Anthony Bellotti wants Americans to know that animal experimenters are doing terrible things… to their tax bill.
In a novel “pro-animal, pro-taxpayer” campaign, the White Coat Waste Project is telling people all about the $12 billion they are handing to vivisectors annually for experiments that are redundant, inapplicable to humans, and sometimes downright bizarre. The government is the largest funder of animal experimentation in the U.S., and the White Coat Waste Project wants to get the experimenters “off the dole.”
Join us for an eye-opening look at university lobbyists, grant proposals recycled for decades with minor changes, and economic stimulus money misspent on animal testing. A Republican himself, Bellotti hopes that all taxpayers — “Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, vegetarian” — will take a hard look at animal experimentation and demand that the government turn off the money tap.
Our feature interview today is with Patrick McDonnell, creator of the Mutts comic strip that is featured in over 700 newspapers. His “Shelter Stories” strips have convinced many people to adopt animals instead of buying them. Other strips gently bring tougher topics like factory farming, fur, and seal hunting to his readers. McDonnell will chat about the real-life animals who have inspired him, and what the day-to-day business of being a cartoonist is like. Above all, he says, the most important message he tries to convey through Mutts is “have empathy and be kind”.
Then, we will hear from the organizers of the second Niagara Veg Fest, happening June 2nd in St. Catharines. Keri Cronin and Laurie Morrison will tell us all about the speakers, vendors, food demonstrations, prizes, music and merriment that visitors will find there. They would like to make sure listeners know that the event is in a bigger venue than last year! So if you live nearby, come out (admission is free!) and discover all the veggie goodness your community has to offer. And if you don’t live nearby, come anyway and make a holiday out of it in one of Canada’s most picturesque regions.
18 years ago, Robert Cheeke was a “scrawny kid” who raised and sold animals through the 4-H program. Now, he is the best-known vegan bodybuilder in North America. He joins Animal Voices to tell us about this physical, and ethical, transformation.
Ever wonder what dinner looks like for a vegan who eats 5,000 calories per day? Or how to bodybuild without spending a fortune on food? And even if strength training isn’t your thing, Cheeke has many lessons to share with us from years of doing positive and enthusiastic vegan outreach inside a culture that still mostly embraces meat, eggs, and whey as essential foods.
Big companies all use research to understand public opinion, hone their message, and measure their effectiveness. Shouldn’t animal advocates be able to do that, too?
That’s what Che Green had in mind when he founded the Humane Research Council. The HRC does research for animal advocacy organizations large and small (sometimes even for free!) and vegan-oriented businesses. Their tools include surveys, focus groups, and before-and-after assessment of campaigns’ impact.
How can research like this help animals? Green has some stories for us, like the survey that convinced tour companies to fund spay & neuter programs at their tour destinations. What are some of the current trends in fur sales, meat consumption, and vegetarians “backsliding” into meat-eating? What should you study in school if you want to do this kind of work? Green will answer these questions and more in this interview!
Check out some of HRC’s free resources for activists: HumaneSpot.org, a treasure trove of research papers and data, Humane Trends, a “barometer of the status of animal protection in the United States”, and the Animal Tracker Graphing Tool.
Animal Voices welcomes two guests to the show. Soraida Salwala is the founder of the “Friends of the Asian Elephant” hospital in Thailand, where over 3000 elephants have been treated since 1993. Windy Borman is the maker of the film The Eyes of Thailand, which tells the story of two elephants who received artificial limbs at the hospital after losing legs to landmines.
Windy and Soraida will tell us how the film has been received, and then go on to discuss two topics: the treatment of elephants and the progress of the international campaign against landmines. We will hear about how and why elephants are used in Thailand and Myanmar/Burma, and shipped around the world to zoos and extravagant hotels. And we will learn about the Mine Ban Treaty, what it does, and why some countries (including the U.S.) still won’t sign it.
P.S. If you didn’t catch our earlier interview with Windy, go check it out! It’s devoted to the stories of Mosha and Motala, the elephants who were given a second chance to walk again.
Margaret Robinson, author of Indigenous veganism: Feminist Natives do eat tofu, joins Animal Voices to speak about how Mi’kmaq values, as expressed in legends and her own family stories, dovetail with veganism.
Along the way, Robinson will tackle questions like: Does authenticity require that a culture be frozen in time? Is awareness of dietary control of diseases and food justice issues reversing the notion that vegetarian food is just for the wealthy and white? Robinson asserts that “we can be visible as modern native people, and we get to decide what that looks like”. With meat, cheese, and other animal products featuring so prominently in traditional foods around the world, Robinson’s words will resonate with anyone who has felt a tension between their vegan values and their culture.
Dr. Richard Ryder would like to change how you think about the best way to help animals.
Ryder, whose animal activism résumé spans 40 years, notes that we usually weigh the goodness or badness of actions using two theories: utilitarianism (often expressed as “the greatest good for the greatest number”) and individual rights. But does “good for the greatest number” make sense? The pain a cow feels is not increased or diminished by whether there are a dozen, or a billion, other cows suffering just like her. Therefore, argues Ryder, we should always help the animals who are in the most pain, without regard to how many of them there are.
This simple notion suggests radical changes of direction for a movement where the number of animals suffering — or spared from suffering — is often emphasized. Ryder discusses it at length in his book Speciesism, Painism, and Happiness, and will chat with us about both the philosophical and practical consequences of the idea.
Incidentally, Dr. Ryder invented the term “speciesism”, and he once leafletted some guy named Peter Singer and got him interested in animal liberation. Ryder will share his reminiscences from the animal rights community in Oxford in the 1970s.
Justin Watson, creator of the Facebook page Atheists and Rational Thinkers, joins Animal Voices to talk about intersections between atheism and veganism. Watson will tackle some big questions about searching for right and wrong in the absence of a divine authority. And as the moderator of a very large and active debate forum (67,000 likes and 280,000 “talking about this” as of this writing!) Watson will share with us the lines of argument that have been most effective in persuading participants to get serious about animal issues. Above all, Watson reminds us that it’s important to be “preachy” about things that matter: it was just one relentless questioner who started him thinking about animals, eventually leading him to make animal rights a major concern on the forum.
Since founding Vegan Mainstream in 2009, Stephanie Redcross has provided consulting and marketing services to vegan entrepreneurs in sectors as diverse as publishing, food, fashion, retail, and travel. Today, Redcross joins Animal Voices to talk about how vegans turn their passion and talent into successful businesses. We’ll cover defining your market (hint: for vegan products, the target market is never just “vegans”), understanding how ethical consumers buy, and navigating the tricky territory of aligning your brand with specific activism. Tune in and you’ll also hear about the niche Redcross thinks is just waiting for business-savvy vegans to fill. Budding animal-friendly entrepreneurs, this show is for you!
Andy Alexis-Baker discusses A Faith Embracing All Creatures, a new edited volume that addresses some of the most common questions asked to and by Christian Vegetarians and Vegans. Authors such as Carol Adams and Stephen R.L. Clark tackle such questions as “Didn’t God give man dominion over animals?”, “Doesn’t Christianity regard humans as superior to animals?” and, of course, “Was Jesus a Vegetarian?”
Whether you’re a Christian trying to reconcile your compassion for animals with your faith, an animal activist trying to engage with Christians, or just fascinated by religious history and the nuances of Christian scripture, this interview is sure to captivate!
In a novel “pro-animal, pro-taxpayer” campaign, the White Coat Waste Project is telling people all about the $12 billion they are handing to vivisectors annually for experiments that are redundant, inapplicable to humans, and sometimes downright bizarre. The government is the largest funder of animal experimentation in the U.S., and the White Coat Waste Project wants to get the experimenters “off the dole.”
