#14 - Sharon Nunez & Jose Valle on going undercover to expose animal abuse

That’s a real question that confronts volunteers at Animal Equality (AE). In this episode we speak to Sharon Nunez and Jose Valle, who founded AE in 2006 and then grew it into a multi-million dollar international animal rights organisation. They’ve been chosen as one of the most effective animal protection orgs in the world by Animal Charity Evaluators for the last 3 consecutive years.

Blog post about the episode, including links and full transcript.

A related previous episode, strongly recommended: Lewis Bollard on how to end factory farming as soon as possible.

In addition to undercover investigations AE has also designed a 3D virtual-reality farm experience called iAnimal360. People get to experience being trapped in a cage – in a room designed to kill then - and can’t just look away. How big an impact is this having on users?

Sharon Nuñez and Jose Valle also tackle:

* How do they track their goals and metrics week to week?
* How much does an undercover investigation cost?
* Why don’t people donate more to factory farmed animals, given that they’re the vast majority of animals harmed directly by humans?
* How risky is it to attempt to build a career in animal advocacy?
* What led to a change in their focus from bullfighting in Spain to animal farming?
* How does working with governments or corporate campaigns compare with early strategies like creating new vegans/vegetarians?
* Has their very rapid growth been difficult to handle?
* What should our listeners study or do if they want to work in this area?
* How can we get across the message that horrific cases are a feature - not a bug - of factory farming?
* Do the owners or workers of factory farms ever express shame at what they do?