Episode 19: The sociologist Roger Yates discusses rights-based animal rights and the importance of grassroots vegan activism

This week on Always for Animal Rights, I am pleased to present Part One of my interview with the animal rights advocate and sociologist Dr. Roger Yates.

Roger currently runs a blog called On Human Relations with Other Sentient Beings, and he is a co-founder and organizer of the Vegan Information Project in Ireland. His 2005 PhD dissertation, which you can read here, focused on the social construction of speciesism. He was also a Press Officer for the Animal Liberation Front in the 1980's.

Some of Vegan Information Project's banners, discussed on the show

In Part One of this interview, Roger told me about what he calls "rights-based animal rights", and he highlighted why our messaging needs to convey the idea of rights rather than welfare. He also spoke about what we can learn from the unique model of grassroots vegan advocacy that is currently being used in Ireland.

The article about Tom Regan and the rights-based approach, which I mentioned in the interview, can be found here.

It's a great interview, and I hope you'll take a listen! Stay tuned for Part Two in the near future.

How to listen to this episode

Currently, CKCU 93.1 FM's radio show hosts are not physically going to the station because of the coronavirus situation, so I wasn't able to broadcast this episode on air this week.

However, you can still listen to this episode on Archive.org (or download the MP3 or WAV file) at https://archive.org/details/afarmarch182020

(Update: This episode has also been published as a podcast on CKCU's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/47483.html.)

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The next episode of Always for Animal Rights will come out soon. I will try to keep producing episodes on a regular basis-- perhaps even more often than when I was broadcasting the show on-air. I am not sure when CKCU will be open again, but I very much look forward to the day when it is and I can broadcast my show live again!

I would like to thank my listeners (you!) for your continued encouragement and moral support. :)