The X-Files and Animal Rights.

I’m so glad it’s a three-day weekend.  I plan on lounging around, eating awesome vegan junk food, and watching the complete DVD boxset series of one of the greatest shows of all-time, the X-Files.

Not only does this show play on all my beliefs in government conspiracy and cover-up, it actually had a lot of animal rights themed episodes.  And although most of the episodes had messages and lessons that can be related to the struggle for animal rights, a few in particular had strong animal rights themes.

Here’s a list of my favorite animal rights themed episodes:

Red Museum.  Mulder and Scully investigate a cattle town where teens are being abducted and returned with the words “he is one” carved on their backs.  Everyone suspects a weirdo vegan cult but it turns out the teens were experimented on with a Bovine Growth Hormone and human/alien spliced DNA.

Fearful Symmetry.  Animal liberators modeled after the ALF are suspected of letting zoo animals out of their cages resulting in numerous deaths and fatal attacks by the animals.  The episode makes a great case against zoos.

Our Town.  Weird deaths are occurring in a small town that is the home a of chicken factory.  People start going crazy with a mad-cow like illness.  Mulder and Scully discover that the townspeople are becoming ill from eating each other similar to how left-over chicken parts are fed to other chickens as a “good source of protein.”  

Darkness Falls.  Thirty loggers are killed while deforesting Washington State.  Turns out they broke the law and cut down ancient protected trees which released a killer insect living inside the trunk.

When I first started watching X-Files, back when I was a kid, I didn’t even know what a vegetarian was let alone a vegan.  It’s cool to look back and see all the things that positively influenced me without even knowing it.

I guess the mindset I got from X-Files was, when it comes to people trying to tell you that you “need” to eat meat and dairy to survive, Trust No One.