Episode 24: Chas Newkey-Burden discusses why vegan activism needs to focus on animal rights rather than plant-based consumerism

For Episode 24 of Always for Animal Rights, I am pleased to share my recent interview with the professional writer Chas Newkey-Burden. As part of his animal rights activism, Chas writes articles about animal rights and animal cruelty for mainstream media publications in the UK, including the Independent, the Guardian, and others.

In this interview, Chas speaks about his experiences writing about animal issues for the mainstream media, how people have responded to his articles, and how receptive the media is to publishing nonhuman-centric stories. He also tells me about why he went vegan and why he opposes "Ahimsa dairy".

This interview also covers why vegan activism that focuses on animal rights and liberation, rather than the promotion of plant-based products, is the proper way forward for the animal rights movement. This is very important for us to remember, especially since we’re seeing a surge in the popularity of "plant-based" products nowadays (which, as discussed in the interview, are often not truly vegan anyway). Animal liberation cannot be achieved through capitalism, and Chas provides compelling arguments as to why this is the case. Remember that veganism isn't about buying the latest plant-based consumer products; rather, veganism is an ethical philosophy and corresponding way of living that opposes animal exploitation.

It's a very thought-provoking interview. Here are some of Chas's articles that are discussed in this episode:

• "Burger King’s not so vegan whopper shows what happens when we believe big corporate shares our values" (The Independent, 15 April 2020)
• "Sorry vegans, Burger King's Impossible Whopper won't do anything to save animals" (The Independent, 4 April 2019)
• "If you're a vegan who wants to try a 'bleeding' burger, I'm suspicious – what's appetising about animal slaughter?" (The Independent, 12 November 2018)
• "We always believed Cheltenham Festival put profit before safety. Now we’re seeing the true moral consequences" (The Independent, 22 April 2020)
• "Dairy is scary. The public are waking up to the darkest part of farming" (The Guardian, 30 March 2017)
• "Dairy Is Scared: More People Are Discovering Its Disgraceful Truth" (Plant Based News, 8 February 2019)

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways you can listen to this episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/47680.html.
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-april-29-2020.

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram.

Until next time :)

Episode 23: Zipporah Weisberg discusses Critical Animal Studies, feminism, animal liberation, and the harms of biotechnology

This week on Always for Animal Rights, I am excited to share my recent interview with the independent scholar and animal liberation activist Zippporah Weisberg.

Zipporah, who currently lives in Spain, completed her PhD in Social and Political Thought from York University in Toronto in 2013. Over the following two years, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in animal ethics at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. In addition to having written academic journal articles and book chapters on animal ethics,  she has recently started a blog called Animal Unbound to share her observations about, as she says on her website, "the plight of nonhuman animals in our human-centred and technologically mediated world." She is also a contemporary dancer.

In this interview, Zipporah tells me about Critical Animal Studies and some of the theories of how the animal industrial complex was created. We also discuss the following topics:

• why animal liberation is a feminist issue (you can read Zipporah’s article about this here)
• why advocating for legal personhood for certain “human-like” animals, such as great apes and elephants, might be problematic
• how biotechnology harms nonhuman animals and distorts their experience of life
• why the concepts of ontology and phenomenology are important when we’re thinking about animal ethics
• where the animal rights movement is headed, and what we can do to continue advocating for nonhuman animals

Zipporah is also a contemporary dancer. In this photo,
she is dancing at an animal rights protest in Granada

It’s a really interesting interview. If you would like to read Zipporah’s academic journal articles about the topics she spoke about in this episode, you can download them for free after signing up for an account on Academia.edu (which is also free).

Due to time constraints, I was only able to broadcast the first half of this interview on the airwaves this week. However, the podcast version of this episode, which you can find at either of the links below, contains the entire interview.

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways you can listen to this episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/47631.html.
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-april-22-2020.

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram.

Until next week!

Episode 22: Elizabeth Collins explains the Abolitionist Approach to animal rights and the problems with single-issue campaigning

Welcome to Episode 22 of Always for Animal Rights! On today's show is my interview with the vegan educator Elizabeth Collins.

Elizabeth, who lives in New Zealand, has been running street stalls to educate the public about veganism since 2009, and she is also the host of the NZ Vegan Podcast. (You can find her main website at nzvegan.com). Her activism is based on the principles of Gary Francione's Abolitionist Approach to animal rights.

In this interview, Elizabeth tells me about the Abolitionist Approach, and we discuss some of the problems with single-issue campaigning. She also offers her advice to anyone who wants to start their own abolitionist vegan street stall or other advocacy initiative. As well, she tells me about what is happening with the animal advocacy movement and vegan movement in New Zealand.

I think this episode will be especially useful for those who aren't sure whether they should engage in single-issue campaigns. I hope you'll listen in!

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways you can hear this episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/47548.html.
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afarapril82020.

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram.

Until next week!

Episode 21: The sociologist Roger Yates discusses rights-based claimsmaking and the Animal Liberation Front

This week’s episode of Always for Animal Rights features Part Two of my recent interview with the sociologist and vegan animal rights advocate Dr. Roger Yates. (To listen to Part One of the interview, please click here.)

Roger is the author of 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.

On today’s show, Roger explains the difference between rights-based and welfarist messaging. He emphasizes that, when speaking to journalists and the public about animal rights, we should speak out against animal rights violations (exploitation), rather than violations of animal welfare standards (“cruelty”).

He also speaks about the effects that the Animal Liberation Front had when he was a Press Officer for the ALF in the 1980’s. As well, Roger offers his reading recommendations for those who want to learn more about rights-based animal rights and the connections between the oppression of nonhuman animals and the oppression of humans.

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways you can hear this episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/47516.html.
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afarapril12020.

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram.

Until next time!