Tonight on FX, I watched the show "30 Days". Its a show where someone with certain beliefs or lifestyle will spend 30 days with someone (or a family) with completely opposite beliefs. For example, a few weeks ago, a person who believed all Muslims are terrorists, spent a month with a Muslim family and realized that they're really no different than anyone else - they just pray to a different god.
Tonight's episode of "30 Days" had a life-long hunter from the South spend a month with a vegan family and PETA activist in California.
As you'd figure, the hunter was gun-ho about his hobby. He agreed to participate in whatever the activist had planned for him (which included working in at an animal rescue farm, going to protests and living a vegan lifestyle), however, for the first half of his time with them, he stuck to his beliefs. He believed (among other things), that animals are here on this planet to serve humans. For example, he has dogs, but they're just dogs - not members of the family and don't deserve "rights" of any kind.
About half way through the episode (and half way through his time there), he went to visit a dairy factory farm with the rescue guy from the animal sanctuary, and he witnessed first hand the baby cows that were left on the ground after they died. And he witnessed first hand the cruel way the male baby cows were pulled out of their 2'x4' pens by their tails and hind legs so they could be pushed into the truck to be taken to slaughter (can you say VEAL?). And that's when it started to click for the hunter. He still believed in eating meat, and he still believed in hunting, however, he started to realize that maybe animals weren't just here to serve us - or JUST to be served to us...
And then he visited a shelter where he learned of the 6 million or so animals - dogs and cats - that are euthanized each year simply because no one wants them. And he got to witness the euthanization of a sweet, bubbly, excited, tail-wagging pit bull who did nothing wrong but be born the "wrong" breed. And he witnessed them dispose of the body in a plastic bag in a cooler.
And it clicked... And from there, he became a self-proclaimed activist.
He helped rescue a baby calf in the middle of the night who was left out in a pasture to die. He helped bring it back to life and bonded with it - and even named is Sugar. He helped paint PETA activists in plaid to protest Burberry's use of fur. He helped get signatures to support a farm bill that will lead to humane treatment of farm animals.
He got it. Or at least started to.
And by the end of the episode, he actually admitted that even though he will continue to hunt, he now believes that animals do have rights. They have a right to humane treatment while they're alive and a right to a humane (and quick) death.
It was a really difficult show for me to watch. I've been an animal rights supporter for a long time and knew about the stuff that goes on with animal testing, the fur industry, farm animals and dairy cow treatment. But even I found myself in tears at some points during the episode. And it helped to reaffirm my beliefs that all animals - domestic, farm and wild, deserve to have a humane life and death.
Kudos to the PETA activist who opened her home to the hunter and helped to open his eyes to what goes on. He started off believing that all animal activists are just out to make a statement by using shock tactics, but ended up realizing that they do, in fact, have a very real and important statement to make. I'm just thrilled that the episode aired because I think it'll help to bring more light to the suffering that goes on that a lot of people don't know about, or don't want to know about.
Kudos to PETA. Kudos to "30 Days". But more importantly, kudos to that hunter for learning an important lesson!
**I'm trying to "hunt" down a link to the episode, and once I do...I'll post it here!
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