Experts seen in the film
Aaron Leider - PLAINTIFF (with actor Robert Culp) Aaron Leider vs. LA ZOO
“Part of my goal is I don’t like the lies, I believe we have to show the truth and the truth is that elephant that’s standing before you has got nothing to do with a wild elephant–nothing at all--that is a broken being...”
Armaiti May - Member, Vetenarians for Animal Rights
"You can help stop the suffering of animals just by cutting your meat consumption in half. It's not saying you shouldn't go vegan; it's helping people make that change on their own terms.”
Betsy Wasco - Attorney, Member, Christian Vegetarian Society
“By not eating meat and flesh, by not consuming dairy products, by not condoning scientific experimentation on animals...when I do things like that, I'm acting in a manner consistent with my thoughts and feelings. It feels great. It feels great.”
Brooks Fahy - Executive Director, Predator Defense
“A lot of these people are anti-science, anti-anything but killing. It's kind of a dominion thing, where we feel we need to control everything.”
Bruce Wieland - Marketing Director, Farm Animal Campaign, PETA
"Dairy cows may suffer the worst of all...for a dairy cow to be useful, it has to be kept perpetually pregnant, so that cycle is repeated and repeated, until the cow's body breaks down and it is no longer useful.."
Cat Jones - Founder, Sea Lion Defense Brigade
"There are hundreds of millions of dollars in the fishing industry, not to mention the power industry, that are putting a lot of pressure to find any kind of scapegoat,anyone but themselves."
Chris DeRose - Founder, President, Last Chance for Animals, author, In Your Face
“The AETA (Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act) makes everything we do our investigations, the demonstrations, the civil disobedience, makes everything we do not only a felony, but a terrorist act.”
David Casselman - Attorney, founder, wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia
During cross examination, LA Zoo staff stated that bull elephants like Billy like to be alone. “I called them on that and they said yes that’s true, and I said have you ever seen a wild bull elephant? No. Have you ever studied wild bull elephants in any capacity? No. Has anybody at the zoo studied wild elephants? No. Has anyone onsulted with anyone outside the zoo who studied wild elephants? No. Then I brought in the world’s foremost wild elephant expert, Joyce Poole from Norway, who said it’s absolutely ludicrous to claim wild bull elephants live alone.."
Elaine Close - Coalition to Abolish Animal Testing
“As an activist if I try to talk to people about animal experimentation, they will literally back away from me and say 'I believe in animal research'. And that's not science.”
Garth Griffin - Supervisor Biologist, NOAA
"Our monitors are starting to document a large number of predation events between California sea lions and at risk or in this case ESA listed salmon stocks."
Howard Lyman - Author, "Mad Cowboy", former cattle rancher
“Look what happened in the Oprah suit...the industry is willing to spend millions and drag you through court. We were in court for 6 years. It cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars for standing up and telling the American people the truth.”
Jack Devine - Founder, Macaw Landing Foundation
"Smuggling macaws is the second most lucrative trade after narcotics in South America. A hyacinth is actually worth more than cocaine provided by the pound."
Jerry Vlasak - MD, Press Officer, North American Animal Liberation Front
"...about 85% of all the data in animal research is thrown away, it's not even published. And of the 15% that is published, almost none of it turns out to be useful for human health purposes."
John Deck - Deck Family Farm
"When you look at humane practices, it often runs counter to the financial bottom line, so what we've had in this country is this race towards producing a lot of food very cheaply."
John McDougall, MD - Dr. McDougall's Health & Medical Center
"If men really knew that they would become less virile, less attractive, more at risk of disease...by eating that beefsteak, or piece of chicken or fish, they wouldn't do it. But I don't have millions of dollars a year to advertise that."
Kyle Bisson - Elk hunter
“I hunt for food. I like the flavor of the venison and I like to put the meat on the table.”
Matt Love - Historian, writer
“These people who have been sitting on this hatred, now they are going to be unleashed because no jury on the coast is ever going to convict these people. If they're killing them in the Columbia Basin, who's going to convict someone who's doing it on their own in Tillamook Bay?”
Matt Rossell - Campaigns Director, Animal Defenders International (ADI)
"We're all part of the same web of life. What we do to harm animals eventually comes back to hurt us."
Ray Greek - MD, Americans for Medical Advancement
"There are a lot of special interest groups who profit from this and they do have an effective lobby on Capital Hill."
Robert Cheeke - Vegan body builder
“...when I said I am going to go from this skinny kid to this strong bodybuilder and be in muscle magazines and be on this vegan diet, that’s going to get people to take notice and it did... In fact it's been the most effective method I've ever taken to promoting veganism, and reducing animal cruelty has been precisely that, leading by positive example.”
Stan Kramien - Magician, former circus owner and animal trainer
“I suddenly got religion...elephants are very smart, very bright, they are close to being human, and they don't deserve that kind of treatment.”
Tony Carr - Former lab tech, Oregon National Primate Research Center
" Issues of ethics have been systematically marginalized in science to the point that they effectively don’t exist."
Tony Vecchio - Former Director, Oregon Zoo
"I know there are lots of kids in Portland that this will be their only chance to see an elephant, and I take that responsibility very seriously. We're the place where kids will get to see a live elephant."
Wally Sykes - Founder, Trap Free Oregon
"They want people to fish, they want people to hunt, they want people to trap and they want people to buy licenses."
The following individuals and organizations declined to be interviewed on camera for this film:
Jim Newman, Press Officer, ONPRC (Oregon National Primate Research Center)
Kim Smith, former Director, The Oregon Zoo
Patti Strand, National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA)
Teresa Platt, former Executive Director, Fur Commission USA