Episode 62: Interview with Jeremy Hess about animal rights, the importance of sanctuaries, and unlearning speciesist language

Jeremy and Mr. T at
FRIEND Farm Animal Sanctuary

This week, I am very happy to present my recent interview with the animal rights advocate Jeremy Hess. Jeremy has been a vegan for more than 7 years and has been involved in various forms of animal rights advocacy, including volunteering at sanctuaries, giving speeches about veganism and animal rights, creating YouTube videos, doing street outreach, and more. On his website, VeganInteractions.com, and his YouTube Channel, Jeremy the Ape, he provides resources to help advocates use accurate and non-speciesist language and learn about animal rights theory. He is currently working to create a vegan microsanctuary to provide a home for rescued animals in the United States.

In this interview, Jeremy tells his story of becoming vegan and embracing a rights-based approach to animal advocacy. We also discuss how we can avoid using speciesist language in our advocacy and our everyday lives, and whether there is a difference between the words “exploitation” and “use”. Jeremy describes the importance of sanctuaries in the animal rights movement, how veganism is connected to animal rights, how we can respond to the “plants” objection to veganism, and what is the best thing about being vegan in his experience.

During the interview, I also mentioned an essay, "The Case for Animal Rights" by Tom Regan, which summarizes the key concepts in Regan's book of the same name. Although I haven't read any of Regan's books, I have read a number of Gary Francione's books, which have helped me to learn about animal rights theory.

This was a very thought-provoking discussion, and I hope you'll tune in!

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/553/53658.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-september-29-2021.
   

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Go vegan, stay vegan, and let's remember to stand up and speak up for animal rights today and every day. Thanks for listening to the show!