU as a pet lover is

•Are pets our slaves? See earthlings movie http://bit.ly/u3FG5 and decide.

•Do you know that 180 million pets worldwide are bred in puppy mills annually?

•Are you aware of the life of your pet at the wholesale breeding centers? Watch to discover http://bit.ly/u3FG5

•Do you know that your need for animals as companions has created a $ 2.2 billion animal sale wholesale market in US alone.

•When you refuse to take responsibility of your pets descendants you are pushing them to gas chambers http://bit.ly/u3FG5

•71 million households have pets. Only 0.5 % wants descendants.

•62% households have pets today against 56% in 1988. More demand, more breeding, more gas chambers. Trendy?

• 25 million pets are killed each year due to demand and supply economics?

• 27 % of purebreds are exterminated annually as they are excess stock & have no homes http://bit.ly/u3FG5

•9 million homeless pets die each yr due to starvation, disease and accidents?

•16 million pets are legally killed each year by euthanasia or gas chamber. See the earthlings movie http://bit.ly/u3FG5

•Do all species have an equal right to live and die naturally? Must they service man’s demands & perish. http://bit.ly/u3FG5

In this blog from “ecology to economy” we deal with discussing sustainable practices in economy and ecology .
We could be wrong. Tell us if we are & why? We encourage diverse opinion even if it is from commercially interested groups opposed to our thinking