Few individuals have played such a central role in the modern animal rights movement as Kim Stallwood, whose career stretches back nearly half a century. From working as a holiday job in a slaughter house, to his role as executive director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [PETA], Kim's journey provides a shining example of commitment to the values of truth, justice and compassion. We talk to him about how much has changed, from when a London vegetarian restaurant called Cranks in the 1970s epitomised public perceptions about vegetarianism, to how a plant-based diet has become mainstream, and also what remains to be done to change radically the moral status of animals.     

Adopting veganism is a transformative and fulfilling experience, but it is not always welcome, particularly in the workplace. The Vegan Inclusion Co works with employers to help them understand and accommodate the needs and rights of vegans, for whom a plant-based diet is not a dietary preference, but an ethical position. Join us as we talk to Jeanette Rowley, who gave key evidence in a case before an Employment Tribunal which successfully established veganism as a protected characteristic in equality law, and Jess Swallow, also a solicitor, the other co-founder of the Vegan Inclusion Co. Visit their website at www.veganinclusion.co.uk 

Millions of animals spend their lives in 'factory farms', before they meet a brutal end in a slaughter house. Apart from its impact on the environment, animal farming raises some fundamental moral issues about the treatment and killing of other sentient beings. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - PETA - is a world-wide organisation campaigning for a radically different approach to the way we treat animals. Join us for a discussion with Chelsea Munro, a campaign manager for PETA, as we consider the reality of intensive farming for animals.

The idea that animals have rights has now become mainstream, but what does that mean in practice? Whilst cruelty to animals has long been regarded as unacceptable, is it wrong to kill animals for food, or to cause them suffering in scientific research?

In this first episode, we will look at some of the issues that arise from our relationship with other animals, and how it can be unlawful to cause them unncessary suffering but at the same time treat them as mere commodities.   

Extensive polling has shown that a considerable majority of the population want to see significant changes to the way our society treats animals. David and Martyn discuss the state of public opinion, and the extent to which the political parties have taken it on board.

Join us for an election special.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at animalrightsthedebate@outlook.com

The campaign for animal justice is world-wide, with legal action sometimes taken against those who break the law. In this episode we talk to  Carlos Contreras Lopez, a leading animal rights lawyer originally from Colombia and now practising in Spain and who is representing Cruelty Free International, one of the complainants in a prosecution of laboratory technicians for allegedly causing appalling suffering in a Spanish laboratory. Carlos says watching the video changed his life.

Please email us at animalrightsthedebate@outlook.com with any questions, suggestions, or comments.

Compassion for others is a principle close to the heart of religion, but how far - if at all - does it extend to other animals?

In this episode, we speak to Barbara Gardner, a co-founder of the Animals Interfaith Alliance, 'a unique alliance of the world's most influential faith based, animal advocacy organisations. Author of The Compassionate Animal, Barbara Gardner joins us for a discussion about faith, morality, and animals.

In this episode, Martyn and David discuss topical issues in the news which are distinct but also connected - the richness of animals' lives, their cognitive abilities, and sentience; the benefits to neuroscience from studying animals' brains, and the implication this has for animal ethics; our commodification of animals such as dogs and farm animals; and the environmental degradation caused by intensive farming.

Richard Ryder has been dubbed the father of animal rights in this country, coining the term 'speciesism' to describe our irrational approach to non-human animals. He has published a dozen books, including, most famously, Victims of Science, described in Parliament at the time as the best-informed reference book on animal experiments. As well as a number of other books on animal rights, he has written about history and psychology.

He spent an incredible 50 years as a trustee of the RSPCA.

Join us for a discussion with Richard Ryder about the ethics of animal exploitation, animal rights, and the future of the movement.

Thousands of dogs, monkeys, and other animals are subjected to experiments which cause pain and suffering, all permitted under the law. What is the moral justification for treating sentient beings in this way? And will yet another debate in the House of Commons lead to meaningful progress in ending such research? Join us as we discuss this controversial subject. 

As the oldest animal welfare society in the world, the RSPCA is synonymous with campaigning against cruelty to animals. Founded in 1824 by William Wilberforce and others who had brought about the end of the slave trade, the RSPCA soon became supported by the great and the good, with Queen Victoria its patron.

Two hundred years later, we celebrate the RSPCA's achievement in putting cruelty at the heart of the nation's concerns, but we also ask about the challenges ahead. The intensive farming of animals is widely condemned, and the RSPCA's approach is to support 'welfare' schemes that inevitably endorses the mass killing of animals whilst aiming to improve their conditions whilst alive. But is that a realistic - or moral - position? Join us for a stimulating discussion with Chris Sherwood, the Chief Executive of the RSPCA.

Whether it is because of the appalling cruelty inevitable in animal farming, the protection of the environment, or concerns about our health, many people across the world sign up to follow a plant-based diet during January. Is it a steppling stone to a permanent shift in lifestyle, or a short-lived experience? And is the decline in the fortunes of some companies producing vegan alternatives just a set-back as the market adjusts, or does it herald the passing of a fashion? Join us as we speak to Dr. Toni Vernelli, who is International Head of Communications and Marketing at Veganuary. 

In this episode, we talk to Dr Maureen O’Sullivan who is a law lecturer at the University of Galway, and whose academic interests include intellectual property law, particularly the morality of granting patents for biotechnology ‘inventions’, including genetically altered animals. Maureen has a particular interest in vegetarianism and veganism in Ireland. At the recent summer school run by the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, of which she is a Fellow, she presented on the animal rights sympathies of Irish authors such as George Bernard Shaw and James Joyce. We also talked about her involvement in the successful campaign to ban fur farming in Ireland.

If you would like to comment on this or previous episodes, please e mail us at: animalrightsthedebate@outlook.com

The scale of animal farming is vast, its cruelty horrific, and the environmental damage extensive. Animal Equality is an international organisation working to end the suffering caused by such farming, and to promote a plant-based diet. Its large number of undercover investigations have been instrumental in exposing the reality between farm and slaughterhouse. We talk to its Executive Director, Abigail Penny, about the challenges and the successes, and how each and everyone of us can make a real difference.

If you would like to comment on this or previous episodes, please e mail us at: animalrightsthedebate@outlook.com

or join our dedicated WhatsApp community https://linktr.ee/animalrightsdebate

To suggest that animals are persons – with all that such a claim implies – may seem far-fetched to some. After all, the way we treat animals is usually justified on the basis that there are fundamental differences between humans and animals. In the latest episode, we are joined by Professor Mark Rowlands from the University of Miami in Florida, who makes the case that other animals meet the criteria for personhood.

His books ‘Can Animals Be Persons?’ and ‘The Happiness of Dogs’ provide a fascinating insight into the lives of animals.

If you would like to comment on this or previous episodes, please e mail us at: animalrightsthedebate@outlook.com

To carry on the debate, join our dedicated WhatsApp community https://linktr.ee/animalrightsdebate

Animals, humans, and the planet are in deep trouble. All across the globe, people are waking up to the undeniable connections between every living being―and noticing how out of balance our world has become. Yet, awareness is not enough. The Compassion Consortium aims to provide spiritual comfort, fellowship, and reflection, for those practising or exploring a plant-based lifestyle. We talk to Rev Sarah Bowen, Executive Director of its Training Programs about the support for those who reject violence and believe in extending an ethic of care to all sentient beings .

If you would like to comment on this or previous episodes, please e mail us at: animalrightsthedebate@outlook.com To carry on the debate, join our dedicated WhatsApp community https://linktr.ee/animalrightsdebate

We take a look back over a year of legal proceedings to protect the interests of animals, further evidence that livestock farming is unavoidably cruel, and some opposition in the Roman Catholic Church to the way we treat other animals. Join David and Martyn for a review of some positive news and the challenges ahead.

It's been a mixed few months, with the current British  Government the first ever in the U.K. to water down animal protection legislation, but with Mexico passing a law to improve the lot of animals. David and Martyn take a look at national and international developments.

We receive no grants or funding from any organisations or charities, so we urge you to help us continue in our efforts to encourage informed discussion about this most important of moral issues.

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We continue our discussion with leading advocate for animal rights, Professor Gary Francione. In this second part, we consider whether the characteristics of consciousness, rationality and awareness in animals is what gives them a right to life, or whether sentiency alone is sufficient. We also discuss if promoting animal welfare is a waste of time and resources, and if the 'rights' approach is more coherent and likely to produce results. Finally, lab grown meat is the last item on the menu in this important interview.

If you find this podcast helpful, please make a contribution, as we entirely on donations from listeners.

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How should we approach our relationship with animals? By treating them well whilst they are alive, but using them for our own purposes? Or by giving them the same sort of moral consideration that we give to humans? Professor Gary Francione is a distinguished philosopher, and advocate for granting animals similar rights to humans, and he believes that the welfare approach has been a failure, as well as a damaging distraction from promoting a plant-based diet.

Join us for this important discussion with Gary about welfare or rights, with its enormous implications for the future. Please help us, as we rely entirely on donations. 

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When future generations look back at our appalling treatment of other animals, Camp Beagle in Cambridgeshire will symbolise the extraordinary commitment of the few who refused to allow the atrocities of scientific research on animals to go unchallenged.

In this episode, Sole Iriart, a spokesperson for Britain's longest - running protest of its kind, talks about the campaign to shut down the breeding facility where thousands of beagles are bred for use in chemical and other experiments.

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Join us for a round up of recent developments in relation to animal issues, from the way bird flu is spreading to humans, the effect net zero could have on meat consumption, to the controversial subject of animal experiments. Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LTGteTLZkwI9XUtB1Xxfen Find out more: https://linktr.ee/animalrightsdebate

Cultivated meat offers the prospect of a world without the horrors of livestock farming, with the added benefit of protecting the environment, mitigating climate change, and improving human health. Philip Lymbery, the CEO of Compassion in World Farming, who has co-authored the book Cultivated Meat: To Secure Our Future, joins us for a discussion on this ground-breaking development.

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In this episode, we talk to Pandora Pound of Safer Medicine (UK) and Rachel Smith of Animal Free Research Advocacy (Australia), about the reliability (or otherwise) of research using animals and how researchers got hooked on using animals despite highly questionable results. What are the economic and other pressures? Do animal models, artificially creating human diseases in (non-human) animals, actually work? In contentious areas, how should one guard against confirmation bias – the temptation to cherry-pick data which fits one’s ethical position? Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LTGteTLZkwI9XUtB1Xxfen Find out more: https://linktr.ee/animalrightsdebate

Our knowledge of [other] animals has increased hugely over the last few decades, and so it has become more difficult to deny them the same sort of moral consideration we grant our own species. Professor Grace Clement of Salisbury University in the USA specialises in animal ethics. We talk to her about the moral status of animals, the nature of morality, and the feminist ethic of care. Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LTGteTLZkwI9XUtB1Xxfen Find out more: https://linktr.ee/animalrightsdebate

In the second of our two-part discussion about experiments on animals, we talk to Pandora Pound and Rachel Smith about the reliability or otherwise of scientific research using animals, much of which causes profound suffering. They discuss examples of where animal experiments have failed to predict serious adverse effects in people and the huge potential of various non-animal approaches. They also focus on the ethical imperative of using methods which give the best chance of cures for serious illnesses, subject to the overall proviso that unethical methods (such as experimenting non-consensually on people) should not be used.

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Our treatment of animals raises profound - and controversial - issues. How can we resolve the moral questions? In an age where we seem to have lost the capacity to engage in constructive discussion, perhaps a Greek philosopher who lived two and half thousand years ago can show us the way forward. Socrates provides us with a form of dialogue that can reveal inconsistencies and errors, and lead us to a reasoned and valid conclusion. David and Martyn apply his method to animal experimentation.

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In this episode, Emma Slawinski, newly appointed CEO of the League Against Cruel Sports in the UK, discusses the ways in which the landmark ban on the hunting of wild mammals with dogs needs to be tightened, in particular to outlaw so-called trail hunting (which is foxhunting by any other name). She explains how her upbringing led her to value animals as individuals and why the organised shooting of animals causes so much harm, not just to the shot animals. An optimist by nature, she believes in the essential goodness of human beings and why it is therefore important to engage with opponents. Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LTGteTLZkwI9XUtB1Xxfen Find out more: https://linktr.ee/animalrightsdebate

Parliament debates animal experiments (again), a new campaign against factory farming is launched, and the High Court confirms that animal welfare can be a material consideration when a planning authority considers an application for a factory farm. These are just some of the major issues discussed in our latest news round up. Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LTGteTLZkwI9XUtB1Xxfen Find out more: https://linktr.ee/animalrightsdebate

In the Bible we are given a vision of a vegan world: 'God said: 'See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food’ [Genesis 1:29]. And elsewhere in the Bible there are positive statements about, and positive images of, our relationship with animals that encourage compassion towards them. Jesus is, after all, born in a cowshed surrounded by animals. 

So why are the Jewish and Christian traditions regarded by many - including Anglican bishops - as justifying the exploitation and killing of animals for food? We discuss these and other issues with Joyce D'Silva, a scholar, and author of Animal Welfare in World Religion: Teaching and Practice.

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The world seen through the eyes of cats and dogs, cultivated meat, and the campaign against factory farming, are the focus of our discussion today. Join David and Martyn for a look at what's happening in the UK and elsewhere.

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Although the legal safeguards for animals are inadequate, things are changing. Throughout much of the world, judges are establishing that animals are entitled to moral consideration and that their interests should be taken into account. Ankita Shanker has a PhD in law and a distinguished academic record, with wide-ranging interests in the field of animal and human rights. Join us as she gives us an overview of legal developments on the international scene.

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Kimberly Moore, a tax lawyer with an international law firm in Washington DC, Director of Public Relations at the FUR FREE SOCIETY, and a member of the Animal Law Committee of the American Bar Association, talks to us about her recent book The Case for the Legal Protection of Animals: Humanity’s Shared Destiny with the Animal Kingdom, and the broad issues it raises. 

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Freedom is denied to large numbers of animals who are held in captivity or exploited, and Born Free is at the forefront of the campaign to protect such animals. But is there a conflict between the interests of animals as individuals, and protecting a species? For whose benefit is the principle of conservation? Join us for a wide-ranging discussion with Mark Jones, Head of Policy at Born Free. Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LTGteTLZkwI9XUtB1Xxfen Find out more: https://linktr.ee/animalrightsdebate