‘Sentient’: An emotionally powerful documentary of primate experimentation through the voices of those who carried it out
The new film called ‘Sentient’ traces scientist Jones-Engel’s journey, as well as that of the macaques, from the wild and breeding farms in Asia, to laboratories in the US and the UK, where they are used to test new medicines. About 40,000 are sent each year to the US alone. Sentient features interviews with several scientists at the University of Washington, which is where Jones-Engel spent most of her career. Many become emotional while talking about their work, and the animals.
KERRY O’BRIEN: A new film called Sentient traces Jones-Engel’s journey, as well as that of the macaques, from the wild and breeding farms in Asia, to laboratories in the US and the UK, where they are used to test new medicines. About 40,000 are sent each year to the US alone…
Sentient features interviews with several scientists at the University of Washington, which is where Jones-Engel spent most of her career. Many become emotional while talking about their work, and the animals. “They allowed us to come in and talk to them because they wanted the world to know that they don’t just do this kind of work and feel nothing; that it has quite profound effects on them and consequences in their real lives,” Jones says.
Massive breeding farms set up in part of Asia, such as Cambodia, supply thousands of monkeys a year to the UK and the US for use in animal testing….
The documentary is directed by former Q&A host Tony Jones, who was inspired to make it in part by an episode of the program that featured ethicist Peter Singer, who argued that animal testing in the future will be considered in a similar way to how we now think of slavery…
Jones-Engel sees an analogy between what is happening in her former industry and fossil fuels – there is a lot of money and infrastructure tied up in the traditional way of doing things.
She is thrilled for these creatures to get their “moment in the sun” in the documentary, saying the chimpanzees had Jane Goodall and the gorillas had Dian Fossey.
Tony Jones describes Jones-Engel as “the Jane Goodall of the macaques”.
Knowledge carries obligation, according to Jones-Engel. “I had a debt to these animals, I had an obligation to these animals, and that’s what I’m doing. I’m carrying my understanding of who they are.”
Remarkably, only about 5 per cent of the drugs tested on animals – which, as well as monkeys, include mice and dogs, notably beagles – actually work for humans… Alternatives to animal testing are explored, namely artificial intelligence and advances in science that mean artificial organs can be created in labs. SOURCE
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