Episode 103: Discussion with animal rights advocate Jeremy Hess about engaging in vegan advocacy conversations, recognizing pigs as individuals, and challenging speciesism in the media

Rosebud

This week, I am pleased to present my fourth interview with Jeremy Hess. Jeremy has been a vegan since 2014 and has been involved in various forms of animal rights advocacy over the years. On his website (which will be back online soon) and YouTube channel, he provides resources to help advocates use accurate and non-speciesist language and learn about animal rights theory. He is a co-founder and former co-panellist on The Animal Rights Show on YouTube. With his partner Nisha-Taylor Hess, Jeremy runs a microsanctuary, Respect Animal Sanctuary, in Georgia in the United States.

In this interview, Jeremy and I use an abolitionist animal rights perspective to examine three articles that were published on mainstream media websites, and we explore how we can move away from speciesist language use. We also discuss whether the words that we use in our vegan advocacy are understood by the general public. As well, Jeremy tells me about the experiences of the pigs Rosebud and Daisy at the microsanctuary.

During this discussion we explored some of the ideas of the animal rights scholar-activists David Nibert and Joan Dunayer (see also here). You can find the Unlearning Speciesist Language Facebook group, of which Jeremy is an admin, here!

News articles that we discussed on the show:

• "Two giant pandas from China to arrive at US National Zoo", The Guardian, 29 May 2024
• "Concerned about cruelty, animal rights group wants police at bull-riding event", CBC News, 31 May 2024
• "Water-hungry golf courses plague Arizona’s native javelina-filled landscape", Vox, 25 October 2023
  

At the end of the episode, we'll hear some excerpts from the song, "Creatures Great and Small", by the vegan singer-songwriter Ellie Sarty.

 

You can listen to the episode above or on CKCU 93.1 FM's website. You can also download the MP3 file from Archive.org.

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

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

Jeremy the Ape and
Daisy the Pig