ANIMALISTIC – Details, episodes & analysis

Worldwide, there are a vast number of unowned cats. But is this a bad thing? The cat lovers among us may wish for a world where all these moggies have a loving home and a human lap to purr in. But is this what the cats want?

My guest today is Vicky Halls of International Cat Care, who is an expert in "unowned" cats. She believes that we should be making sure it is the cat that dictates the nature of their relationship with us, something humans are not so great at doing when it comes to animals!

Learn more here: https://icatcare.org/unowned-cats/

In the UK, where I'm currently living, you will get 15 years imprisonment for armed robbery, due to the lasting physical and psychological damage to the victim. But abuse, or kill an animal? You'll get away with a maximum of 5 years, but probably less, even if this animal is the companion of a human.

The abuse of companion animals is rife in domestic abuse settings, yet it is rarely spoken about, nor taken as seriously as other crimes. My guest today wants to change that. Maya Badham trains professionals to recognise the link between abuse of animals and abuse of humans, particularly within a domestic setting.

She joins me in this episode to discuss how we often overlook actions that affect the animals present in the home when we investigate domestic abuse.

You can read more about her work on her website: https://sahsda.wixsite.com/sahsda

As our audience is international, we cannot signpost to specific organisations here, but if you, or anyone you know is affected by anything discussed in this episode, please reach out to your local support services as soon as possible.

This month, the UK government introduced a Bill to formally recognise animals as sentient beings. But what does this mean? And why is it important? What animals are sentient, and how do we know? To answer (some) of these questions I am joined by Dr Janet Pauketat, research fellow at the Sentience Institute.

I am joined by Dr Lynne Sneddon, a fish pain and welfare expert, who explains the research she does on fish pain, her incredible discoveries, and how she is using this research to drive welfare changes for fish everywhere

Dr. Judith Benz-Schwarzburg, a scholar of human-animal studies at the Messerli Institute, Vienna, joins me to discuss how the media diverts scruitiny from the meat industry, and how advertisers use clever tricks to sooth our conscience and keep us spending our money on their products, guilt-free. This conversation left me wondering... is the media brainwashing us?

A brief history of animal law and I have the privilage of speaking to Professor David Favre, a law professor at Michigan University. He sets out his idea for a new category under the law that would give additional protection to companion animals, bringing them closer to the status that children currently have, particularly in areas of divorce and inheritance. But who will and won't be protected?

Evolution has endowed humans and every other living being on earth with a unique set of organs and sensory abilities that allow them to navigate the world. We understand the functions and mechanisms of these attributes better than ever before, but one big question remains, which has baffled scientists and philosophers alike for centuries: where does our sensation of conciousness come from? And do other animals experience conciousness as we do? Do AI computers experience something like conciousness? How do we even know anyone else, besides ourselves, experiences conciousness like we do?

My name is Katharine Creagh. I studied psychology and human-animal interactions. In this series I will be sharing some of the groundbreaking work by scientists and scholars in the fields of biology, psychology, philosophy and law, in an effort to bridge...

What is an animal? What is it that sets humans apart from other, non-human animals?

A year as a key decision maker in the world of animal rescue showed me just how difficult it is to change mindsets in a highly emotive field. Yet, many of the well-meaning policies rescues employ may actually be doing more harm than good in the long run. So in this episode, I am joined by my guest Dr Karen Griffin of the Dog Rehoming Project to investigate how animal rescues could be using scientific evidence, instead of anecdotes and emotions, to make data-driven decisions and ultimately help more animals in their communities.