Eric Sakach of HSUS on cockfighting; Philip Wollen’s speech – Animals Should Be Off The Menu

We’ll kick things off with another in-depth cookbook review. I love cookbook review days because that means Alison is cooking for us before the show! This time she’s featuring a fully raw menu from Mimi Kirk‘s Live Raw: Raw Food Recipes for Good Health and Timeless Beauty.

Radiant at over 70 years of age, Mimi Kirk has won PeTA’s award for the Sexiest Vegetarian over 50!

Philip Wollen’s powerful speech goes viral

Apparently I wasn’t the only one who got shivers listening to Australian philanthropist and former vice-president of Citibank,
Philip Wollen
, as he wowed the crowd with a speech which he presented at The St James Ethics and Wheeler Centre debate in Austalia – Intelligence Squared: Animals Should Be Off the Menu. You’ve probably heard it already as it’s been posted and re-posted by countless animal advocates, but here it is, yet again, because, really, it’s just that good. Hear, hear!

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Eric Sakach of HSUS on Cockfighting

This is a topic we haven’t yet covered on Animal Voices and we’re excited to shed light on a practice that some argue isn’t really harmful to birds at all. I first learned about this violent tradition recently when reading a book in which the author, an investigative journalist, wrestled with what constitutes the line between animal use and animal abuse. The crux of his analysis seemed to rest on what he saw as the moral ambiguity of cockfighting. The author interviewed both sides, an animal advocate, on one hand, and people who raise birds for cockfighting, on the other.

My curiousity was piqued further when, earlier this month, the Humane Society of the United States was involved in a recent raid in California where over 1,100 specialized cockfighting knives were found, making it the largest seizure of cockfighting knives in US history.

Eric Sakach is senior law enforcement specialist for the Animal Rescue Team of HSUS. Over the past 33 years, Sakach has been involved in numerous animal cruelty and animal fighting investigations. His undercover work led to more than 500 arrests and some of the first convictions under the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Here is footage from the cockfighting investigation and raid in Visalia, California, resulting in the arrest of two suspected cockfighters and the seizure of 388 birds.

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