Last month at the Animal Rights Conference in Los Angeles, we caught up with Author Will Tuttle (The World Peace Diet), who spoke with us about his work and his feelings about Earthlings.

 

"What Earthlingsdoes, the great gift it gives our culture, is that it makes us aware of what's behind the curtain of our denial. It may be painful, we may be resistant, we may not want to see it, we don’t want to know, but once we do, then we have the power to transform our consciousness. We can begin to behave in new ways, go to a higher level where we’re not actually causing that kind of misery.”

Dr. Tuttle has also just written a fascinating piece on the cultural history of the movement for animal rights on the blog Crazy Sexy Life. Read part one here and part two here. 

"It’s important to understand that owning animals as property to be killed and eaten is the hidden and defining core of our culture, and that all of us were, and are, routinely indoctrinated into the mentality of domination, exclusion, reductionism, elitism, and disconnectedness required by the food practices of this culture."

Check out the video (and listen for how he’s shown Earthlings in Lawrence, Kansas):

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Recently we caught up with PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. We asked her to speak about Earthlings and share her advice on a vegan lifestyle from her new book The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble.

Here's what she had to say: 

 

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Our dear friend Kathy Freston is a health and wellness expert and a New York Times best-selling author. Her most well known book, Quantum Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness, explains that our lives are interconnected with all other life on the planet, and having “spiritual integrity” requires conscious eating in the form of a plant-based diet. Hermost recent book The Quantum Wellness Cleanse helps readers embrace a cruelty-free lifestyle kick-started by a 21-day cleanse. Kathy was applauded by vegans and animal lovers for helping Oprah Winfrey experiment with a vegan diet last year.

"You cannot explain to someone what an animal goes through in the way that Earthlings shows it. All you have to do is look and you'll see. It's a visceral experience. It's not pretty; it's terrible, actually, but it's something that just rips people open, and they go straightaway to a more conscious path."

Visit Kathy Freston's site here. 

 

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Dr. Jeffrey Moussaief Masson, author of "The Face on Your Plate" and other books on the sentience of animals, tells an embarrassing story about the time he almost saw "Earthlings."

Got a video to share? Post it in the comments below.

Rory Freedman, author of the bestseller "Skinny Bitch" and the new "Skinny Bastard," spoke with us recently about why she buys Earthlings DVDs and gives them out.

"There's nobody who can watch Earthlings and not be profoundly changed. Once you see this movie, your life is going to be different."

 

 

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Kris Carr is an inspiring woman who beat a rare form of cancer on a plant-based diet, and chronicled her journey in an amazing film, Crazy Sexy Cancer, as well as several books. Today on her blog, Crazy SexyLife , she features an interview with Earthlings writer/director Shaun Monson. Shaun talks about his new film Unity, and has some strong words on diet. 

I don’t mean to be rude, but I want to be real: the only thing animal products do for health is deteriorate it.

 

Check out the interview here and pass it along to someone who needs to know!

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We are delighted to recommend a new children’s book That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals written and illustrated by Ruby Roth. Ruby was inspired in part by Earthlings, and has created the first book for children to explain tough topics like factory farms and the disappearing rainforest in the context of a vegan diet.

“Whether it has gills, wings, whiskers or roots, every living being shares the will to live and grow. We are all earthlings.”

 

Read more about the book, and Ruby here.

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John wrote:

 

"Thanks to your Earthlings, I will never be the same again. First it made me feel sick and then it made me cry, but if nothing was wrong the question is why?

"It wasn't just the pictures but was also the message, that we are all Earthlings and as such, we so-called 'higher' life forms should have compassion and respect forother Earthlings.

"I have tried to be vegetarian but I have to admit that for most of my life, I have been a hypocrite and this is damaging spiritually. But your movie has woken me up to be honest with myself, to find the freedom in knowing who I really am - an Earthling."

Thanks for sending us such a moving letter, John. We think you're a pretty great Earthling.

Got a story to tell us? Email us at connect@earthlings.com.

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AgireOra, an Italian vegan organization, recently held a screening of Earthlings in Alessandria. We thought the following tips would be helpful to anyone planning a public screening. Organizer Massimo Siri said:

In the days before the screening, we produced and spread hundreds of leaflets, and exposed fifty playbills on the shop windows, at the university, in front the schools and sent press releases to local newspapers.

The attendance was high and the conference room was full up. Some attendees had to stand. Many faces were known, but many others were new, and some of them arrived from far off. After a short introduction warning about the contents of scenes of explicit violence, we showed first the promotional trailer and then we started the screening.

At the end of the second part (on food), and before the third (on clothing), we had an intermission, and offered some vegan food for tasting. The intention was to catch one's breath and exchange some comments on the film. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea, because for the second half of the film, the audience was cut in half. Perhaps it is better not to break the film, and have the debate and offer the refreshments at the end.

Shocking but informative, this film has offered viewers many things to reflect on, and we invite anyone to organize initiatives like this.

Mille grazie, Massimo!

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If you’re in SoCal, catch us on June 21 at Pierce College’s Vegan Earth Day.

There will be a screening of Earthlings followed by a Q&A with Shaun Monson, and we will have a booth where you can grab some gear and talk with the team. Admission is free. Check the site for a complete schedule of speakers, music, and films. 

We will also be at Venice Eco-Fest, Saturday June 27. Please stop by and introduce yourself if you're there! 

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NHL star Georges Laraque of the Montreal Canadiens is considered one of the toughest and most fearsome players in the league...and the six foot three forward is now a vegetarian and animal lover.

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After Georges watched Earthlings, he gave up meat and started giving his time to animal charities. Here are his thoughts and photos from a Montreal fur protest outside North American Fur and Fashion Exposition:
 

 

"About 50 protesters and I stood proud and firm in the defense of animals. I want to personally thank everyone who gave me the chance to be part of this event and I will make it my mission for the rest of my life to do everything I can to protect animals."

And at the bottom here he talks about how Earthlings affected him:

This footage has changed my life and I will be more appreciative towards animals and do everything I can to educate people on this matter.

Georges wrote to us and said “I have decided to make it my mission to take a stand for animal rights, since they can't do it for themselves.”

What we love about Georges: he proves that a “manly man” doesn't need to kill animals, and doesn't need meat to be strong. He's also not afraid to go against Canada's ugly tradition of exploiting animals for their skins.

Thank you for making the world better, Georges, and thanks also to our friends at ecorazzi and the Montreal Gazette for their kind words about Earthlings.

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By Shaun Monson 

Vegan lifestyles are often perceived as being based on sacrifice or compromise, when quite the opposite is true for animal activists, pet owners and others who care about the suffering and use of animals. Here are some thoughtson beginning and maintaining a vegan lifestyle or vegan diet.

Paul McCartney tells the story of how he was fishing as a young boy when he witnessed the manner in which a fish struggled when forcefully removed from its natural aquatic habitat. During that brief moment, he realized animals feel and experience pain just like humans. This one experience caused a shift in his consciousness and put him on the path of becoming a practicing vegan.

When we see the way animals are treated, and come to our own conclusions about the extent we contribute to it, it is natural to feel overwhelmed by how many changes a vegan lifestyle may require. But we need not make radical choices overnight; in fact it may be that only a small change is possible at first. For example, a pet owner might choose to spay/neuter their pet. A fashionista might pass up a leather handbag in favor of one made without animal skin or hair. Parents or grandparents might treat the children to the amusement park or a baseball game instead of the circus.

Perhaps someone isn't ready to convert to a vegan diet overnight (give up turkey cold turkey, if you will) or become a full-fledged animal activist. However, they may be willing to switch to cruelty-free shampoo, cut out red meat, adopt a pet from a shelter instead of buying one from a breeder, or buy an upholstered sofa instead of one made from leather. Any small change someone is willing to make helps alleviate the plight of all suffering animals. Once we realize that a vegan lifestyle does not require sacrifice, and allows us to live more authentically according to our ethics, it inspires further change.

Most people simply don't know about the practices used to manufacture ordinary goods. People buy leather shoes, but don't realize or think about how the shoe is actually made. It's a shoe company, and that's all, as far as most people understand. When people become aware that in the manufacturing of shoes, cows have chili pepper rubbed in their eyes and have their tails broken, it becomes very difficult to buy leather shoes and most will more than likely stop. We have already seen this to be true as more people have become aware of the inherent cruelty in the fur industry.

Vegan options in food, clothing, personal care, housewares, and entertainment exist at the same quality and value. When we choose non-vegan options instead, we are not only directly using animals, we are rewarding others for their treatment of animals by paying for these goods.

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