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Documentary: Earthlings

Documentary: Earthlings

Posted on April 30, 2018February 3, 2025

A while back I saw an interesting article coming by. In a newspaper (in De Volkskrant, a Dutch newspaper) I saw an article about a slaughterhouse. The slaughterhouse had made a part of their proces transparant. They had literally made glass walls around a part of the ‘assembly line’ so that people passing the slaughter house could see the dead animals passing by after slaughter (which isn’t even the most disturbing part of the slaughter). The responses were intense, people were shocked and demanded that they made the walls non-see-through again. This made me think of a documentary I’ve seen which also makes the slaughter proces transparant: Earthlings.

Hypocrite

Look, if all people who responded to the article I described above were vegans I’d be okay with this. But these people aren’t vegan. At least, not all of them. That’s so hypocrite! So you do want to consume meat and contribute to this suffering but you don’t want to look at it? Please. I think we should have an insight in all food proceses of the things we eat. Then you can decide if you want to eat it or not. So yes, that means you have to see animals die if you eat meat. You should see what you’re causing.

Earthlings

And that’s where the documentary Earthlings comes in. It shows how meat, cheese, leather, down and more animal products are ‘produced’. I think it’s essential to know this when you consume or use any of those products. We’re talking about living beings here. I saw this documentary when I was trying to eat vegetarian for a month for the first time. I tried it for a month to see if I could do it. In that period I also tried to learn as much as I could about meat and animal products. Earthlings has been one of the reasons why I prolonged this month to a lifelong of eating vegetarian. I eventually went vegan.

Even though I think everybody who consumes animal products should watch Earthlings, I do think I have to put a little warning here. Earthlings is a very disturbing documentary. I cried during almost the entire film and I even paused it at some points. Earthlings is disturbing and horrible to see. But that’s because the proces of killing and using animals for products is disturbing and horrible. Be aware but please do watch it. I learned a lot from this. Also about new subjects I hadn’t thought about before, like leather.

No Exception

And since the footage and information in Earthlings is so disturbing and horrific, people tend to see it as an exception. They think there’s something wrong with that specific slaughterhouse of which footage has been leaked. But it has been shown over and over again by different investigations: all slaughterhouses are the same: horrible. The footage you see is no exception! Why do you think people literally have to break in to obtain footage? If the proces inside of slaughterhouses was pretty, it would not be so hard to enter. Think about it: how many times are slaughter houses in the news because of another scandals? A lot. Earthlings shows the proces as it really is.

‘If slaughter houses had glass walls, everybody would be vegetarian’

Paul McCartney

Suffering

Earthlings can be seen on Netflix and gives you insight on the suffering we human beings cause to animals. Nothing more, nothing less. But that’s not the whole story (even though it is horrible enough already). Eating and using animals products also causes environmental damage, food scarcity, health issues and more. That’s for another time! But first: watch Earthlings!

Yours sincerely,
Romee

0 thoughts on “Documentary: Earthlings”

  1. Cindy says:
    April 30, 2018 at 7:44 pm

    Ik denk dat ik gewoon stap voor stap vegetariër wordt zonder die film te bekijken. Net als jij zou ik de ganse film zitten huilen. Ik heb als kind gezien hoe dieren geslacht werden, dat gebeurde dan thuis of op de hof van de boer. Daar heb ik nooit moeite mee gehad. Maar wat er in de industriële sector gebeurt… Daar breekt mijn hart van.

    Reply
    1. Romee Hoeksma says:
      May 2, 2018 at 3:40 pm

      Het helpt mij om makkelijker ‘nee’ te kunnen zeggen. Maar als je het niet kijkt, snap ik dat ook best hoor, het is niet leuk om te zien. En als je voor jezelf toch al weet dat je de stap wilt maken om langzaamaan vegetariër te worden, dan ben je al heel goed bezig vind ik! Alle beetjes helpen zeg ik altijd maar haha.

      Reply
  2. Yolanda Boer says:
    December 23, 2018 at 1:44 pm

    Hoi Romee, net je blog ontdekt via weer een andere groene blogger waar je reactie achterliet. Lees alle voor mij interessante posts ‘even’ van je en kwam ook deze tegen. Zelf heb ik alleen de trailer van deze film gezien en dat was voor mij genoeg om overnight veganist te worden ruim anderhalf jaar geleden, overigens samen met mijn man (die niet eens de trailer wilde zien, hij had aan mijn verslag erover al genoeg gehad..), Dat proces zat er al aan te komen, maar dit was de bekende druppel. Sindsdien ben ik nog niet in staat geweest (mentaal) om de film daadwerkelijk helemaal te gaan zien. Ik word zo verdrietig bij tijd en wijle over hoe mensen met dieren omgaan, ik hoef het verdriet van de film er nog niet bovenop… Wat laf wellicht. wel noem ik het naar anderen vaak als ze mij vragen waarom we veganist zijn geworden. Wie weet heeft t op meer mensen dit effect!

    Reply
    1. Romee Hoeksma says:
      December 29, 2018 at 2:43 pm

      Wauw, goed om te horen dat je na de trailer al veganist ben geworden, het had zeker impact dus! Ik vind het helemaal niet laf als je het niet wilt kijken, je doet toch immers al wat aan het probleem en je weet dat het een probleem is! Ik vind het alleen laf als mensen goedkoop vlees eten en de trailer niet durven te kijken, dat is gewoon hypocriet. Earthlings is inderdaad zo’n goede aanrader naar andere mensen toe, het is echt een shocker!

      Reply
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ABOUT ME

 

when a teen goes green

Hi! My name is Romee and I live an eco-positive life. An eco-positive lifestyle is a lifestyle with more positive than negative impact on beautiful planet earth. Compared to most people, I live extremely sustainable. I don’t fly, eat meat or animal products, buy only secondhand clothing, etc. On the other hand, I try to help others as much as I can by donating a big chunk of my income, donating plasma, donating poop (yes!), volunteering, etc. On this blog you can read all about my lifestyle with only positive impact. I also have a Dutch Youtube channel (@duurzaamleven) and Dutch Instagram (@duurzaamlevenro). If you have specific questions for me, feel free to ask me anything.

Yours sincerely,
Romee (she/her)

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