In this episode, we start by having a discussion on the social issues of veganism, including the awkward dairy and egg cake celebrations for co-workers’ birthdays at work, and how to get around this with sticking to your convictions.
Rae Vasudevan of Skinned!
Our first interview is with Rae Vasudevan, the co-ordinator of the Vancouver grassroots anti-fur organization Skinned!. Rae speaks with us about her ongoing campaign against GuestLife Vancouver magazine, to put an end to the fur ads that they regularly run in their publication. Rae is holding a fundraiser for Skinned! on August 21st and 22nd, to raise money for the GuestLife campaign, which she tells us about as well. To contact Rae to donate to the garage sale fundraiser or to find out more about her campaign work, you can email her at saynotofur2001@yahoo.ca
Ric O’Barry, dolphin activist of “The Cove” and Save Japan Dolphins
Our feature interview is with dolphin activist and hero Ric O’Barry. Ric is the former dolphin trainer turned marine mammal activist who was first recognized in the 1960s for capturing and training the dolphins that were used in the well-known TV series Flipper. Soon after Cathy, one of the “Flipper” dolphins, died in his arms after committing suicide, he made a radical transition from training dolphins in captivity to assertively combating the captivity industry. Ric was featured in the documentary “The Cove”, a film that uses covert techniques to expose the yearly dolphin massacre that goes on in Taiji, Japan, and this film went on to win the Academy Award earlier this year for best documentary feature film. Mr. O’Barry is the Marine Mammal Specialist for Earth Island Institute and Director of the Save Japan Dolphins coalition.
Starting on August 27th on the Animal Planet network, Ric will star on the small screen in a television mini-series called “Blood Dolphins“, which will chronicle the efforts of Earth Island Institute and Ric around the world to protect dolphins. On August 29th, “The Cove” will air on Animal Planet at 9pm PT/ET for the first time on television in the U.S.
Take a look at some of the highlights of Ric’s work in the film “The Cove” in this trailer for the movie: