Did you know that sheep are far from mindless creatures? In fact, they have remarkable memory and recognition skills – they can recognize over twenty other human beings and other sheep from photographs. Have you heard how sheep in Asia have learnt through observation to operate water pumps using their horns? But have you also heard that humans have bred sheep to grow thicker wool, and that this unnatural overload of wool causes many sheep to suffer unnecessarily, often enduring extremely cruel conditions, all in the name of profit?
Listen as NYK host, Kathryn, and Ingrid Newkirk – British animal rights activist and the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world’s largest animal rights organization – reflect on the history and future of veganism, discuss the scale of animals killed for food and products, and speak passionately about the intelligence, sentience and complex behaviours of animals.
Over the last few decades, Newkirk’s 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’s 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. Newkirk is the subject of the HBO documentary I am an Animal, and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Peter Singer Prize for Strategies to Reduce the Suffering of Animals (2016), the Ahimsa Award (2014) and the Shining World Compassion Award (2007). Her latest book, Animalkind is now available online and in stores, in multiple languages.
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.
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 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.
Next, Kathryn questions Newkirk about PETA’s 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’s 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’s groundbreaking accomplishment of ending the use of animals in crash tests in the car industry.
Next, Kathryn shifts the conversation to the current problem of the industry’s 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’ demands for vegan alternatives to leather and providing stellar products to their customers.
Kathryn then turns the discussion to the subject of Newkirk’s book Animalkind, 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’t 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.
“They’re just all extraordinary in so many ways, it’s just we’re not looking. Even with our dogs at home, it’s always sit, stay, come, fetch the ball back to me, hurry along on your walk, you know, eat your food when I say so… They’re whole. They’re complete. They’re thinking, they’re feeling, they’re emotional beings. They are not accoutrements to our life. They’re not just shoes and burgers that we haven’t killed yet. They’re other individuals, other tribes, other people like us.” Ingrid Newkirk
Now you know!
Be part of the change!
- Frequent retail shops and restaurants that also offer vegan products.
- Ask your favourite retailers to carry vegan products – consumer demand is what drives their supplier decisions.
- Shop online if you can’t find vegan products locally.
- Write a letter or tweet to brands that continue to exploit animals.
- Read labels and avoid fashion items that are derived from animals.
- Understand that cheap items and deals are usually cheap due to systems of human and animal exploitation.
- Consider buying secondhand and from thrift stores.
- Find brands that you really believe in and support them by purchasing one or two items per year.
- Spread the word by encouraging friends and family to read labels and become informed about the processes behind fashion items.
- Tell your political representatives that you want to see them push for proper labeling and regulation of all animal products.
Learn More
- Read Newkirk’s book, Animalkind. Suggest it to school and libraries in your community.
- Watch I am an Animal, a HBO documentary that features Newkirk.
- Check out PETA’s and others’ websites for great vegan fashion brands and recommendations, and to learn what more you can do to help animals.
