1.

What struck my as initially powerful of this video was the fact that George was willing to go
on this journey to begin with. He initially was pretty reluctant to what he was being told, and I
think in his mind none the animals he was eating were suffering. As he went through the 30 days,
what I think really changed his mind when he realized that many times the animals DO suffer
and some suffer greatly. He obviously prided himself on killing his hunts humanely and quickly.
What I feel pushed him over the edge was his first hand experience with the calf he later named
Sugar. I got the impression that really shook him and gave him the push to change his paradigm
on the subject.

2. Almost right off the bat Geroge actually offered a quote that really struck me as Dualism when
it comes to the idea of “I think therefore I am” when he says “because I can think, I have the
right to put whatever I want on my plate”. What I think is the idea of the mind, George is stating
he has conscious thought therefore he is welcome to eat what he chooses. This is very inline with
the concept of man thinking of animals as machines and therefore devoid of moral consideration.

When talking with some of activists and at the farm, George tells her “certain animals are meant
to be eaten”. This is very much an approach to not taking these animals into moral consideration
in any way. In his paper “Animals are Machines”, Descartes says “It rather shows that they have
no reason at all, and that is in their nature which acts in them according to the disposition of their
organs, just as a clock...”. George is seemingly getting at he feels these animals have a singular
purpose and that is to be food for humans and they are the way they are due strictly to biology.

3. At one point while George in doing the demonstration he more or less he trusts businesses to
tell him and consumers how they are treating the livestock prior to it becoming food. The PETA
advocates discuss how industrial our food production has become, it’s done in the name of
saving the end consumer money at the cost of terrible treatment of the animals. Merchant
actually discusses the shift in outlook of how we view the earth saying “The change in
controlling imagery was directly related to changes in human attitudes and behavior toward the
earth”. George definitely demonstrates this with how he initially felt towards commercial food
production. We see commercials of how farms are being ethical, treating their cows, chickens,
pigs, etc morally, failing to realize in order for these companies to produce food on such a
massive scale there almost has to be some disregard for the earth and the creatures that roam
upon it.

During Georges’s stay in the home and on the farm and even in his interactions with people
during the demonstrations we truly see Sylvan’s point that “there isn’t a single ethical system
uniquely assumed Wester civilization”. During the documentary we truly such a large spectrum
of how people view the ethical treatment of land and animals. Sylvan points out how in many
other ehtical issues such as infanticide and womens’ rights there are more accepted ethical stand
points. But in the show both sides demonstrated polarizing opinions and very different
approaches in how they view animals.

I think the last comment that struck me as perfect support for Carolyn Merchant and her concept
of us switching from an organic way of viewing the earth to a mechanistic conception was
Geroge debating if how dairy cows are kept is natural or ethical. The PETA advocates point out
these cows are kept in small cages their whole lives and how unnatural and unfamiliar this is.
Geroge almost without skipping a beat asks how it can be unfamiliar if the cows don't know
anything else. Merchant would argue this a prime example of how industrialization has fractured
our organic world and how we view the earth in an entirely different manner than our ancestors
would of thousands of years ago. We see an obvious shift in how western civilization views the
treatment of these cattle. Merchant makes the comment “As long as the earth was considered to
be alive and sensitive, it could be considered a breach of human ethical behavior to carry out
destructive acts against it.”. But as Geroge’s attitude, especially with the cow demonstrates over
and over again is a tragic combination that animals are machines as Descartes argues that
Western civilization has completely departed from an organic view of the earth as Merchant
states.

4. We really didn’t see a change in George at first, he completely resents the sanctuary director
and her view of animals. Her world outlook was so drastic compared to his he felt like he needed
to defend his viewpoint, since she also felt the same need, they reached an impasse. It was at this
point I didn’t think anything PETA attempted to show him would work to change his opinion.
What it took to really get through to him was when he saw an animal he did feel was worthy of
moral consideration, being killed en masse at the animal shelters. During his tour he actually
states “How do you destroy an animal that trusted it’s family?”. In this moment I think his
paradigm shattered, he saw that maybe all animals needed to have their rights and their feelings
taken into account, that they aren’t just food.

The second time I think he changed his mind on the whole idea of being an animal advocate was
when he saved the calf he later names Sugar. Earlier he had seen calves thrown to the side of the
road like trash, and that bothered him. But by saving this calf he was able to prevent that an
effect a rescue and then nurse the animal back from the brink of death. He tells the PETA
advocates “feels to have saved this calf”. He even stops by to see the calf prior to flying back to
his home. As he gives the last interview he tells them he considers himself as an animal
advocate.

5. When George returns home and decides he will still hunt, initially I think it seems like a
contradiction, how can you advocate for animals, but then also go out and hunt? However from
the very start Geroge emphasizes he treats the animals respectfully, uses every part of them and
makes every attempt to be humane. I think George was going to return home and make very
selective choices in what he eats and how he treats and views animals. Also based on his reaction
to vegan foods I could see him begin to eat more and more vegan choices and get away from
mass produced meat products. The moral framework he most closely ended up following was
Merchants concept of nature being alive and being careful how we treat it. Going forward I think
that George will hunt less often and take greater care when he does.

I don’t think it is a contradiction. Initially when I was younger I had a very bad outlook of
hunting and didn’t like the idea. But more and more I’ve been shown through studies and
research that due to how humans have moved and taken up space it is necessary to hunt and keep
these populations in check. For example Bores are hunted via helicopter with AR15 in Texas
because they are multiplying so fast, this has caused loss of crops, injury to life stock, farmers
and other issues. I believe that this is a way of looking at the ethics of it all using Merchant’s
concepts “the world we have lost was organic”. By being very selective of how much and how
often we hunt we are attempting to get away from being mechanical and industrious and be
organic and attempt to restore some semblance of regaining what we’ve lost.

6. As George returns home I expect he will maintain his perspective, despite the fact that his
friends are not going to share his view point and he does point this out to the PETA family he’s
living with. But despite all of this I feel the lessons he learned were so hard to see, so hard to
cope with that they have left a scar, a permanent imprint on his outlook of ethical treatment of
animals.

The fact he saw dead calves but was then able to spend nearly two weeks nursing it back to a
healthy, loving animals is an experience that is very visceral and will stick with him. He has seen
the pain and agony on these animal’s faces, in their body language and this doesn’t just go away.
The PETA advocates also imparted with him knowledge that he will be able to always call on,
especially in terms of questioning how this food was treated before it was food.

I think that the hardest thing that is going to be detrimental to George will be the fact that his
friends, and family do not share the same view and he could become complacent. He said he
loves meat and his desire to eat meat needs to be less powerful than his desire to make sure
animals are treated ethically.

7.

I do not like PETA, I love animals and have hated how I’ve seen animals treated in videos I have
come across, it truly sickens me. However I feel that PETA often crosses a line and there are
numerous confirmed reports of some awful thing PETA has taken part of. I remember a video of
sheep being sheared and how PETA had gone undercover and this was the standard around the
world, that sheep were treated horribly. However so many industry experts came out and stated
how incorrect this was, many wool farmers also made statements that this is not normal and there
are numerous sources to verify this. But despite my concerns with how PETA operates, I think
many people have the right ideas at heart when it comes to how animals are treated.

In a day and age when verifying stories, or any other information you hear is easier I hope people
are always checking their sources and not blindly following any information. I did this when I
was younger and it really hurt my view of hunters. Not to say all hunters are out there for the
right reasons, but we can’t vilify an entire population of people because they MIGHT be doing
something bad.