{"id":1478,"date":"2020-02-19T00:01:33","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T05:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zoocheck.com\/podcast\/?p=1478"},"modified":"2020-11-30T13:47:39","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T18:47:39","slug":"still-wearing-animals-why-we-should-be-kinder-to-our-kin-with-peta-founder-and-animalkind-author-ingrid-newkirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zoocheck.com\/podcast\/still-wearing-animals-why-we-should-be-kinder-to-our-kin-with-peta-founder-and-animalkind-author-ingrid-newkirk\/","title":{"rendered":"Still Wearing Animals? Why We Should Be Kinder To Our Kin, with PETA founder and Animalkind author, Ingrid Newkirk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen as Zoocheck Podcast host, Kathryn, and Ingrid Newkirk – British animal rights activist and the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world\u2019s largest animal rights organization – reflect on the history and future of\u00a0 veganism, discuss the scale of animals killed for food and products, and speak passionately about the intelligence, sentience and complex behaviours of animals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the last few decades, Newkirk\u2019s contribution to improving animal welfare and protection has been nothing short of remarkable, and has been an inspiration to animal lovers the world over. Newkirk has spoken out on animal rights issues fearlessly, victoriously leading the charge to, among other achievements, end the auto industry\u2019s use of animals in crash tests, securing the first felony convictions of factory farm workers, convincing businesses to stop practices such as near-drowning of test animals, and just recently convincing over one hundred airports to ban the use of glue traps.\u00a0 <\/span>Newkirk is the subject of the HBO documentary\u00a0 <\/span>I am an Animal<\/span><\/i><\/a>, and is the recipient of numerous awards including the <\/span>Peter Singer Prize for Strategies to Reduce the Suffering of Animals (2016), the Ahimsa Award (2014<\/span>) and the <\/span>Shining World Compassion Award (2007). <\/span>Her latest book, <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Animalkind<\/span><\/i><\/a> is now <\/span>available online and in stores, in multiple languages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen as Kathryn and Newkirk reflect on how veganism has entered the mainstream in recent years, making headway not only in the food industry, but as an all-inclusive lifestyle. Newkirk describes the progress that has been achieved since the early days of soymilk in powder form to the present where there are seemingly countless delicious nut milk products readily available in stores, and addresses how this availability has now started to extend to industries beyond that of food, including fashion, furniture, hardware and car interiors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Newkirk explains the cruelty involved in farming sheep for wool, even in those places that appear to be idyllic. Kathryn points out that life in the English countryside is not representative of the living conditions of the vast majority of sheep bred for the wool industry. Newkirk elucidates this reality by describing what her investigative teams have uncovered: abusive\u00a0 conditions and mistreatment due to the fast-paced nature of the industry driven to produce, above all, slating animal welfare far below the need to make a profit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next, Kathryn questions Newkirk about PETA\u2019s choice to use sensational campaigns to get their messages across to the public. Newkirk explains that such campaigns are by design: a necessary tactic and effective political strategy that has successfully exposed crucial issues of animal abuse to the general public and has resulted in an immeasurable reduction in animal suffering on a global scale. PETA\u2019s campaigns deliberately serve to disrupt and shake the very foundations of industries and governments that continue to turn a blind eye to unethical treatment of animals. In fact, Newkirk points out, it is the result of such tactics that led to PETA\u2019s groundbreaking accomplishment of ending the use of animals in crash tests in the car industry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Next, Kathryn shifts the conversation to the current problem of the industry\u2019s mass use of leather in vehicle interiors. Newkirk opens our eyes to the fact that it can take up to eight cows to create a single leather interior. There is, however, lots of good news, as she describes how many car companies are now listening to consumers\u2019 demands for vegan alternatives to leather and providing stellar products to their customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathryn then turns the discussion to the subject of Newkirk\u2019s book <\/span>Animalkind<\/span><\/i>, and points out that in it, Newkirk gets at the heart of the problem of speciesism: discrimination based on species membership. She expresses her view that it really doesn\u2019t make sense to judge animals by a set of arbitrary criteria determined by us to be most valuable. After calling into question the ethics behind this concept of speciesism, Kathryn and Newkirk move into a discussion about the incredible abilities of various species used in the hide, wool and feather industries.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just all extraordinary in so many ways, it\u2019s just we\u2019re not looking. Even with our dogs at home, it\u2019s always sit, stay, come, fetch the ball back to me, hurry along on your walk, you know, eat your food when I say so\u2026 They\u2019re whole. They\u2019re complete. They\u2019re thinking, they\u2019re feeling, they\u2019re emotional beings. They are not accoutrements to our life. They\u2019re not just shoes and burgers that we haven\u2019t killed yet. They\u2019re other individuals, other tribes, other people like us.\u201d Ingrid Newkirk<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Be part of the change!<\/h3>\n

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