Peaceable KingdomDirected by Jenny SteinA Tribe of Heart Documentary70 minutes
Do you know what the number 20,050 means to factory-farmed animals? It means that in just the U.S. alone, for every minute that passes, 20,050 of their kind die in factory farms without ever having a chance to live a happy life. In America, we have what are called “meat liable laws,” which places restrictions on speaking out against meat consumption, often making it illegal.
The UMB Animal Rights Club, whose mission is to promote a “non-hierarchal vision,” and to “build bridges with human rights groups,” recently held a public viewing of the powerful and educational film Peaceable Kingdom.
Before the film began, the club spoke out about what they referred to as the wheel of violence and the wheel of compassion: how each spoke of violence depended on another to keep the cycle working and how it may be possible for the wheel of compassion to replace the wheel of violence.
Psychology professor Melanie Joyce told us about how, “bearing witness is the first step toward change,” since atrocities such as mistreatment of animals and any other kind of accepted violence are, “enabled by those who ignore.”
I already had some idea of what I was getting myself into, having seen other footage of stockyards, slaughterhouses, and factory farms – but for me, seeing it again is as powerful as seeing it for the very first time.
Peaceable Kingdom begins with a man singing to happy roosters and some children playing with other farm animals and asking questions. We meet the leaders of the Sanctuary, a haven for rescued agri-animals in upstate New York, who explain what they do; save the animals and sponsor adoptions, much like the adopt a child organizations in underdeveloped countries.
Lorrie Bauston and her husband Gene started out selling Tofu Pups (a meatless hot dog) out of their green Volkswagen bus at Grateful Dead concerts in the eighties. We hear turnaround stories of others who once owned or worked in stockyards and factory farms. One man in particular, the man singing to the roosters in the beginning of the film, was a factory farm owner who’s spinal cord grew a tumor, and he had a one in a million chance of walking again. After this traumatic event, he realized that all the money he ever made and all the things he ever did meant nothing to him, because he couldn’t walk. But he managed to beat the odds and ended up walking out of the hospital, after which he had become a changed man and could no longer do what three generations of farmers before him did.
Peaceable Kingdom was incredibly pleasing for a number of reasons. Other films I have seen about agriculture animals are incredibly intense. PETA regularly shows footage of factory farms and they are just non-stop torture to watch, literally and figuratively, and though the point seems to be made, I really think that having that pushed in ones face might turn some people off, and perhaps it numbs them. Peaceable Kingdom manages to overcome that problem by inter-cutting footage of the unfortunate animals with scenes of hope, of the Sanctuary, and how the Bauston’s cope with their grief by saving an animal and operating their organization.
What really left a strong lasting impression was witnessing examples of the mistreatment. I can’t seem to get the image of those cow’s wide eyes and bellowing fear out of my head, but at the same time the idea of hope and knowledge that there are things we can do about it reassured me that there was movement in a positive direction, although it seems to be a monumental task.
Seeing Peaceable Kingdom was informative and enlightening. It got my thumbs up, when I stopped wiping my eyes.
For more information, contact the UMB Animal Rights Club at [email protected]. For info on the film Peaceable Kingdom go to www.tribeofheards.com
