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 fledging 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 documentary film poses questions we seldom ask, and more seldom answer -- and lets viewers reach their own conclusions.

Discover new documentary films here.

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Format: DVD
Producer: NFB (Canada)
Studio: Passion River

Release Year: 2005
Running Time: 72 mins. min.
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Letterbox

Rated: Not Rated
Language Tracks: English
Sound: Dolby Stereo
UPC: 85070000103-5