A 34-minute documentary about animal rights, the film looks at the impact of our almost complete dependence on plastic bags, which we use and discard carelessly every day, often to dispose our garbage and kitchen waste. Not only are these bags a hug…
A 34-minute documentary about animal rights, the film looks at the impact of our almost complete dependence on plastic bags, which we use and discard carelessly every day, often to dispose our garbage and kitchen waste. Not only are these bags a huge environmental threat, they end-up in the stomachs of cows, who, either because they've been discarded because they're not milking at the time or because the dairy owner is unwilling to look after them, have to fend for themselves and forage for food, which, like other scavengers, they find in community garbage dumps. Owing to their complex digestive systems, these bags, which they consume whole for the food they contain, get trapped inside their stomachs forever and, eventually, lead to painful death. The film is also a comment on the religious hypocrisy of the cult of the holy cow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SifRIYqHfcY
https://karunasociety.org
Synopsis: (NOTES FROM THE FILMMAKERS)
The Plastic Cow focuses on the plight of cows, who are increasingly becoming unwitting victims of the ubiquitous plastic bags, which we use and carelessly discard every day.
It’s very common now to find scores of cows, stray and abandoned by their owners because they’re unwilling to feed them, walking about unattended in cities and towns and, usually, congregating around garbage dumps. Among the junk they feed on there are the plastic bags that we’ve put our garbage and kitchen waste in and discarded. And, because cows can’t open these bags, they eat them whole for the rotting scraps of food inside them.
Unlike us, and many other animals, cows have a complex digestive process that doesn’t allow these plastic bags to pass out of their system. As a result, the toxic plastic accumulates inside their stomachs for years and, eventually, leads to a slow and painful death of the animal. Unless, of course, the cow is operated on and all the plastic waste is extracted from its stomach. In a surgery shot for the film, 53 kilos of plastic waste were extracted from one cow’s stomach! But, surgery, which is expensive and lasts many hours, is not the solution to this problem. While this documentary looks at various issues, such as the cultural and religious importance of cows and the widespread use of plastic in almost every aspect of life today, and the amount of garbage we generate every day, the focus of the film is on the human cruelty to cows, who suffer because of our excesses and carelessness.
