Fourth week of Suffering: Could it get worse for a turkey?

JANUARY 26, 2010

Today in class we watched I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA. It was fascinating. I didn't really know anything about PETA before watching the film so I absorbed it with a clean slate. Ingrid Newkirk is quite the controversial figure in animal advocacy, but I applaud and celebrate her for being a woman who is true to herself and to what she believes. I understand why people are so quick to form negative opinions about PETA, mainly because the actions of these individuals begin to scratch the surface of the facade around animal cruelty and on a subconscious level it makes people uncomfortable.

I have encountered very few individuals in my short lifetime that have the spark I saw in Newkirk while watching this film in class. She is very direct and intelligent, and watching her interact with other people on the screen was convincing and honest. I don't feel the same intensity for her passion towards animals, but I understand her drive and resulting cynicism from a lifetime of witnessing and combating animal cruelty.

I experienced another emotional eruption in class during the film. An undercover investigator was describing how he had witnessed his "co-worker" at a Butter Ball turkey factory sexually assaulting a turkey with his finger in the last few moments of her sad and pathetically cruel existence. I literally had my head on the table, buried in my arms, and was sobbing uncontrollably for what felt like several minutes. I had a very difficult time regaining control over my muscles, as if my empathy had provoked a physical reflex. I started to see how the physical act of weeping for this raped and murdered turkey was my defense mechanism for protecting myself from the painful mental images I was creating in my mind while only hearing about this account.