Do you think threatened & highly stressed animals should be used for fun & entertainment value? Animal Liberation Qld are calling for a ban on rodeos after two bull deaths last weekend. At the very least, ALQ want a ban on the calf roping event which is banned in Victoria and SA.
We talk with Revekka Eli (pictured), lead organiser with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) Melbourne, and Rochelle Van, founder of Animal Activists Australia. They discuss the recent surge of slaughterhouse actions and restaurant disruptions, both locally and internationally, and the significance of the resulting mainstream media coverage.
We share two talks: One about vegan companion animals and the other discusses human population and why it's important to think about it in relation to animals.
We chat with Lucy's Project founder, Anna Ludvik. Lucy’s Project is busy raising awareness that "we fail to save human domestic violence victims lives when we fail to address the whole family - paws and all."
Sam Tucker is Vegan Outreach's coordinator for Australia & NZ. He's handed out something close to a quarter of a million leaflets that promote a vegan diet to end the suffering of farm animals. Consequently, he knows a thing or two about effective leafleting & gave a presentation on this very subject at Melbourne's Animal Activist Forum late last year.
Whether you're seeking a non-confrontational form of activism, or you're wanting to expand your existing activism skills & methods, listen to this presentation & learn directly from the master!
Trap-neuter-return for urban and peri-urban cats has proven to be a highly successful component for community cat population management. Why aren't we adopting these community cat programmes more in Australia when we can't actually afford the alternatives proposed? We listen to an illuminating presentation by Emeritus Professor Jacquie Rand who is the Executive Director & Chief Scientist of the Australian Pet Welfare Foundation.
Laurie Levy, campaign director and founder of the Coalition Against Duck Shooting, brings us up-to-date on the campaign to stop Victoria's routine recreational slaughter of native waterbirds, including last year's massacres at Koorangie Marshes which shocked even the Game Management Authority. He goes on to explain what we might expect this coming killing season. We also find out how to support and get involved in CADS' campaign to end this government-endorsed annual atrocity.
We speak with Kristin Leigh, the lead organiser of the campaign Melbourne Against Horse Drawn Carriages. Kristin gives us an update on some recent changes to the campaign and where it is headed in the future.
We're sharing the talk given by dedicated animal liberation activist Joey Carbstrong at last year's Animal Activists Forum in Melbourne. Joey offers excellent advice to fellow activists, concerning the fine art of vegan outreach communications, whether it be online or on the street. Drawing on his own experience, he explains candidly what works and what doesn't. Even if you just sometimes struggle with effectively communicating your veganism to your non-vegan friends, family & colleagues, this is the show for you.
In March 2018, the twenty-year Victorian Regional Forest Agreement expires & there is great concern that it shall be rolled over for another twenty years of native old growth forest destruction.This agreement has exempted the logging industry from national environment laws which means many protected species and countless others are basically bulldozed with their habitat! Take the greenwashed glasses & earphones off as we replay a chat Freedom of Species had with Ed Hill from the Goongerah Environment Centre.
We are joined by vegan neuropsychologist Dr Ash Nayate and discuss how neuropsychology can inform vegan advocacy. We also chat about activist burnout and the importance of self-care.
We're in the studio, chatting with wildlife ecologist Joshua Griffiths (pictured here) & conservation photographer Doug Gimesy (photo credit) about threats to the platypus. They also tell us about nifty 'citizen science' initiative PlatypusSPOT, new technology that detects platypus DNA in waterways, and the Victorian Alliance for Platypus-Safe Yabby Traps which has been formed with the objective of a complete ban on the enclosed yabby traps that kill platypus almost every day. Josh & Doug advise us of actions we can all take to improve the chances of this
In this episode, we speak with philosopher Michael Hauskeller about the problematic framing of animals within transhumanism. We also chat with recently completed PhD Ashley Keefner about her thesis on how prejudice impacts the study of animal minds.
This is the talk given by Brad King, director of Farm Animal Rescue (Qld), at the recent Animal Activists Forum in Melbourne. Brad details the cruelty & terrible suffering caused by farmed animals' genetic design. He also shares some wonderful stories of the FAR sanctuary residents who, now in safety, are able to express their natural range of social and emotional behaviours.
In this week’s show, we check the pulse of the vegan community in Melbourne by speaking to people at the Spring Vegan Festival that was held at the old Meat Market. We discuss the challenges facing animals, what is inspiring about the vegan movement and where people find hope.
In March this year, Darebin Council in Melbourne, Victoria, announced the next pound contractor will manage a 'no kill' shelter facility for companion animals. Our guest is a major driver of that momentous change - Kathleen Chapman from Save Darebin Pets.
This is a presentation delivered by American animal activist Gary Yourofsky, at a New York college in 2014 (with its short video section edited out). He's converted countless people to veganism with his powerful & damning argument. This presentation is just one of around 3000 that he's delivered at schools & universities across the USA & Israel. Gary also performs his spoken word piece I Will Not Stand By.
In this week’s show, we talk with Dr Mel Taylor about protecting our animals in emergency situations and look at some new research that shows a plant-based food system would be much better for our environment.
There are some animal advocates that transform your thinking and how you approach your activism. Psychologist Melanie Joy and Animal Asia founder Jill Robinson come to mind. Well, add Sandra Higgins to the list. Sandra has a clarity of purpose that will inspire and challenge you.
Sandra is the Founder and Director of Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary and the creator of the world's largest vegan advertising campaign - 'Go Vegan World'. As a psychologist, Sandra is the Director of The Compassion Foundation of Ireland.
Amanda Leeper talks about the cruel realities behind the chick hatching programs commonly run by Australian primary schools, kindergartens and child-care centres. At face value, these programs seem to be a cute cuddly experience for all involved but the reality is very different, and the learning outcomes for the children are not necessarily positive. Having successfully lobbied her local council and primary school to discontinue their hatching programs, Amanda is well-qualified to share her experiences and tips on how to speak out on behalf of these most vulnerable.
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater? It appears current feverish land clearing, mostly for pastoral animal agriculture, makes a mockery of efforts & money to protect threatened species, biodiversity & climate change mitigation.
We hear from CEO Nick Spencer and Marketing Officer Phalkun Chan of Ibis Rice, in Phnom Penh. This project of the Wildlife Conservation Society protects some of Cambodia's most endangered wildlife species, particularly the iconic giant ibis, by collaborating with local rice farmers for a win-win outcome.
We are savouring some sweet victories! We chat with Chris Delforce from Aussie Farms whose 'ag gag' charges, as well as those of Dori Kiss, were dismissed. We also chat with Andy Meddick about the recent successful campaign that resulted in a refusal to permit a new greyhound breeding & training facility .
Photo credit: the beloved Sputnik Meddick, courtesy of the Meddick family.
Be inspired by the selflessness of lamb foster carers Emma Sullivan of Animal Liberation Victoria & Luke Westmoreland of Victorian Lamb Rescue, and get angry about the enormous yet largely unknown death toll of the Australian sheep industry.
Dr Yamini Narayanan is an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Senior Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation.
Fact: In Victoria, old growth native forests, home to many threatened species, are still being cut down for low grade cheap paper products. Volunteer citizen scientists are on the front line of defence saving hundreds of hectares of forest. We speak with Ed Hill from GECO, Goongerah Environment Centre, East Gippsland. "The fact that citizen surveys are repeatedly finding threatened species in forests that have not been appropriately surveyed raises questions about the functionality of the regulatory system."
Roy Taylor interviews Justin Kerswell of Viva!. Viva! has been supporting Australian activist groups by campaigning against the sale of kangaroo meat in the UK for over 20 years.
Viva's campaign against kangaroo meat began in 1994 and had notable success with UK supermarket Tesco cancelling the sale of kangaroo meat. However the kangaroo killing industry, has not rested, and they continuesto promote their products across the world, both in supermarkets and in clothing. In 2006, Viva!'s ongoing campaign saw David Beckham refuse to wear kangaroo leather boots, now wearing cruelty-free synthetics.
Recent good news came with Morissons and Tesco removing kagaroo from their shelves, however the campaign continues, with Iceland and Lidl current campaign targets.
Please help protect Australian wildlife, for more information:
Every year, hundreds of brumbies lose their freedom & are transported for slaughter. We discuss this & find out what is going on with the wild horse draft management plan for Kosciuszco National Park with Peter Cochran of Snowy River Mountain Bush Users Group & Mae Lee Sun from Wild Horse Journal.
Photo of Trooper, a 'lucky' brumby that escaped slaughter.
Via Voiceless, the Animal Protection Institute Few Australians are aware of the real economic forces behind the production of meat, fish, eggs, and dairy.
Animal food producers rely on government subsidies, artificially low prices, and influence over legislation and regulation to provide the cheap meat, eggs and dairy to which consumers have become accustomed.
We chat with Ren Hurst, founder of New World Sanctuary. Ren gives us a lot to think about when it comes to our relationship with horses and how training can shut down a healthy conversation between human and horse, and, well, many other sentient beings!
We speak to Sally Hunter, an animal and human rights activist who works to end the oppression of all individuals. Sally describes the connections between the animal and human rights movements, what they do well and what they can learn from each other.
Lorinda (founder and president, pictured) and Natalie (committee member) explain why palm oil has become so popular in food manufacturing and its consequences for orangutans and other forest species of Indonesia and Malaysia. They also describe how Palm Oil Investigations has become a force to be reckoned with and how governments prefer consumers to remain ignorant of the ingredients and impacts of their purchases.
On this episode, we hear a talk by Dr Nick Pendergrast called Cowspiracies about Meat Eating Environmentalists: A Critical Examination of the Environmental Vegan Movement, delivered at the 2016 Institute for Critical Animal Studies Oceania Conference in Canberra, and we remember non-human mothers by reading out some stories and messages from listeners.
We chat with Sydney Fox Rescue about 1080 poison which is used to kill foxes and in its usage kills many other 'unwanted' and 'wanted' species. Andy Meddick from AJP also joins us to shed light on this very dark & cruel poison.
Anita Krajnc returns to Freedom of Species to discuss how Toronto Pig Save has inspired an animal save movement; pig, chicken, cow, sheep and soon-to-be fish save groups are bearing witness to animal suffering and changing hearts and minds all over the world. We also hear about the #pigtrial that is proving #compassionisnotacrime in the Canadian courts and garnering global media attention.
If you missed the National Day of Action for Greyhounds on April 9th, fret not. We recorded the following speakers at the Melbourne rally: Dr Eleonora Gullone, Brian Murray, Dr Helen Jeges, Kim Oxley, Dr Sonja Kassenboehmer and Jennifer Davis. We also chatted a bit further with Dr Helen Jeges about the Victorian Government's promotion of greyhound racing to children.
We speak with Philip Sutton, a climate campaigner and long time environmentalist. In 2008, Philip co-authored the book ‘Climate Code Red: The Case for Emergency Action’. Since the release of the book, Philip has continued to work on strategies and actions for achieving a safe climate. We chat with Philip about what a safe climate is and why climate change IS an animal issue.
Rethink Rodeos - Gayle D'Arcy, Animal Liberation Qld
Do you think threatened & highly stressed animals should be used for fun & entertainment value? Animal Liberation Qld are calling for a ban on rodeos after two bull deaths last weekend. At the very least, ALQ want a ban on the calf roping event which is banned in Victoria and SA.