Transcript: Ant: "Please Respect All Animals"

[ant walking to podium]

Ant: [clears throat.] I am ant 14c, a representative from Pinky's AntFarm™. I have a message for all human beings willing to listen to an ant perspective.

Consider this typical situation: an ant is walking across a tabletop, or maybe across a sidewalk. Without hesitation, for no apparent reason, a human being will often reach out with their finger or foot, and smash the ant.

Please think about this: death is not fundamentally different for ants than it is for human beings. When you press your finger down on us and crush our delicate bodies, you extinguish the life force within us, and send our tiny spirits along on their way. Maybe you don't care because we're so small. Or maybe you believe that all animals are just so far below human beings. But we ants know that human beings are capable of feeling compassion. We hope that in the end you will decide to treat us, and all other animals, with respect.

Ants understand that people will, sometimes, accidentally step on us because you are large and don't look where you are walking. We also understand that sometimes you may become very hungry and have no choice but to eat some of us in order to survive.

But please remember that ants, together with all of our animal friends, are feeling, sensing beings, just like human beings are. We are capable of suffering, just like you.

I am ant 14c, and this is the end of my appeal to you. For the sake of emphasis, I will now be crushed, so that you will remember these words better. Good-bye. Pinky.

Pinky: Ant. I'm sorry.

[ant crushed]

<end transcript> Credits: Ant: "Please Respect All Animals"

episode number:	060410-01
release date:	April 10, 2006
writing:	Ant 14c
research:	Ants
bibliography:

Animal Liberation. Peter Singer (Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 2002). note: This is the Third Edition; the First Edition was printed in 1975.

narration:	Ant 14c
video:	-
music:	-
sound effects:	Bunny & Pinky
drawings & illustrations:	Pinky
animation of walking ant:	Bunny
titles:	Pinky
photo credits:

product photo: Uncle Milton's Ant Farm Brand Live Ant Habitat. (note from Pinky: If you own an Ant Farm, please don't shut the little doors, otherwise the ants won't be able to come and go as they please.) < http://www.unclemilton.com/ > product photo: Apex 435 condenser microphone (we don't really use this microphone). < http://www.apexelectronics.com/ > scientific illustration: This beautiful drawing was done by Australian artist Geoff Thompson. The information included with this illustration is as follows: "Iridomyrmex purpureus group [Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Dolichoderinae] Meat-ant worker, ink on scraperboard © G. I. Thompson, 1993." Please visit his website and read the section on technique. < http://geoffthompson.net/ > scientific illustration: this is a photograph that I found on the internet a while ago, I just kept it because it was so beautiful and weird to me. I didn't think of using it for anything other than just looking at, so I didn't write down where I found it. If anyone knows the source or scientist/artist who created this photograph, please let me know. painting: This is an oil painting by Jacopo Bassano, probably painted around 1570, and represents the Garden of Eden. This painting is now in the Galleria Doria-Pamphili, Rome, but we found the digital version on the web at: < http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/ auth/bassano/garden-eden/ > illustration: ...of a boot. If you do a search for "boot" on Google, this picture pops up in several places, but none of them appear to be it's original source. So, if you are the artist of this boot, please let us know! painting: a 15th century portrait by Giovanni Bellini. This painting is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

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