Last night for my Academy Series class we watched The Sea Inside and heard from the producer. I actually enjoyed the movie a lot more than I was expecting to. This afternoon I’ll be going to a luncheon to hear a lecture by the woman who adapted Memoirs of a Geisha to the screen.
Last night I also went and saw Heather Mills McCartney (Paul McCartney’s wife) talk about her work on land mines and animal rights. She was like, “I’m about to show you hidden-camera footage of cats and dogs in China being skinned alive for their fur. I’m sorry to have to show you this, but words can’t convey it. I think you really have to show people what’s happening in order to motivate them to change it. Just watch as much as you can, then turn away when it gets to be too much.” From the audience there was sort of a collective, “Um….” then the film was rolling. I’ve never been afraid I might vomit in the aisle of the theater before, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. I guess it’s too slow and expensive to actually kill the cats and dogs, so they literally just put a collar on them, tie them to a pole, and start cutting their fur off with a knife. This happens to about 2 million cats and dogs in China each year. The fur is then dyed to look like fox or mink or whatever, or even fake fur, mislabeled as such, and then used to make coats or jacket linings sold in the U.S. and Europe. It was incredibly revolting.
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