Episode 36: Zoei Sutton discusses Emancipatory Animal Sociology and the ethical problems with keeping other animals as "pets"

Welcome to episode 36 of Always for Animal Rights!

This week, I am pleased to present my recent interview with Zoei Sutton, PhD, a vegan sociologist who works at the University of Adelaide in Australia. Zoei's research focuses on critically exploring the relationships between humans and nonhuman animals in society. Along with Corey Lee Wrenn, Zoei is the co-founder of the International Association of Vegan Sociologists.

In this interview, Zoei speaks about the need for an Emancipatory Animal Sociology-- that is, a sociology that is dedicated to the liberation of other animals-- and she tells me about what led to the founding of the International Association of Vegan Sociologists. (You can find many of the presentations from IAVS's latest conference on the Vegan Sociology YouTube channel.) She also speaks about her research on the discourse that the Australian media uses to speak about animals who are labelled as "pests". Then, we have a discussion about the ethical problems with using other animals as "pets".

It's a very interesting interview, and I hope you'll listen 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/553/49008.html.
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-september-9-2020.
   

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram. If you'd like to receive an e-mail every time there is a new post on the AFAR blog, feel free to enter your e-mail address into the appropriate box in the right-hand sidebar of this site. 

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!

Episode 17: Interview with Sandra Higgins of Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary (Part One)

For Episode 17 of Always for Animal Rights, I am pleased to present Part One of my recent interview with Sandra Higgins, the founder and director of Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary and Go Vegan World. (You may remember my previous interview with Sandra on Episode 5.)

In Part One of this most recent interview, Sandra told me about Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary, the nonhuman individuals who live there and their unique personalities, and some of the challenges that come along with running a farmed animal sanctuary. One of these challenges is in treating the health conditions that result from the selective breeding that animal exploiting industries have imposed on farmed animals. We also spoke about the challenge of living in a speciesist world.

Sandra told me about several of Eden's residents in the interview; here are some photos of them... (All of these photos are courtesy of Agatha Kisiel Photography.)

Angel was rescued with other sheeps from a flooded yard beside a slaughterhouse

Fairy on the day she arrived at Eden

Maria

Genevieve with Maria in the background

Mamou with her daughters Ruth and Jane

Nora (RIP)

Penny and Connie

Pip and Cara

Razzle the blind rook (RIP) with Sandra

10 sheeps were rescued from a slaughterhouse field and now peacefully live at Eden

The rescued turkeys whom Sandra mentioned in the interview

We will hear Part Two of this interview in the near future. In the meantime, I hope you'll listen to this episode!

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways to listen to the episode.

1. Listen to the podcast version that I uploaded to Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afarfebruary192020. You can also download the MP3 file from that page.
2.  Listen to the episode as it was heard live on CKCU 93.1 FM: https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/47069.html. Please note that, due to a technical error, the first couple minutes of the interview were played twice on the radio. However, after that, the rest of the interview played without a problem. If you don't want to hear the beginning of the interview twice, you can still listen to the Archive.org version.

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

The next episode of Always for Animal Rights will be broadcast on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa on Wednesday, March 4th, 2019-- and, of course, it will be available to listen to afterwards, as well.

Episode 11: Interview with photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur

This week's episode of Always for Animal Rights features an interview with award-winning photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur.

 
Through her work documenting humans' relationship with other animals, Jo-Anne, who lives in Toronto, has visited nearly 60 countries around the world and was the subject of a 2013 documentary called The Ghosts in Our Machine. She is the author of two books that feature her photography and writings. This year, she founded We Animals Media, an international media agency dedicated to making the lives and the suffering of non-human animals visible to the public.

In this thought-provoking interview, we covered the following topics:

Grazing at a sanctuary in S. Australia
Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals

• Jo-Anne's photography journey and We Animals Media
• how Jo-Anne gains access to animal exploitation facilities to take photos
• the rise of effective altruism and effective activism
• the importance of sanctuaries to the animal rights movement
• how doing an internship at Farm Sanctuary helped her go vegan
• how children have responded to her humane education program
• the impact of her work, and what she hopes to accomplish in the future.

To learn more about We Animals Media, please visit WeAnimalsMedia.org.

If you are an animal rights activist looking for high-quality photos to use for your projects, you can find many of Jo-Anne's photographs at WeAnimalsArchive.org. The photos can be used for free as long as the project is intended to help animals and you cite the source of the image.

An arctic fox imprisoned on a fur farm
Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur/The Ghosts in Our Machine

Pigs imprisoned at a Finnish facility
Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur/Oikeutta eläimille

Elliot, a rescued sheep, at Freedom Hill Sanctuary in South Australia
Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals

After our interview is Queen V's song "Wearing My Blood", which is told from the perspective of a non-human animal who is imprisoned on a fur farm. The song is beautiful yet tragic.

I hope you'll take a listen to this episode!

How to listen to this episode


There are two ways to listen to the episode.

1. Listen to the episode on Archive.org or download the MP3 file at https://archive.org/details/afarnovember202019. This version contains the song "Wearing My Blood" in its entirety.
2. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/45742.html. In this version, the song "Wearing My Blood" is faded out part-way through.

You can find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram, as well!

The next episode of Always for Animal Rights will be broadcast on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa on Wednesday, December 4, 2019-- and, of course, it will be available to listen to afterwards, as well.