An Animal Rights/Vegan Activists' Strategies Article used with permission from All-Creatures.org

Bill Crain discusses the recent film “The Sheep Detectives” from an animal welfare perspective and reflects on the power of media geared toward children to help us recognize the sentience of nonhuman animals.

A Movie Awakens Our Childhood Love of Animals
From Bill Crain, Cofounder, Safe Haven Farm Sanctuary
July 2026

Lamb at Safe Haven Farm Sanctuary. Photo Credit: Edwin Irizarry

I recently participated in a meeting of writers who have called attention the plight of nonhuman animals. Many of us shared a sense of frustration. Our efforts to promote animal welfare haven’t produced the changes we hoped for.

Our most common focus has been animals’ suffering and early death in the food production industry. We have been urging people to stop supporting the industry with their pocketbooks, and adopt plant-based diets instead. But a 2023 Gallup poll found that only 4 percent of U.S. adults said they were vegetarian. Those identifying as vegan comprised 1 percent. These figures were similar to those in 2012 and 2018. Less prominent polls suggest increases in vegetarianism, but only by a few percentage points. It appears that plant-based diets have yet to catch on in any big way.

A major explanation is the force of our Western cultural tradition. With the exception of pets, our culture has typically viewed animals as vastly inferior to us—often as physical objects incapable of reason or true emotion. For centuries, most Western philosophers have claimed that we have no moral obligations toward them. And how often we have heard people say, “They’re just animals.” A society with this attitude doesn’t need to worry about how it treats them.

One category of people defies this norm: children. They love animals and want to protect them. The media knows this, and it features animals in books and films targeted to them. Examples include “Charlotte’s Web,” “Free Willy,” “Babe”—and now the movie, “The Sheep Detectives.”

The new movie, based on a novel by Leonie Swann, is about sheep who find the person who killed their beloved shepherd. In the process, they learn some hard truths about life and develop a new attitude toward those they have ostracized. The ending is heart-warming.

It’s my impression that the movie enthralls adults as much as children. This is true of everyone I know who has seen it. On the Internet, numerous adults have said they were surprised by how much they enjoyed it. Terms like ‘moving,” “charming,” and “emotionally deep” abound. I believe the film makes people believe in the potential goodness of life.

Sheep at Safe Haven Farm Sanctuary. Photo Credit: Bill Crain

In some ways, the movie’s depiction of sheep is realistic. This is very true of the delightful way the lambs play and jump about. But this film, like most in its genre, engages in anthropomorphism, giving human qualities like the ability to speak fluent English to nonhuman animals. “The Sheep Detectives” is even more anthropomorphic than most, suggesting that some sheep possess the human intelligence to solve a murder mystery.

Future books and movies in this genre might give more attention to animals’ own, unique capacities. For example, in many species the senses of hearing and smell are much keener than ours, and artistic works might depict their use of these senses. At our farm sanctuary, many species exhibit a deep sense of peace that is rare in humans. “The Sheep Detectives” merely hints at these kinds of special strengths.

All the same, the movie makes me more hopeful about the animal welfare cause. The movie explicitly promotes vegetarianism and is captivating audiences of all ages. Its popularity suggests that the childhood love of animals has power in our culture. Let’s have more movies that awaken this love.

Bill Crain is cofounder of Safe Haven Farm Sanctuary in Poughquag, NY. His books include “The Emotional Lives of Animals and Children” and “Animal Stories.”

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Posted on All-Creatures.org: July 8, 2026
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