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September 21st is the International Day of Peace, which the General Assembly of the United Nations has declared as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples. We discuss how the notion of peace strongly ties into the ethics behind veganism and animal rights issues.
Robert Grillo on the Devastating Effects on Animals by Hurricane Florence
Our first interview is with Robert Grillo, founder and director of the organization Free From Harm, a non-profit promoting farmed animal rescue, education and advocacy. He is also the author of the book “Farm to Fable”, which we interviewed him about in this 2016 show.
As Hurricane Florence drops torrential rains on North Carolina, people are evacuating, many leaving behind their farmed animals or backyard hens.
In fact, according to the NC Cattlemen’s Association and NC Cattlemen’s Beef Council, North Carolina has 494,000 beef cows and 33,000 cattle producers. The North Carolina Cooperative Extension reports there were 822,700,000 broilers (raised for meat) in North Carolina and 31,000,000 turkeys in production in North Carolina in 2015. The USDA says there are 9 million hogs in North Carolina as of Dec. 2017.
According to NY Times archives, Hurricane Floyd killed at least 110,000 hogs and more than 1 million chickens and turkeys in North Carolina in 1999. As of this week, at least 3.4 million chickens and turkeys and 5,500 hogs have been killed by Hurricane Florence.
In this interview, Roberts speaks with us about the impacts on farmed animals by Hurricane Florence, and how this can all be avoided in the future if we move towards a greener and more compassionate diet. Unlike companion animals, there are no evacuation plans in place by the government for farmed animals in natural disasters, and so when a hurricane strikes, these animals are left behind to starve and drown.
Filmmaker Chris Delforce on the documentary feature film “Dominion”
In anticipation of the Vancouver première of the new documentary film “Dominion“, our feature interview is with director, writer and editor of the film Chris Delforce.
“Dominion” takes place in Australia but is applicable to the whole world. The film explores and exposes the reality behind the six primary facets of human interaction with animals – companion animals, wildlife, scientific research, entertainment, clothing and food – and it questions the morality and validity of our dominion over the animal kingdom.
In this interview, Chris discusses some of the “industry standard” practises in animal agriculture, such as artificial insemination and stunning before slaughter. As explored in the film, he also delves into the industries of fish farming and fur farming, and brings to light the egregious scale of cruelty that is inflicted upon billions of animals every day for human use.
619,000,000 humans have been killed by war in human history. The same number of land animals are killed every three days (and this doesn’t even count the sea animals). There is no justification for enslaving animals.
Ghandi said “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” So what does this mean for all the nations who practise their “dominion” over animals in the cruelest of ways?
You can view the film trailer here, and if you can’t make the screening in Vancouver on September 26th, the film can also be viewed online here.