Species Unite

“The number one thing is to respect us as a country and a lot of people are not - people who feel privileged in their life, they own a very nice yacht, they have money, they're wealthy, they live in Florida, they live the golden life, they live a grand life. I'm not saying there's anything bad about that, I want to be that way too. But at the same time they have a responsibility to be respectful of our laws and they have to respect our marine life. They should follow [the law] and not try to hurt things that are native to our country and just do whatever they think is arbitrarily good for their own spirit and their own soul, which is damaging our livelihood. And they should learn and work with the Bahamian people. Let us teach you.” - Keith Cooper      Keith Cooper is the founder of the Bahamian based West End Ecology Tours on Grand Bahama Island. Over the past 16 years, Keith has formed a bond with many of the stingrays in the Bahamian waters, earning him the name, The Stingray Whisperer throughout the island.   I went down to Grand Bahama to a couple of weeks ago to meet Keith and some of his stingray friends and to learn more about the horrible situation that many of these stingrays and lemon sharks (that live in the same waters) are in.     An enormous amount of them have been getting hooked, meaning that people are fishing them, the lines break and the sharks and rays are left with enormous metal hooks in their mouths. I learned from Keith that much of this cruelty is being caused by boaters that are coming to the Bahamas from Florida and are doing it “because it’s fun.”   I spent a couple of days with Keith and we swam with the stingrays and the lemon sharks and swam very close to them so that we could easily see the gigantic metal hooks in many of their mouths. Something that should have been absolutely magical was instead, devastating.

“If a bill has been passed in another state, then you know who the opposition was, you know who the supporters were. And it really helps grease the skids for another state to get something through. It builds and then eventually you get a critical mass. And then hopefully at that point, Congress takes a look at it and passes something nationwide.” – Roland Halpern       Last week, Allie Taylor was on the podcast. She runs New York Voters for Animal Rights. Allie and I spoke about how real change happens for animals in the US and that much of it happens at the local level.   The problem is that many people just don't know where to start or how to get involved so that they can actually affect said change. So, Allie and I agreed that it’d be a good idea to bring on some other people running organizations that are similar to hers from other states.   So that is what we did. This conversation is again with Allie Taylor from Voters for Animal Rights of New York, Roy Afflerbach of Pennsylvania, Roland Halpern from Colorado, and Jo-Anne Basile of Connecticut.   It's a conversation about how and where change happens.   LINKS:  New York: https://vfar.org/ Colorado: https://covotersforanimals.org/ Connecticut: https://www.ctvotesforanimals.org/ Pennsylvania: https://humane-pa.org/about-us/about/senator-roy-afflerbach-ret/

“We didn't do any type of advertising. We didn't do any press around it. We just did what we do well, we quietly lobbied the city council and worked until we had a majority of the council co-sponsoring the bill. And then we said, okay, now it's time to actually move this, we need a hearing, we need to bring this up for a vote. So by the time the foie gras industry realized what we had done, it was too late.” Allie Feldman Taylor   Allie Feldman Taylor is the founder and president of Voters for Animal Rights in New York, also known as VFAR. Allie founded VFAR in 2016, and in 2020 she ran VFAR candidate endorsement process for more than 50 animal rights candidates for the New York State Senate and Assembly. In 2019, she led the campaign to ban foie gras in New York City. She's also helped pass New York City laws making it a crime to steal wild birds and to ban wild animals in the circus.   I asked Allie to come on the podcast because I really wanted her to explain how everyday citizens can influence and change laws to help create a better country for animals.   Even though it feels like a hopeless time and like a lot of our political actions are meaningless, the local level is where they can be super meaningful.   LINKS:   VFAR https://vfar.org/   Facebook https://www.facebook.com/votersforanimalrights/   Instagram https://www.instagram.com/votersforanimalrights/   Twitter https://twitter.com/theanimalvoters

“The planet is sustaining way more than just 8 billion human beings because we are consuming second-hand protein. We could have just directly, you know, eat plant-based protein. And again, if there's still any argument that, oh, we're not going to get enough strength, get enough nutrition, I mean, come on. Where do animals get their protein to start with? Right. I mean, come on. I mean, they eat plants.” David Yeung   David is the co-founder and CEO of Green Monday, a movement to educate and encourage the public to give up meat one day a week. They just celebrated their ten-year anniversary, and what they've accomplished in one decade is unbelievable. 40 percent of Hong Kong participates in Green Monday, for real.   David is also the CEO of OmniFoods, a food innovation company that makes plant-based pork and plant-based seafood. They launched in 2018 and have already taken Asia and many other parts of the world by storm. There is a reason for that – Omni products are probably the best tasting plant-based pork and seafood on the planet. They’ve just entered the US market. You can find OmniFoods in the US here.   LINKS:  Green Monday: https://greenmonday.org/en/ OmniFoods: https://omnifoods.co/us

“If you saw a celiac bowl on a menu, you would never order that unless you have celiac disease and you're gluten free. But if you see a Thai peanut rice noodle bowl, that sounds delicious. You're not even thinking about the fact that it's gluten free. It’s the same thing with vegan for a lot of people. They think, “oh, that is only for vegans, if I'm not a vegan, that's not for me.’”  - Katie Cantrell   Katie Cantrell is the Director of Corporate Outreach for the Better Food Foundation and Co-Director of Greener by Default.   Greener by Default makes plant-based food the default option in businesses, universities, conferences, and many other places where people eat, while it still gives people the choice to opt into meat or dairy. It's seriously one of the smartest projects that I've ever heard of.   Katie also founded the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition where she spent a decade leading food policy workshops at universities, government agencies, and Fortune 500 corporations.   If you want Greener by Default to come to your business, contact Katie: katie@betterfoodfoundation.org   Greener by Default: www.greenerbydefault.com    Better Food Foundation: https://www.betterfoodfoundation.org/   Factory Farming Awareness Coalition https://ffacoalition.org/

“We need to move away from animal derived materials, but we also need to move away from petroleum based traditional materials. So what is out there, what can we do? That demand is strong and supply is where the issue is.”  - Sydney Gladman     On June 12th the New York Times put out an article titled, How Fashion Giants Recast Plastic as Good for the Planet. The article, written by Hiroko Takeuchi, caused quite a stir within the Species Unite and I'm sure many other vegan communities. It criticizes something called the Higg Index, a suite of tools that assesses social and environmental impacts of products, including animal based and synthetic materials. The article left many people confused and I received a lot of emails asking me, “should we even be wearing vegan leather?” (The answer is yes.)   In order to be better able to explain what the article was really about, I needed some help. So, I reached out to my friend Nicole Rawling, the executive director at the Material Innovation Initiative (MII), the non-profit that’s advancing next gen materials. Next gen materials are high performance, animal free and more sustainable for fashion, automotive and home goods. MII provides expertise while bringing all the key players together to get these materials from concept to commercialization.   Nicole introduced me to Sydney Gladman, the chief scientific officer at MII and Ranjani Theregowda, MII’s environmental data scientist, so that they could answer my many questions about the article, about the future of materials as well as our current situation. I have been excited about next gen materials for a long time, but I’m even more so after speaking with them. It’s happening - we’re on the way and to a future that no longer uses animals for fashion, autos, and home goods. And, MII is doing everything that they can to speed that future up.   LINKS: https://www.materialinnovation.org/   Instagram https://www.instagram.com/materialinnovation/   Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MaterialInnovation/

“The fear factor is probably one of the worst. I mean, if you've ever been deeply afraid, or had a near accident or had somebody pursuing you, if you've ever been really afraid, that's their life 24 hours a day, except when they are able to sleep. And, how they are able to sleep on metal slats with nothing that's comforting, no ability to control the temperature ever, whether it's very hot to very cold, no freedom. And studies show that when the knob on the door turns in the room they're in or the door starts to open, their blood pressure goes through the roof, their hearts start pounding in their chests, their adrenaline soars. So, here's your research subject who is in a state of absolute catatonic fear.”  -Ingrid Newkirk “The fear factor is probably one of the worst. I mean, if you've ever been deeply afraid, or had a near accident or had somebody pursuing you, if you've ever been really afraid, that's their life 24 hours a day, except when they are able to sleep. And, how they are able to sleep on metal slats with nothing that's comforting, no ability to control the temperature ever, whether it's very hot to very cold, no freedom. And studies show that when the knob on the door turns in the room they're in or the door starts to open, their blood pressure goes through the roof, their hearts start pounding in their chests, their adrenaline soars. So, here's your research subject who is in a state of absolute catatonic fear.”  -Ingrid Newkirk     Ingrid Newkirk cofounded PETA in1980. I don’t there has been a single day in the past 40 years that she has not fought against injustice toward animals. She is a hero for animals, for people, and for showing all of us how to make change happen.   Ingrid came on the show to talk about her book, Free the Animals. She wrote it in 1992 and it was just rereleased for its 30-year anniversary. It's about the beginnings of the Animal Liberation Front in America and it’s about animal testing.   There is a chapter in the book that starts with a quote by Nicholas Chamfort, “Do you think that revolutions are made with rosewater?”   That quote makes me think about everything that Ingrid and PETA and the ALF have accomplished in the past 40 years. It also makes me think about what's happening in this country right now. The fight against injustice toward animals only becomes more difficult as people in this country lose more rights. It’s all connected. We’re all connected. How we treat animals is very much connected to how we treat humans and at the moment, we’re not treating anyone very well.   So, please listen, share and then go start a revolution.   LINKS: Free the Animals: https://www.amazon.com/Free-Animals-Amazing-Liberation-Anniversary/dp/159056670X   PETA: https://www.peta.org/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peta/?hl=en   Twitter: https://twitter.com/peta/   FB: https://www.facebook.com/official.peta/

Drew Pendergrass, a Harvard PhD student in environmental engineering and co-author of Half-Earth Socialism, dives into radical solutions to combat climate change and extinction. He highlights the surprising resistance to abolishing animal agriculture, which consumes vast land yet contributes little to nutrition. The conversation shifts to the transformative potential of rewilding and global veganism. Plus, learn about an engaging video game that educates players on these critical issues, blending fun with eco-consciousness.

"We are fed things like Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs and, you know, we grow up on this stuff, that the wolf is the big, bad character. And what the real wolf is like is so totally different." - Suzanne Asha Stone     A couple of months ago, we did a series on wolves. The episodes  focused on the massacre of entire wolf populations in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. At the time, I said that we did enough wolf episodes. But the truth is we didn't do enough because  wolves are still not on the endangered species list in those states.   Until they are, I don't think I can shut up about what we're doing to wolves, its egregious and its devastating.     Suzanne Stone has been on the front lines of wolf restoration in the Western USA for her entire career, since 1988.   In 2008 she founded the Wood River Wolf Project to demonstrate that wolves can coexist with sheep operations on national forests when adequate nonlethal deterrents are consistently applied.   She is a member of the IUCN Canid Specialist Task Force, the world’s chief body of scientific and practical expertise on the status and conservation of all canid species and is also the Executive Director of the International Wildlife Coexistence Network where she is now helping to protect wolves and other imperiled wildlife with communities around the world.   Suzanne has proven many times over many years that proactive non-lethal coexistence methods work. Yet for some inane reason, the slaughter continues.   “If we keep going, if this is allowed to keep going, eventually we will have zero wolves. There's no way that this can be sustained. It's just brutal.” – Suzanne Asha Stone   LINKS: Wood River Wolf Project https://www.woodriverwolfproject.org/   International Wildlife Coexistence Network  https://wildlifecoexistence.org/

“The idea is that we take and take and take from the planet. And we've been taking and there's all this talk about how can we get to neutral? And our company wanted to do something a little bit differently. We wanted to give back more than we were taking.” – Tina Bhojwani     Tina Bhojwani is the co-founder and CEO of AERA, a luxury vegan footwear brand. In a past life, she held key leadership roles at global brands including Donna Karan, Theory and was President of Dolce & Gabbana North America.   Having spent over two decades in the fashion world, Tina's had front row seats to fashion's impact on the planet as well as on people and animals.   AERA is her answer to how the fashion world (and those of us who frequent it) can do better. All of AERA’s components are made from non-animal ingredients, they use as many eco-friendly materials as possible, ensuring that the end result is of the highest quality, and are committed to evolving their materials, with the ultimate goal to one day be able to create a shoe with zero environmental impact.   “Our shoes are certified Vegan. We went to great lengths to ensure that all components are made from non-animal ingredients, yet still maintain the quality and style expected from a luxury shoe.” - Tina Bhojwani   They’re also stunning, insanely comfortable and, as Tina likes to point out, "they don’t look vegan."   Please listen and share and check out AERA’s shoes.   AERA https://aeranewyork.com/   Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/aeranewyork/   Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aeranewyork