Animal Rights Extends It’s Lawmaking Ability
Your Mommy Kills Animals News Updates

Your Mommy Kills Animals has noticed that the animal rights movement has continued moving forward around the world with passing laws even with so many of its detractors trying hard to stop them. It seems the the clients of these detractors might want to start firing these lobbyist firms who seem to just be taking their money.

It’s been a good few months for animal rights advocates: Massachusetts banned surgeries to silence a dog or cat and a Spanish province approved a ban on bullfighting.

The silencing procedure, called debarking, severs or removes an animal’s vocal cords making it difficult or nearly impossible for a dog or cat to vocalize. Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass., signed a bill April 22 banning the procedure, which activists said left scar tissue in the pet’s throat making it difficult for the animal to breathe.

Some dogs and cats that underwent “debarking” were left wheezing, coughing and choking for the rest of their lives, said Beth Birnbaum of the Coalition to Protect and Rescue Pets. The law bars veterinarians from performing the surgery and carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail and a $2,500 fine.

“This is so remarkable, the passage of this legislation,” she told the Boston Globe.

Massachusetts may also consider making it illegal for landlords to require a cat be declawed or a dog be devocalized to rent an apartment.

Opponents of debarking said it was usually performed on dogs owned by commercial breeders and the public should understand it was done for convenience.

Animal advocates say it’s more important to understand why a pet is making noise, adding behavior modification and obedience training can help keep chronically noisy pets quiet.

Is the dog barking because it is left alone, isolated or unsupervised for long periods? Is there constant noise in the environment, especially in urban areas? Does the dog have other bad social habits like constant chewing?

Some techniques to mitigate barking include confronting a dog immediately when it starts to bark. Approach the animal and say “No!” or immediately spritz it with a blast of water from a spray bottle, BarkingDogs.net suggests. Don’t reinforce bad behavior by running to play with a dog to get it to stop barking. You have to be in charge, not the pet.

Some owners use electronic bark collars that deliver a mild electric shock when the dog begins to bark. Others leave a radio or television on when they leave home so the pet left alone won’t be totally bored.

Exercise or the presence of another pet, even a singing or talking bird, can ease isolation and be a good non-aversion barking deterrent. The Monks of New Skete, in their book “How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend,” warn keeping a dog in a rectangular outdoor dog run can encourage fence running and incessant barking in some dogs. Their advice: Enrich the dogs’ environment by turning a kennel into a fun obstacle course with bridges, tunnels, curved boards, rope toys and safely hanging toys with bells. Shrubs planted around a dog run can block a dog’s view and help keep it quiet.

In the Spanish region of Catalonia, lawmakers voted to ban bullfighting, considered a part of traditional Spanish culture, starting in 2012.

Animal welfare groups had campaigned against bullfighting for more than 18 months calling the ritualized killing of bulls barbaric and outdated.

However, observers said bullfighting has been on the decline in the region for years and had been mainly a draw for tourists. They contend an end of bullfighting is akin to the gradual disappearance of the afternoon siesta as Spain modernized.

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“This is a historic day for all who have worked to promote animal rights in a modern society like ours,” animal rights activist Jose Ramon Mallen of Fundacion Equanimal told the New York Times. “This is not about politics and Catalan identity but about ethics and showing that it’s simply wrong to enjoy watching an animal getting killed in public.”

Catalans have long sought greater independence from Madrid and the rest of Spain.

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Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Your Mommy Kills Animals from filmmaker Curt Johnson.

Your Mommy Kills Animals Part Full Movie By Curt Johnson

In Your Mommy Kills Animals, the animal rights movement gets a spanking in this scathing documentary that shines a bright light into the dark corners of what the FBI has called the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the country.

What is revealed, in addition to the usual bunny huggers, whack jobs and fire bombers is not much of a threat from the activists, but a scary threat to the U.S. Constitution by the government itself. This is a sometimes shocking film with some truly gruesome images, but it should be seen by anyone who loves animals, or who contributes regularly to the Humane Society of the United States, to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or other large, national animal rights organizations. You need to know where your money is going and for what purpose, because you probably don’t. You also need to know what your federal government is doing to erode your freedom of speech via Your Mommy Kills Animals.
(Your Mommy Kills Animals, Your Mommy Kills Animals, Your Mommy Kills Animals, Your Mommy Kills Animals, Your Mommy Kills Animals.)
This documentary consists mostly of talking heads, along with archival video of whales being harpooned, dogs being beaten, skinned animals, laboratory animals, women in fur coats being harassed by angry young men with bullhorns yelling obscenities, corporate leaders being similarly harassed, arson, breaking and entering, vandalism and all sorts of activism by scary true believers. The video, consisting of Internet, TV clips, hand-held camera videos taken by activists and other sources, is of wildly uneven quality. The overall effect, however, is a fairly well-rounded viewpoint of animal activists. Sometimes they come across as reasonable, other times wacko, and other times self-contradictory. It is a mixed bag, but it is fascinating and thought-provoking for Your Mommy Kills Animals.

The film tackles a variety of topics, including the difference between animal welfare activists and animal rights activists. According to Patti Strand of the National Animal Interest Alliance, an animal industry and owners group, animal welfare activists support the humane and responsible use of animals, whereas animal rights activists would deny people’s ownership of animals or use of them for any purpose, including companionship. Others in the film are depicted as saying that some animal rights activists argue that animals have the same rights as people and that any action to free them is justified.

The film makes a number of attacks against the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). One incident highlighted in the film indicates that two PETA employees picked up a number of animals from an animal shelter and killed them. A PETA spokesman defended the killing of animals by saying it was the humane thing to do. The argument seemed to be that death is better than life for animals forced to live in a cage, or at home with private owners. One of those commenting on this “culture of death” in the film is author P.J. O’Rourke, who noted that PETA hates people, loves animals, but kills them anyway (the Norfolk, VA. shelter reportedly kills over 80 percent of the animals it receives, while some city shelters find homes for that same percentage). O’Rourke said, “We all hate people, but there’s got to be a better outlet for this. Can’t you just be rude, or acerbic, drink too much or something?” The title of the film is from a gruesome comic book published by PETA for distribution to school children entitled Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Another organization which takes it on the chin is the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). David Martosko of the Center for Consumer Freedom, funded in part by food companies, had a zinger for HSUS (and more for PETA and others). Martosko said, “The Humane Society of the United States has no relationship to any animal shelter anywhere with the name humane society. They don’t run a single pound, a single adoption center anywhere … The money [from donations] goes to a $100 million a year animal rights lobbying group in Washington.” He added that if most people knew that their donations don’t go to support their local animal shelter, HSUS donations would dry up and blow away. Former Playboy model Shane Barbie said that HSUS swept into hurricane ravaged New Orleans, got a lot of publicity and donations and left the animals behind. “They left in October, while still asking for money,” Barbie said. This sentiment was echoed by several others on the show, including representatives of the North Shore Animal League, Pooch Heaven, Best Friends Sanctuary and other small groups that actually did rescue a lot of New Orleans animals after Hurricane Katrina, as did the military. HSUS, however, did a better job of public relations than those other groups did, in part, because it was the official lead agency for animal rescue after the disaster. According to the documentary, HSUS was under investigation for how it used the money it raised for the Katrina disaster. Patti Strand of the National Animal Interest Alliance, cited a magazine article saying that HSUS spends more than half of its donations to raise more donations. Randy Warner of 21st Century Cares argued in the film that HSUS, PETA and other large organizations have raised some $10 billion over the last 51 years without much to show for it in the way of improving the lot of abandoned animals in the U.S.

Michael Mountain of Best Friends Sanctuary points up the sad state of abandoned pets in the U.S. with a story of a German couple hiking in the mountains. They found an abandoned cat and her kittens and brought them to the sanctuary. They asked Michael where all the animals at the sanctuary came from. He replied that they came from other animal shelters which had no room for them. He said that most animal shelters have to kill abandoned pets because they lack the resources to take care of them. The German couple was shocked. They said, “You mean in this country they kill abandoned animals?” They said in Germany it is illegal to kill abandoned animals. Neither governments, nor all the animal rights and welfare organizations, nor all their lobbyists and their billions of dollars and all those millions of American animal lovers have managed to solve the relatively simple of problem of abandoned pets.

The attacks on the big, national animal rights organizations are summed up by Shane Barbie: “If you are still contributing to HSUS … or PETA or any of these big corrupt organizations that are just an empty shell, they’re another Enron, then you’re an idiot.” Your Mommy Kills Animals.

The documentary also takes aim at some of the more extreme animal rights organizations, including the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which has been known to commit vandalism, arson, breaking and entering and other illegal acts. The documentary shows fires set by ALF activists, vandalism, animal releases and some video of animal experimentation shot by ALF activists. There is an interview with owners of a mink farm which said a release of minks by ALF activists cost them $500,000. Both the owners and ALF members said they are not backing down. Several ALF spokesmen are seen in the documentary talking fondly of Molotov Cocktails used to start fires. It seems any illegal activity is justified in the minds of ALF activists. In this regard ALF was compared to anti-abortion extremists who bomb abortion clinics and kill doctors and nurses. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Another group featured in the documentary is Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty (SHAC) a group bent on stopping product testing on animals by Huntington Life Sciences. SHAC activists are highly confrontational. The are shown demonstrating in front of Huntington facilities, as well as banks and other financial institutions connected with Huntington. In one scene, they confront the wife of an executive, pounding on the door of her house and shouting at her with a bullhorn. They seem enraged with the woman. Their tactics seem to work. The Bank of New York dropped Huntington, as did the brokerage firm Charles Schwab. Merritt Clifton, editor of the Animal People News, disputed SHAC’s accomplishment, saying all it was doing was driving companies like Huntington to other countries where they could more easily operate in secret with less public or government supervision. Seven SHAC activists, called the SHAC Seven, were convicted of multiple violations of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and were sentenced to from one to six years and fines of $1 million. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

One of the defendants, Josh Harper, said this is what he was charged with, as part of a talk he gave at a college, it was about what he called “ … Electronic civil disobedience. You take three sheets of black paper and tape them end to end to end. One end of the paper goes in a fax machine and you dial the number of, say any corporate exploiter that you might have in mind or a financial institution that is supporting, you know, animal cruelty. You dial the fax and once it begins going through, you tape the back end and you tape it to the front end so it runs in a continuous loop.” Your Mommy Kills Animals showed this for the effect it was.

Several people in the documentary said they were very concerned by the conviction of the SHAC Seven for what amounted to words on a web page in some cases. In other cases the so-called terrorism was more like a high school prank. If the SHAC Seven can be convicted for saying the wrong thing, then what is to stop the government from convicting anyone for saying any unpopular thing that government officials don’t like. It seems as though the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act is being used not to protect the public, but certain narrowly-defined corporate interests. In this particular case, the law is not being used to protect a corporation from property damage or physical harm to its employees, but from social and moral opposition to the company’s animal testing policies. Isn’t the right to oppose such policies supposed to be protected by the Bill of Rights? the movie asks. The government’s use of the Patriot Act to aid the food industry is also touched upon. Actress Margot Kidder hoots about Homeland Security vehicles escorting Buffalo to the slaughter house to protect them from Mike Mease’s Buffalo Field Campaign and other activists armed with video cameras. “More money that brains,” she said of the feds for Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Several people in the movie said these convictions will not stop the animal rights movement. One of the convicted, Josh Harper, said the conviction would not stop him. In fact, he said, it might lead him to more extreme actions. If he is going to prison for talking, he said, then why not break some windows and do some real damage that might have more tangible results? Harper and some other leaders of SHAC and ALF said a number of things in the film that might lead one to conclude that they might do any kind of illegal action to further their cause, and no law is going to stop them. The film argues that the animal rights movement has had positive impacts on child welfare, and it has led to better legal protection of animals from mistreatment. Several people in the film argue that the cause of animal rights will continue into the future, regardless of attempts to stop it. The animal rights movement, like gay rights and the right to life movement, are all in it for the long haul. Your Mommy Kills Animals is a real eye-opener. (Your Mommy Kills Animals.)
Your Mommy Kills Animals from filmmaker Curt Johnson.


Enjoy the full version of Your Mommy Kills Animals from filmmaker Curt Johnson.
Your Mommy Kills Animals full movie film.

Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 12 Films By Curt Johnson

You can hurl the murder, poverty, and injustice of humanity in the faces of millions, but nothing seems to rile the masses like the plight of animals. Those helpless little creatures tend to get the short end of the justice stick, battling cruelty on a routine basis. It’s enough to make you want to scream…or firebomb an animal testing location?

“Your Mommy Kills Animals” is a documentary probing this prickly issue, looking at the insular world of the animal rights activist and their kryptonite: the passionless, deliberate thinker. It’s unquestionably a flaming hot-button issue for a film to cover and one that necessitates a full-bodied level of patience with both sides of the argument. Of course that argument seems to be: animal activists – are they out of their damn gourd?

Director Curt Johnson, in a stance of directorial bravery that is seldom showcased, doesn’t appear to be taking a side towards either extreme, keeping a level head while he wades into these tumultuous waters. While no documentary can be completely objective, “Mommy” holds its ground impressively trying to tenderly extract points from both sides of the argument. With a subject that holds as much venom as this one does, “Mommy” remains amazingly poised.

The war waged in the film is one between the radical animal rights groups and those who live to reveal the hypocrisy of their actions, or at the very least pinpoint the danger of fighting fire with fire. “Mommy” details the rise of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the ivory tower of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), but it pays special attention to the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) collective.

A band of brothers dedicated to shutting down the Huntingdon Life Sciences Corporation by radical means, the group is underlined because they are one of the first to be tried for their actions under U.S. terrorism laws. Of course, it bewilders this group of unwashed twentysomething hipsters how they could be considered in the same league as Osama bin Laden, and “Mommy” splurges on an enormous amount of screentime trying to sell the absurd point that the U.S. Government considers animal activists to be the number one terrorist threat to America; however, there are several moments in the film where that branding seems completely justified.

Johnson isn’t interested in a simple smear campaign; that would be too easy. The general make-up of the average animal “defender” is young, low on smarts, and ready for an obscene amount of troublemaking. The affiliations give them a purpose, and all too often, their actions swerve into violence (the aforementioned firebombing is a popular choice) and reactionary tactics that fail to further the cause; often burying the purpose under charred remains of foolish execution.

“Mommy” does focus on these passionate pirates for Poopsie, but comments are also made by the older, rational animal advocates, who have insightful arguments and potent theories behind their passions. It was a blast of cool air on a hot summer day to hear coherent folk express themselves instead of scream obscenities and cowardly play the misdemeanor game. On the flip side, incisive arguments against the groups are made by equally composed individuals, though it’s revealed some may be swinging from the governmental teat. A shame, but a reality.

“Mommy” skips through the fields of ridiculous celebrity endorsements for animal groups, the eternal debate on fur, political motivations, and the effect the groups are having on these testing facilities. One of the better tangents centers on the fallacy of PETA and the Humane Society – two groups who have made it their mission to pimp lies for maximum profit and publicity.

To keep potential viewers aware, “Mommy” contains some footage of animal abuse and assorted cruelties. It isn’t incredibly graphic like a PETA video, but there’s enough to disturb. I’ve seen people tear up when a dog is simply scolded for bad behavior, so it’s best some viewers know what they’re getting themselves into. Thankfully, Johnson uses the footage to strengthen his points, not just adding them for shock value.

“Mommy” is a difficult movie to watch, but an important one to consider. If the production can’t quite find the bloodied core of the issue, it conveys the climate exceedingly well, conjuring fury, pity, and befuddlement often in the same instant. When it comes to creatures of nature, it’s a slippery slope, yet “Your Mommy Kills Animals” informs and entertains in the face of unimaginable stupidity and horror. If you give a damn about animals, this is a documentary you shouldn’t miss. Your Mommy Kills Animals from the very promising filmmaker Curt Johnson.

Your Mommy Kills Animals By Curt Johnson

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Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 11 Films By Curt Johnson

Your Mommy Kills Animals Documentary filmmaker Curt Johnson presents both sides of the rift caused over the ‘be kinder to animal issue’ in an evenhanded manner. He covers the touchy subject in his in-depth lively look at the rift between the opposing groups fighting the same struggle: animal rights activists (pushing a radical agenda of eliminating all violations of animals) and animal welfare advocates (who mostly want better treatment for the animals). Both advocate groups for the furry creatures take different tactics in their fight, and the filmmaker spends time clearing up their point of views by having their spokesmen tell what each wants.

The outlandish title is derived from a graphic PETA comicbook filled with animal atrocities. Of all the parties involved in the conflict, the group that comes out in most disfavor is PETA. We learn that PETA has no problem murdering animals and dumping them in shopping center dumpsters to get publicity for their cause, and being hypocritical about their actions. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

The political message of the film is derived from the FBI’s ranking of animal-rights activists in its 2005 report as the nation’s No. 1 domestic terrorism threat. This astonishing fact is analyzed during the course of the film, as all self-righteous groups with uncompromising beliefs in their cause are lumped together as dangerous to society. It doesn’t seem to matter if these groups are the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), Animal Liberation Front (ALF) or Al-Qaeda. With the implication being that Bush couldn’t catch Osama, so to get the heat off his back he goes after the easier animal rights target.

One physician, Jerry Vlasak, makes a case for using violence against doctors involved in animal research. The gentleman, speaking in a soft tone, proposes that if these doctors don’t understand they are doing violence then the only way to show them their errors is through violence. His extreme views are met with a host of other activists with considerably more temperate views and more crafty political strategies in dealing with the issue. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

The filmmaker doesn’t seem to accept any group’s point of view carte blanche, but instead provides some vital info for the viewer to be more informed. An intelligent viewer might wonder if medical advances made through animal testing and animal products is worth killing animals for, and that no definitive answer can be given tells you how complex and ethically trying are the issues raised. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Johnson presents a bunch of explosive questions about the issues in a straightforward way, and makes no pretenses that he knows all the answers. But such a rational approach is a good way of cutting through all the emotional clouds that only make things more difficult to deal with. This film shines a clear light on the dark controversy surrounding our treatment of animals, and is a must-see for those who are even just casually interested in the subject-matter. Your Mommy Kills Animals by filmmaker Curt Johnson.

Enjoy Your Mommy Kills Animals from filmmaker Curt Johnson.

Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 11.

Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 10 Films By Curt Johnson

With a title like Your Mommy Kills Animals I was expecting Curt Johnson’s debut documentary to devolve into a PETA manifesto ripe with imprisoned KFC chickens, bloody under cover pictures of a rendering facility, or piles of euthanized puppies. Borrowed from a PETA produced comic, the title is a provocative over the top reference to the film’s general point of view but no way reflects the actual content of the surprisingly even handed documentary. In fact, both the national organizations of the Humane Society and PETA declined to be interviewed for the film.

And even more shocking is the disclosure that PETA actually kills most of the animals that it takes in—close to 80% of them. They may use “humane” lethal injections, but the odds are very much against any cute puppies lasting more than a few days under PETA care. (And don’t expect any dignified burial in a Gates of Heaven like pet cemetery—more likely a mass disposal in an urban dumpster bin). The Humane Society doesn’t fare much better, but they generally do kill far fewer homeless pets. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Smaller organizations like Best Friends (located north of the Grand Canyon) fare far better; they and individuals are shown assisting animal rescue during Katrina while larger organizations remain as absent as FEMA. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Johnson’s film delineates a number of groups dedicated to animals, primarily classifying organizations as either animal welfare groups or animal activist groups. Citing familiar roots of revolutionary protest and reformation inherent with abolitionists and suffragettes, representatives British organizations like the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty eloquently plead their case against inhumane animal laboratory testing. In contrast, the PETA president withers badly when confronted with the fact that she would’ve been long dead without her animal tested insulin injections. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Your Mommy Kills Animals doesn’t tread a one-sided path that glorifies animal activists mindlessly. A frequent target of animal welfare activists, a couple of commercial mink farmers explain their business—describing both the ecological and economical devastation whenever activists break in and free their caged stock. While their claims of an aftermath of bird kills and mink road kill are disputed readily, it’s harder to dismiss their stories about threats directed at them and their children—once again demonstrating that Gandhian non-violent resistance is more effective for righteous campaigns. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

What primarily propels Johnson’s documentary, revolves around the issue of what makes an effective protest and just how the recent U.S. Patriot Act has been invoked to declare some animal activists as the #1 terrorist threat in the U.S. Accosting fur laden matrons on the street or making home visits to corporate CEO’s with megaphones chanting “Puppy killers” is one thing, but advocating fire bombing of laboratories and constructing a website promoting radical law breaking is another. How weird is it that the federal law originally designed to go after Osama Bin Laden and Al Quaeda has settled for animal rights activists as their top target? Your Mommy Kills Animals.

The film follows a few of the SHAC-seven (Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty) as they prepare for a federal indictment. Their defense doesn’t come cheap, and they can’t afford any high power legal team to come to their rescue during the trial phase and then effectively plea for constitutional rights of free speech protection during the sentencing. Mild mannered Josh Harper seems like a giant puppy dog himself, yet he is legally bludgeoned with a 3 year sentence and million dollar fine. And his isn’t even the most extreme sentence. You can almost see George W. chuckling over the “success” of his Patriot Act.

Filmed on a miniscule budget with an official home page residing on My Space, Your Mommy Kills Animals won’t be appearing at your local multi-plex nor is it likely to run very long at art house theaters when it begins its mid summer run in 2007. Keep your ears open, however, and check it out when it arrives in town. It’s a tightly constructed and thoughtful film covering a wide canvas of animal welfare and rights issues that rightfully will provoke meaningful discussion—a welcome relief from the usual summer fare. Your Mommy Kills Animals brings a nice change of pace.


Enjoy Your Mommy Kills Animals from filmmaker Curt Johnson.
Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 10.
Your Mommy Kills Animals thanks everyone who helped make this movie and supported it through everything for our film Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 9 Films By Curt Johnson

Your Mommy Kills Animals although kindness toward animals is their common ground, there is a huge rift between animal rights activists and animal welfare advocates.

It is my understanding that animal welfare people believe animals may be used for almost anything (including “working” as circus performers, horse- and dog-racing, seeing-eye aides, some experimentation), as long as it’s done humanely; animal rights people do not believe that animals should be used in any way (this includes experimentation and food-sources of course, but even the riding of horses and the keeping of house pets is akin to slavery to the strictest of rights protestors).

Your Mommy Kills Animals, a Curt Johnson documentary, explores humans’ treatment of animals from both the animal welfare and animal rights sides. (The title of the movie is borrowed from a comic book that PeTA hands out to children.)

This film does show some pretty harsh footage, including the beating, bludgeoning, evisceration and skinning of animals—however, it also shows happy pets, idyllic settings in no-kill shelters, and people hugging bunnies. It’s balanced 50/50, but whatever you consider to be the most “outrageous” parts are more likely to resonate with you personally.

Mostly, Your Mommy Kills Animals focuses on qualified people talking about the issues. The film touches on everything from the history of the humane societies to experimentation, to rescues in New Orleans after Katrina, to the furrier business, to Hollywood’s activism, to freedom of speech and the politics of terrorism. There are some very well-spoken people on both sides of the issue (Shane Barbi, Mike Mease, and especially David Martasco come off particularly informed and competent), and it’s interesting to see all kinds of people being allowed to say whatever they want without being put on the defensive by the filmmakers. (Some of the bigger money-making groups, such as PeTA and The Humane Society of the United States, chose not to participate. It’s easy to see why, once you’ve viewed this unforgettable film.)

Your Mommy Kills Animals does not have a point of view like a Michael Moore movie; it is not at all dramatic like a Werner Herzog documentary; it’s not arty like The Kid Stays In The Picture; nor is it emotional like the works of Ken Burns. Although it’s presented in a static manner that mostly focuses on talking heads, Your Mommy Kills Animals will more than likely still draw you in with its unbiased approach—and, no matter where you stand on the issue of animals, you will definitely learn a lot about people.


Enjoy Your Mommy Kills Animals from filmmaker Curt Johnson.
Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 9.

Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 8 Films By Curt Johnson

The animal defense movement (or more accurately movements) gets remarkably direct and balanced treatment in this conventional but effective documentary by Curt Johnson, which gives all sides the opportunity not only to express their points of view but to challenge their opponents as well. “Your Mommy Kills Animals” is essentially a montage of interviews, file footage, off-the-cuff shots, photos and stills designed to disentangle the different approaches taken by people to protect animals from what they see as abuse. It achieves its goal with considerable skill and energy.

The picture distinguishes between the “animal rights” and “animal welfare” movements The former are the more extreme activists who use radical means—picketing outside people’s houses, breaking into labs that engage in experiments on animals, releasing animals from farms—to achieve their ends, leading to their being labeled as terrorists and prosecuted as such. (One of the major linking devices in the film is the trial of seven members of SHAC, an animal rights group, with the outcome withheld until the end, and a good deal of attention is devoted to the Animal Liberation Front.) The “welfare” people are those who seek to mitigate the abuse of animals by attempting to assure that when they’re used for testing, for instance, it’s done as humanely as possible. (One of the more moderate commentators suggests, for example, that the SHAC-ALF types are doing more harm than good by forcing animal testing operations out of countries where they can be kept under observation to regions where they can’t.) Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Another important distinction the picture draws is between large, bureaucracy-heavy organizations like the Humane Society of the United States and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and smaller outfits that are likely to be more dedicated. The script is particularly strong in criticizing HSUS for being nothing more than a lobbying group and PETA for euthanizing a very high percentage of the animals they claim to rescue (from the description here, the latter might better be described as an animal control organization). It’s also very good in pointing up the blithe ignorance of celebrities who donate their names to such organizations without knowing exactly what (or how little) they actually do. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

“Your Mommy Kills Animals” ties all this together remarkably well, offering not only a wide variety of opinions but an expertly chosen and edited one, and Anthony Rodriguez’s camerawork is first-rate. The result is a documentary that both informs and entertains, and that will invite animated debate—which is precisely what a good documentary should do like Your Mommy Kills Animals.

The title, incidentally, comes from that of a PETA-sponsored comic book that a particularly astute critic uses to criticizes the organization’s tactics. Your Mommy Kills Animals from Curt Johnson won’t be soon forgotten.


Enjoy Your Mommy Kills Animals from filmmaker Curt Johnson.
Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 8.

Your Mommy Kills Animals from filmmaker Curt Johnson.

Your Mommy Kills Animals from Filmmaker Curt Johnson.

Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 7 Films By Curt Johnson

With a wonky title, a horrifying introduction, and an altogether strange sense of chaos and order, Your Mommy Kills Animals presents a portrait of America’s most prolific in-house terrorist movement: the Animal Liberation Front.

An umbrella term for the animal rights movement, ALF does not include high-profile organizations such as PETA or The Humane Society of the United States, both of which declined to be interviewed by the filmmakers. Instead, the film, like the activists, does its work at the grass-roots level. For all its awkwardness, YMKA is a documentary for thinkers that offers dense and comprehensive representation of animal rights as movement, ethic, culture, and law. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Named after an offensive PETA pamphlet, YMKA is not particularly even- handed in terms of craft but brilliantly even-minded in terms of argument. Director Curt Johnson establishes the complexity of the animal rights issue by creating parallels between activists and their opposition. The film begins with insider footage of a beagle beaten in a lab before cutting to ALF activists verbally accosting fluffy bourgeois women on the streets of New York City. Johnson hits at this double standard constantly, questioning if violence to fur carriers and carnivores is somehow preferable to violence done to innocent animals. These displays on the streets, as well as the recurrent bombings of testing labs, releasing of animals bred for fur and food, and the harassment of the executives (and their families) of Huntingdon Laboratories (the world’s leader in animal testing) are why ALF has earned the “terrorist” moniker. When the FBI put Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), a group dedicated to protesting animal testing, on their terrorist watch list, two strangely complementary things happened: six of SHAC’s leaders were charged with terrorizing Huntingdon employees through their website and people—all of the sudden—took notice. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

As the main evidence of wrongdoing involves inflammatory content found on SHAC’s website, as opposed to evidence of assault or damage perpetrated by ALF activists, the case against the SHAC 7, a reference to the six charged leaders and their organization, hangs on issues of free speech and this broadens the trial’s reach considerably. All of the sudden, puppies take a backseat to the issue of first amendment rights and those who stand for the SHAC 7 include enclaves of indie art-house youth likely more concerned with parental advisory notices than with freeing lab rabbits. Nonetheless, SHAC 7′s trial is worth millions, and represents a wet blanket for ALF recruitment. But that’s one thing this movement doc doesn’t portend: This movement doc may show you a great deal of graphic, horrifying, and potentially scarring footage of animal cruelty but it isn’t trying to recruit members, and what feels like a lack of propaganda makes the film all the more cogent, intelligent, and powerful. Your Mommy Kills Animals is a truly balanced documentary by Curt Johnson.


Enjoy Your Mommy Kills Animals from filmmaker Curt Johnson.
Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 7

Your Mommy Kills Animals Curt Johnson.

Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 6 Films By Curt Johnson

Curt Johnson’s first feature Your Mommy Kills Animals bodes well for his future as a filmmaker. The ever-controversial subject of animal rights vs. human rights is remarkably balanced: those who believe “companion” animals should have the same advantages (or more in the case of Hollywood) pitbulled against those who love their fur, cosmetics and insulin.

(Your Mommy Kills Animals, Your Mommy Kills Animal.)
The overt enemy of the purposely underground Animal Liberation Front is Huntington Life Sciences—a UK-based international corporation that is not averse to killing bunnies, dogs and monkeys so as to make the planet safer for humans. But how to get the message across to the bloody-value-for-shareholders’ executives? Easy: bring it to their workplace and homes. Through many clips from the archives, those who experiment on the cute, helpless creatures are berated and, well, barked at via megaphones and gruesome posters that bring a wholly different meaning to “there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

Many of these protests are organized and “researched” by public charities such as SHAC (Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty—an in-your-face band of activists whose antics are first noticed then indicted by the FBI) and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—a much more up-scale army of do-gooders, whose legion of celebrity supporters keeps the balance sheet strong even as some of their employees seize, kill and dump thousands of critters who were facing certain death in various types of shelters). Your Mommy Kills Animals.

The shelters themselves come in two distance types: (a) those (“humane” societies everywhere) whose Society-for-the-Prevention-of-Cruelty-to-Animals values have a fixed shelf life (once expired the largely abandoned, comfort-giving pets are efficiently dispatched) (b) those (e.g., Michael Mountain’s Best Friends Sanctuary) that are the animal hostelry of last resort for the infirm or no-longer-wanted-on-life’s-voyage creatures. Turns out that the Humane Society of the United States is a whiz at pulling in cash (reportedly spending 50%+ of its millions on fund-raising should yield some success), but barely made a dent in the carnage in Katrina’s wake—humans only were evacuated. Just ask their competing—oops, I mean complementary—not-for-profit sisters of support, and, unbeknownst to the easily confused public, flows nary a penny to the hundreds of humane society locations in the fifty states. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

But wait! The balaclava-sporting ALF starts to have some success. Animals are “released” (many to face an uncertain if, nonetheless, “free” future in the wild), buildings are vandalized and torched (one member gives a very informative “how to” demonstration), and—the coup de grâce—Huntington Inc. is dumped by the New York Stock Exchange and its primary banker. Now its war for Your Mommy Kills Animals.

In 2005, the government of America declares ALF and its supporters to be terrorists—“bunny huggers” are as dangerous as Osama bin Laden. But like insurgents everywhere, they’re hard to find and then forced into cages of their own. No worries. The SHAC-7 (led by twenty-somethings Kevin Djonaas and Josh Harper—the latter’s physique and demeanour are marvellously reinforced by Drew Carey’s brief but effective comment: “PETA can blow me.”) are indicted (yet released in just four hours—what kind of terrorist is that?), put on trial and, inevitably, given the “sleepy,” elderly jury (hardly judgment from their peers) and the skillful presentation of evidence of the “direct action” of others, convicted. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Perhaps the wisdom of the more experienced whale protector, Paul Watson (most recently featured in Sharkwater, cross-reference below), might have kept the angry young men out of the clink. Clearly on the opposite side of those who by words or deeds try to protect the defenceless animals is David Martosko. Looking resplendent in a custom-tailored suit and silk tie, the mouthpiece for the Center for Consumer Freedom takes huge delight in humiliating his adversaries whether it be Mary Beth Sweetland’s, (PETA Vice President) dependency on insulin (couldn’t have it without animal research) or chesty model Pam Anderson’s “horror” at artificially enlarging chicken breasts for profit (the accompanying images could well become the benchmark for “Do as I say, not as I do.”). Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Sadly, nothing will ever change. Like chasing the cheapest labour in the most corporate-friendly jurisdictions (compellingly documented in Shipbreakers, cross-reference below), if vivisection doesn’t happen in New Jersey, it will find a home elsewhere. So the animal carnage, similar to war, will continue unabated. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Inadvertently, Johnson’s film works even better on another level (and one that should be delved into as soon as his schedule permits and his quartet of executive producers finds the cash). With so many charities vying for public and government cash to improve America’s track record of being “kind” to man’s best friend, little progress has been made. Can that be the only “good work” organizational initiative that has become moribund and mired in the greed (both power and cash) of its advocates and staff?  Your Mommy Kills Animals leaves us thinking on many many levels. Your Mommy Kills Animals.


Enjoy Your Mommy Kills Animals from filmmaker Curt Johnson.
Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 6

Your Mommy Kills Animals from filmmaker Curt Johnson

Your Mommy Kills Animals from filmmaker Curt Johnson.

Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 5 Films By Curt Johnson

In the first few minutes of the shrewdly named Your Mommy Kills Animals, we’re told the U.S. government named the animal rights movement the #1 domestic terrorist threat in 2005. We spend the rest of the documentary determining whether that’s a legitimate assessment or a desperate strategy.

If you’ve never pegged the animal rights universe as painfully complicated, think again. Director Curt Johnson, producer of the 2002 short Thoth, stirs a whirlwind of history, opinions, and first-person footage that’s the most accessible, thorough chronicle of animal rights ever put to film for Your Mommy Kills Animals.

The Animal Liberation Front. The SHAC 7. PETA. They’re all covered here, and Johnson makes no apologies for leaving the uninitiated in a ball of confusion. These groups’ approaches — and sometimes extreme tactics — are wildly diverse, and often contradictory. And that’s the point. Johnson slyly asks: When well-meaning activists feel their way is the only way, when does ego and self-preservation take over? Your Mommy Kills Animals.

One group feels animals should be treated with the same moral consistency that protects humans, and that it’s noble to do whatever is necessary to ensure that. Another believes euthanasia is preferred to homelessness. The entire movement seems full of political jockeying, power plays, and occasional hypocrisy. Somewhere in the middle beat hearts of courage and sincerity. Somewhere on the outside is a suspicious U.S. government.

It’s impossible to view Your Mommy Kills Animals without seeing it as a greater metaphor for all extremist activism. We see hardcore groups like the SHAC 7 conduct protests with enormous aggression and antagonism, and find their demands get met. Does that mean their approach is most effective? It’s difficult to form an opinion when a movement’s most vocal members seem obsessed. Part of you sympathizes deeply with their courage, especially when Johnson includes unbelievably horrific images of abused animals; and part of you wants to smack some of them for acting like self-absorbed little twits. Your Mommy Kills Animals.

In one instance captured by Johnson’s crew, a small group of activists verbally attack an older woman on the NYC subway, nailing her for wearing fur. The phrase spat at this women and similar offenders is usually ‘you fucking pervert.’ When another subway rider comes to the woman’s rescue, he asks the man behind the camera what he thinks. We never really find out because he hits the crew of Your Mommy Kills Animals.

But Johnson’s documentary goes into deep enough detail to inquire, for instance, why PETA is so popular with today’s celebrities. Access to stars like Jessica Biel, James Cromwell, and Katherine Heigl help spice up the proceedings, especially when the film is weighed down by an over-reliance on talking heads. Johnson is smart enough, though, to include on-camera characters like Shane and Sia Barbi — yes, the famed Barbi twins — whose activism sits somewhere between admirably pragmatic and downright dopey. Your Mommy kills Animals.

One of the greatest summaries of the ongoing issues is provided by a gentleman who runs a ranch-style rescue shelter. In professing his love and respect for animals, he points to his pens and calls the residents ‘my kids.’ And in acknowledging the same affection of the many divided factions, he states, ‘And no one wants to be told how to raise their kids.’ That’s a damn good nutshell for Your Mommy Kills Animals.

For those interested in the origin of the title: It’s the name of a PETA-released comic book allegedly distributed to kids. In true propagandist form, it contains some disturbing visuals that seem specifically aimed at raising controversy. I’m sure they do. And I wouldn’t be surprised if this complex documentary does as well as Your Mommy Kills Animals.

Man, that’s ruff. Your Mommy Kills Animals, curt Johnson, INdie genius

Enjoy Your Mommy Kills Animals from filmmaker Curt Johnson.
Your Mommy Kills Animals Part 5