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This week’s show is dedicated to World Day for Farmed Animals, which occurs annually on October 2nd. It exists to expose the needless suffering and death of sentient animals raised and killed for food.
To start the show, we have a short interview with Valley Calderoni, the founder of Canine Valley in Squamish, BC. Canine Valley’s mission is to help people understand dog psychology to encourage the correct communication and education of dogs to solve behavioural challenges. As we heard in the news two weeks ago, a tragic event occurred when Valley’s canine soulmate and partner, therapy dog Kaoru, was shot and killed by a trophy hunter who mistook her for a wolf. She will tell us about this incident and how it has given her a responsibility to protect companion animals and wolves alike. You can see Valley’s GoFundMe Campaign here.
Sue Waters, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, on Salmon Fish Farming
Sue Waters aboard the Martin Sheen.
For World Day for Farmed Animals, our first interview is about farmed animals who are not always considered: fish, or more specifically, salmon.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is an international non-profit marine conservation group that engages in direct action campaigns to protect and conserve marine wildlife. Among their current campaigns is Operation Virus Hunter, which aims to explore the effects that salmon farming is having on wild fish populations on the BC Coast. First Nations of the area, alongside biologist Alexandra Morton, have been working to protect wild salmon and surrounding ecosystems with the support of Sea Shepherd and their research vessel, the Martin Sheen.
Sue Waters is a crew member of the Martin Sheen and a co-ordinator for the Vancouver chapter of Sea Shepherd. She speaks with us from aboard the Martin Sheen to discuss fish farms, and the ethical concerns surrounding them.
Katie Cantrell, Factory Farming Awareness Coalition
For our feature interview today, we have Katie Cantrell on the show, who is the founder and Executive Director of an organization called the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition, with chapters throughout the U.S. as well as one in Toronto, Canada.
FFAC is an educational non-profit committed to empowering people to save the environment, animals, and our own health through our daily food choices. FFAC uses grassroots education to spread the idea that every meal we eat can be a powerful form of activism.
On this show for World Day for Farmed Animals on October 2nd, Katie tells us about some of the issues on factory farming that her organization gives presentations on to high school and college students, and to community groups and businesses. As well as explaining facts about the standard industry practises in egg, dairy and meat production, FFAC emphasizes the intersectional social issues that cross over from animal agriculture. These issues affect the environment, public health (ie. the over use of antibiotics in food animals) and workers’ rights.
You can see one of Katie’s excellent presentations here:
