The images in the following program are very sensitive and may be as disturbing to viewers as they were to us. However, we have to show the truth about cruelty to animals.

Honored viewers, today’s Stop Animal Cruelty program features our presentation of Part 5 of the award-winning 2005 documentary on animal suffering “Earthlings” directed by vegan US filmmaker Shaun Monson, co-produced by noted vegan US actresses Persia White and Maggie Q and narrated by Golden Globe- and Grammy-winning vegan actor and artist Joaquin Phoenix. The film features music by the world-famous vegan DJ and musician Moby from the United States.

“Earthlings” has received numerous honors, including the Proggy Award given by the US-based animal welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and the Best Documentary Award in the Animal Advocacy category at the International Artivist Film Festival, held annually in California, USA.

The film is known as “the vegan maker” because it has prompted so many people to transition to the compassionate and life-affirming plant-based diet. Such individuals include the Emmy award-winning US talk show host Ellen DeGeneres as well as the well-known Canadian professional ice hockey player George Laraque.

Last week on our program, Joaquin Phoenix described how our innocent animal friends are first tortured and abused and then violently slaughtered to make so-called “fashion items” from leather and fur. This week covers how animals are exploited, demeaned, and killed for so-called “entertainment.” Director Shaun Monson now introduces this week’s segment of “Earthlings.”

Part four, entertainment –- circuses, zoos, rodeos, bullfights, I mean worldwide, animals used for entertainment. I was in Rome (Italy) this last year working on this new film, and I went to the arena and I stood inside that arena. I looked around and thought, “There was a time here, 2,000 years ago, when people literally gathered together and watched the slaughtering of humans and animals.” I mean the sands of the arena were just wet with blood.

We wouldn’t tolerate that today. We’d look back on that and sort of be abhorred by it, to think that a civilization would go and eat food, sit there in the sun, and be entertained by this! Okay, we don’t do that anymore today.

However we have a different sort of gladiator games going on today, which are the ones I mentioned with the circuses and the zoos and the rodeos and the bull fights and so forth, and I would go as far as to say that future generations will look back on us and see that as abhorrent.

You know, you wonder and ask yourself, “What will future generations look back on us and say?” “What are they thinking! Are they blind? Total apathy for the well-being.” So that’s what we cover in the film, we show some of these areas that animals are abused.

The zoo’s people say, “Well, the zoo is educational, it’s… the animals are safe, they are better than the wild.” And I always think “better than the wild?”

The animal naturally lives in the wild. So this is a whole new forced enclosed space and they have their problems there as well, they are under the domain of humans, they’re fed the diets that humans determine is best for them. And they are isolated and they suffer and they die, as we see a lot with the elephants for instance.

We now present the fifth installment of “Earthlings,” a documentary that seeks to awaken humanity to adopt a more empathetic and compassionate way of living.

PART FOUR ENTERTAINMENT

And so we move on to entertainment. Mark Twain once said, "Of all the creatures ever made, he (man) is the most detestable. He's the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain."

rodeos
In rodeos, bulls and broncos don't buck because they're wild, but because they're in pain. A belt called a flank strap or a bucking strap is secured around the animal's body over the genital area.

As the animal leaves the chute, a tight jerk on the belt is enough to start him bucking in pain. Apart from other injuries animals incur at rodeos...... such as broken legs...... they are also worked up by being slapped, teased, given electric prods, and otherwise tormented, to bolt out of the chute in a frenzy.

roping
Roping, as seen here, involves throwing a rope around the neck of a frightened animal running full speed, jerking the poor creature to a halt, and slamming him or her to the ground.

gambling
Like any other business, dog racing and horse racing are industries motivated by a common denominator: profit.

fair grounds
At fair grounds across the country, animals are used to race, bet with, and spectate over. Training for these events is accomplished by withholding food and sometimes water. These animals, unfamiliar with their surroundings, the noise, the crowds, even what they're supposed to be doing, are all too often injured and discarded, in pointless, trivial, outlandish contests designed to make profits and entertain.

hunting
Besides loss of habitat, hunting is the number one threat to wildlife today. Hunters kill over 200 million animals every year. Deer, rabbits, and squirrels top the list of desirable targets. There is no denying it, if hunting is a sport, it is a blood sport. The targets are living, and they undergo violent deaths.

fishing
Fishing is also a death sport, wherein the nonhuman animal suffers. Researchers have distinguished that fish show pain behavior the same way mammals do. Anatomically, physiologically, and biologically, the pain system in fish is virtually the same as in birds and mammals. In other words, fish are sentient organisms, so of course they feel pain.

For those who think fish die "gentler" deaths, consider that their sensory organs are highly developed, their nervous systems complex, their nerve cells very similar to our own... ...and their responses to certain stimuli immediate and vigorous.

When we return, we’ll hear from Joaquin Phoenix on the horrendous conditions animals kept in zoos and circuses, endure. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

This is Stop Animal Cruelty on Supreme Master Television. We now resume our presentation of the documentary “Earthlings” with this segment focusing on the immense brutality inflicted on our animal co-inhabitants for the sake of so-called “entertainment.”

circuses

When going to the circus, rarely do we stop for a moment and consider: What incites an animal to do something unnatural, even dangerous, such as jumping through flames, balancing on one foot, or diving into water from shaky platforms high in the air?

Animal trainers would like for the public to believe that animals are coaxed into such behaviors with the promise of rewards. But the truth is that animals perform because they fear punishment.

Let's go, let's go, let's go. All right, let's go. Let's get going.

In essence, circuses condemn animals who are wild by nature to live out their days isolated in tiny, barren cages, denied normal exercise and socialization...... shuttled around from place to place...... and shackled in chains for up to 95% of their lives.

training
Elephants are taught to perform with positive reinforcement and never hit. Never hit. Never, never, never will you see anyone use the ankus as anything other than a guide or a tool.

No. Dominance, subservience, and pain are integral parts of the training process. Hurt him. Don't touch him! Make him scream. If you're scared to hurt him...... don't come in this room. When I say rip his You know how I am about touching him, right? So, if I say rip his head off, rip his foot off, what does that mean? 'Cause it's very important to do it, right? When he starts squirming too much, both hands, boom! Right under that chin! Sit, and he better back up.

Don't grab that leg. You sink that hook and give everything you've got. And when it's in there go.... And he's going to start screaming. When you hear that, then you know you've got their attention a little bit! Right here in the barn. Can't do it on the road. She's going to do what I want. And that's just the way it is.

All right, let's go. Becky! Becky! Get up here!

Come here, Becky. Move up, Becky. Move up, Becky. All right, Tubs. Tubs! Come here, Tubs! Hey, get Loony. Hey, Becky. Go on, move up. Hey, I'm alive. I'm not a dead man. Move up! Come in line. Come in line, Becky.

Yeah, come over here. Yeah, come in line. Come here, Tommy. Why do they have to go through that. because you don't want to listen? Back up. it's just the way they die.

We know animals feel. They feel fear, loneliness, and pain, just like humans do. What animal would choose to spend their entire life in captivity if they had a choice?

retaliation
On the count of three! One. Two. Three. Take him. You've got to shoot.

zoos
Are zoos valuable educational and conservation institutions? Sure, zoos are interesting, but they are only educational in the sense that they teach a disregard for the natures of other living beings. Besides, what can we learn about wild animals by viewing them in captivity? Zoos exist because we are intrigued by exotic things. And to zoo-goers, zoo animals are just that: things. In both cases, at circuses or zoos, wild and exotic animals are captured, caged, transported, and trained to do what humans want them to do.

bullfighting
At best, the term "bullfighting" is a misnomer......as there is little competition between the sword of a nimble matador, which is Spanish for "killer," and a confused, maimed, psychologically tormented, and physically debilitated bull. Many prominent former bullfighters report that bulls are intentionally debilitated with tranquilizers and laxatives, beatings to the kidneys, and heavy weights hung around their necks for weeks before a fight.

Some of the animals are placed in darkness for 48 hours before the confrontation, then are released, blinded into the bright arena. In a typical event, the bull enters and is approached by men who exhaust and frustrate him by running him in circles and tricking him into collisions.

When the bull is tired and out of breath, he is approached by picadors, who drive lances into its back and neck muscles, twisting and gouging to ensure a significant amount of blood loss and impairing the bull's ability to lift his head. Then come the banderilleros who distract and dart around the bull while plunging more lances into him. Weakened from blood loss, they run the bull in more circles until he is dizzy and stops chasing.

Finally, the matador, this "killer," appears and, after provoking a few exhausted charges from the dying animal, tries to kill the bull with his sword. And this bloody form of amusement is bullfighting. The pleasure derived from all of these activities and sports......

a communion with nature, some would say, can be secured without harming or killing animals. The commercial exploitation of wildlife erroneously assumes that the value of wild animals is reducible to their utility relative to human interests, especially economic interests.

But wild animals are not a renewable resource, having value only relative to human interests. That perception can only be that of a speciesist. Nevertheless, these practices exist only because we do not take seriously the interests of other animals. In this light, are humans not the most callous speciesists of all?

By always refusing to patronize events where animals are being used for entertainment, we can end this heartless and savage treatment of them. We would like to sincerely thank Shaun Monson, Joaquin Phoenix and all those involved in the making of “Earthlings” for speaking on behalf of the voiceless. May we all soon switch to the loving, organic vegan diet so all animals can live in peace forever.

"Earthlings" may be viewed online at www.Earthlings.com
The "Earthlings" DVD is available at the same website.

Please join us next Tuesday for Part 6 of “Earthlings” here on Stop Animal Cruelty. Coming up next is Enlightening Entertainment, after Noteworthy News. May our world only know kindness and virtue.