Animals, a film by Jason Young

Could you kill your own dinner?

For most of man’s time on earth, we killed what we ate. With the rise of cities, we left the butchering to professionals. But after trading his home in Toronto for a farm in Nova Scotia, Jason Young went back to nature: “If I was going to continue eating animals, I was going to raise them myself.”

So begin the struggles of a fledgling farmer with his livestock – and his conscience. The result is a thoughtful documentary film about a stormy issue: eating meat.

Though neighbors advise him not to treat his animals as pets (“He is food, you know,” warns one farmer), Jason bonds with them: Ellie the sheep. Alfalfa the goat. Gretchen the rabbit. And JB the calf. “I wanted to give my animals the best life I could as a balance for their inevitable end.”

Inevitably, the end comes for his favorite: JB. “Nobody keeps a full-grown steer as a pet.” Then, Jason has a life-changing epiphany. But whose life is changed?

Filmed with striking beauty in the rolling Canadian countryside, ANIMALS poses questions we seldom ask, and more seldom answer — and lets viewers reach their own conclusions.

Print PDF

Related Posts:

• Food Inc.
• Earthlings
• The Cove

animal rights, farming, homeseading