She meets with representatives of Redux Pictures—though they are supportive, they express doubts about her work being published—and then has dinner with a group, one of whom, Martin Rowe, offers to be an editor for her photobook.

McArthur next visits Farm Sanctuary, where she and Susie Coston, the organization's director, discuss the importance of a personal connection with individual animals.

McArthur follows Melanie and Mark as they adopt Abbey, a second beagle, and talk about the difficulties Maggie experienced when it came to adapting to her new life.

McArthur compiles photographs for her book alongside footage of marine mammal parks and the voice of Lori Marino, who criticizes the institutions.

[3] Speaking about McArthur's presence in the film, Marshall said that "it became increasingly clear that I needed a central human narrative to help anchor the animal stories, and Jo was that natural fit for me".

[5] Mirroring McArthur's photographic approach, Marshall intended to make the film about "individual animals used for human profit and consumption".

[2] This online presence partially served to create a viewership base prior to the film's release, with Marshall hoping to attract a broad spectrum of animal advocates.

[5] Marshall explained that The Ghosts in Our Machine is "a film, a documentary website, a Vimeo channel, an active community-building Facebook page [and so on.]

[7] Using the example of the segments of fur farms, Hawkes suggested that focusing on living animals was "ultimately more powerful than a dozen shots of bloody pelts and butchered corpses".

[7] A similar sentiment was expressed in the Los Angeles Times, in which the critic Betsy Sharkey contrasted The Ghosts in Our Machine to the work of Michael Moore.

[9] For Sharkey, the animal rights message is combined with a story about activism; "both narrative threads are compelling", she suggested, in this "finely wrought" documentary.

[8] Though David DeWitt, writing for The New York Times, suggested that he could not "imagine anyone not feeling moved during" Ghosts in Our Machine, he worried that McArthur may appear "extreme" to some viewers.