The Animal Wellness Podcast

Will Cockfighting Lead to a Bird Flu Pandemic? | Episode 53

While the Corona virus has largely receded from the daily consciousness of most folks, it's not gone away completely. Just the other day, someone told reported that some hospitals are beginning to enact new masking policies. Regional and national hotspots remain across the globe. Countless people are grieving the almost 6.8 million people the virus has killed so far. The question remains, What have we learned?
 
Most people, it seems, are operating under an unspoken belief that what we have learned or haven't learned won't matter. That the odds of something like this happening again in our lifetimes is slim. If you'll forgive a horribly bad pun, they may be counting their chickens for before they hatch.
 
The looming culprit is bird flu, a devastating virus responsible directly and indirectly for the death of millions of birds, most notably chickens, who are being slaughter in countless numbers as a prophylactic against further spread of the disease. Why are eggs so expensive these days? Fewer chickens. Fewer eggs. Supply and demand.
 
But the real threat to humans is so far merely potential, albeit increasingly likely. On the show to talk about bird flu and its potential harms to people are Wayne Pacelle, president, and Drs. Jim Keen and Tom Pool. Dr. Keen is the Director of Veterinary Sciences for the Center for a Humane Economy, our sister organization. Dr. Pool is the Senior Veterinarian, Animal Wellness Action. And what's made this timely for us is our recent reporting on cockfighting in OK, Miss., Alabama and Tennessee.
 
Wayne Pacelle from Animal Wellness Action joins host Joseph Grove to discuss the topic. Also on the show are Dr. Jim Keen, D.V.M., Ph.D., Director of Veterinary Sciences, Center for a Humane Economy, and Dr. Tom Pool, D.V.M, MPH, Dipl. ACVPM, Senior Veterinarian, Animal Wellness Action.
 
Here's a link to our exclusive investigation into cockfighting:
http://bit.ly/3xQSEFi
 
 
Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
 
 
www.animalwellnessaction.org
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Horse Slaughter: The Endurance and Cruelty of ‘America’s Dirty Secret’ | Episode 52

Australia has its kangaroos. China, its beloved pandas. In the United States, we have horses. We love them. We revere them. Children delight in seeing them. We cheer them on when they race around tracks from sea to shining sea.
But there’s a rancid underbelly to our treatment of horses, and a new investigative report, “U.S. Live Exports Fade as Foreign Demand Abates | An Investigative Report on Horses and Other Equines Sent to Slaughter in Canada and Mexico,” looks into it. It was published by Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy and Animals’ Angels. The results are by turns stomach-churning and heart-breaking.
The dark side is this: While it is illegal to slaughter horses in the U.S., it remains legal–and profitable–to sell horses for transport into Canada and Mexico for that purpose. Yes, as foreign demand dries up, fewer horses are so destined. But with about 20,000 horses a year still sent to the kill plants, we have a long way to go.
Retired race horses. Spent carriage horses. Unwanted companion horses. Any one of them may end up thrust into an overcrowded and often uncovered holding pen, shoved into an overcrowded and sweltering truck, and finally corralled through a maze of gates until the end finally comes.
“We documented that cruelty goes hand-in-hand with horse slaughter. Every step along the way,” said report co-author Sonja Meadows of Animals’ Angels. “It's really like somebody flips a switch. The minute a horse is unloaded at the loading dock of an auction and labeled a kill horse, the minute that determination is made, everything that horse experiences from then on will be dramatically different and completely inhumane.”
Meadows is joined in this podcast by Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, and Scott Beckstead, director of campaigns for the organizations. They review the findings of the report with host Joseph Grove. Shown are some images from it as well as some video that was captured along the way. Notice: they are not pleasant to view.
Marty Irby, executive director of Animal Wellness Action, provides a legislative update at the conclusion of the interview.
You can watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/QsQhaMMlmMA
 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnimalWellnessAction
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/AWAction_News
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Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
 

From Lethal to Compassionate Conservation: The North American Model and How We Can Do Better | Episode 51

The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation is less a structured paradigm of how Americans and their neighbor animals can co-exist than a set of tenets that benefits "sportsmen," who take advantage of the model to hunt, trap and poison their way through much of our wildlife population, and ranchers, who hope to acquire and maintain land for private profit. There is little about it that considers conserving, and much more about it that ensures hunters and trappers have access to animals to kill.
 
In this episode, Anja Heister, Ph.D., an independent researcher, writer and life-long animal rights activist, talks about her new book, "Beyond the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation: From Lethal to Compassionate Conservation." She discusses the history of the North American model, the problems associated with Western anthropocentrism and alternatives with the potential to soften our impact on the world of animals around us.
 
Julie Marshall, national communications director for Animal Wellness Action and the author of “Making Burros Fly: Cleveland Amory, Animal Rescue Pioneer," joins the discussion following her review of Heister's book in The Denver Post.
 
Marty Irby, executive director of Animal Wellness Action, joins host Joseph Grove.
 
 
www.animalwellnessaction.org
www.centerforahumaneeconomy.org
 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnimalWellnessAction
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/centerforahumaneeconomy/
 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AWAction_News
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheHumaneCenter
 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/animalwellnessaction/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/centerforahumaneeconomy/
 
Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

2023: The year ahead in animal welfare | Episode 50

2022 was extraordinarily successful for Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. But Wayne Pacelle , president, and Marty Irby, executive director, tell host Joseph Grove they have even bigger plans for 2023.
 
In this episode of the Animal Wellness Podcast, the animal-welfare leaders recap some of their successes in the now-concluded 117th Congress, including:
Passing the Big Cat Public Safety Act
Passing the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act
Passing the FDA Modernization Act
Passing the Reducing Animal Testing Act
Helping craft and pass a fix to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, so it could survive a court challenge.
They also talk about work they plan as the Farm Bill comes up for its five-year congressional renewal, what’s ahead for horses, and plans to push the work of Animal Wellness Action deeper into state politics with ballot initiatives and a growing team of state directors and volunteers.
 
The discussion came as the group entered the zenith of its fundraising activities for the close of 2022.
 
www.animalwellnessaction.org
www.centerforahumaneeconomy.org
 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnimalWellnessAction
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/centerforahumaneeconomy/
 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AWAction_News
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheHumaneCenter
 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/animalwellnessaction/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/centerforahumaneeconomy/
 
Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

2022: The year in review for animal welfare | Episode 49

Wayne Pacelle and Marty Irby from Animal Wellness Action join host Joseph Grove to discuss accomplishments for animals this year, including the Big Cat Public Safety Act and the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act, as well as progress toward modernizing the FDA. Recorded December 21, 2022.
 
Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Crate Free USA’s battle against extreme confinement of factory-farm animals | Episode 48

Thanksgiving turkeys. Christmas hams. The holiday season is inextricably linked to these staples of holiday indulgence. While we amble through the darkening days of the year, however, the animals whose lives will be sacrificed to feed us are far worse than they need to be. And that is so because of unnecessarily inhumane conditions on the factory farms where the majority of them are bred, live short, grueling lives, and are slaughtered assembly-line style.
One of the worst aspects of factory-farm life for these doomed sentient creatures is extreme confinement. Pigs are known to receive the worst of it, when pregnant sows are kept in indecently small cages known as gestation crates. The fight against their use is one key focus of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, which battle is now being waged before the Supreme Court.
Another soldier is Jessica Chipkin. She is the founder and president of Crate Free USA, an organization whose mission simply is to reduce the suffering of animals on factory farms. Founded in 2015, the group believes there’s really no difference between cruelty inflicted on a dog, cat, bird, horse, chicken, calf or pig.
They group tries to:
Create awareness of the extreme and inhumane confinement of hogs, chickens, and cows on factory farms
Educate consumers on how to purchase from local, sustainable farmers
Advocate for legislation to eliminate extreme confinement practices
She joins us in this episode to talk about her work with Trader Joe's, Aldi and Costco, as well as her youth-education effort and her mobile app. Also on the show is Scott Beckstead, our director of national campaigns, and Marty Irby, who provides a legislative update. Joseph Grove is the host.
 
Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ending the abuse for carriage horses | Episode 47

On August 10, 2022, a carriage horse named Ryder collapsed on a hot New York City street and instantly became the symbol for a growing movement.
Ryder was found to be a decade older than he should have been according to regulations, when he dropped to his side, requiring a spray of cold water to revivify him. He was emaciated and, it was later discovered, ill with cancer. Liberated at last from having to pull tourists around a crowded metropolis of cars, buses and trucks, he was sent to a privately owned farm. Retirement was short, however, and he had to be euthanized just a couple of weeks ago.
As sad as his fate, however, many former carriage horses face an even worse end. Those who are no longer of use to the industry often are sold for slaughter and must endure a terrifying trip to Canada or Mexico, where they are killed and butchered for their meat.
Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy, NYClass, Revolution Philadelphia and other groups are working hard to convince municipalities to do away with carriage-horse rides and the animal-suffering they entail. Part of their argument is that electric carriages are now available, able to preserve the tourist experience of slow, open-air views of cities and the jobs of people driving the carriages. Invest in the e-carriages, say the advocates, and you can preserve the tourist attractions and at the same time eliminate cruelty.
This episode brings together several experts with vast experience advocating for horses and championing solutions to their systemic abuse. Joining host Joseph Grove in this episode of the Animal Wellness Podcast are:
Marty Irby, executive director of Animal Wellness Action
Kate Schultz, senior attorney for the Center for a Humane Economy and a former New York City prosecutor who specialized in animal-abuse cases
Edita Birnkrant, executive director of NYClass, a group that is among leading the movement to ban horse-carriages and in New York and replace them with electric alternatives
Tiffany Stair, co-founder of Revolution Philadelphia and a vocal antagonist to the city’s carriage-horse industry.
You can learn more about the organizations they represent here:
Animal Wellness Action
Center for a Humane Economy
NYClass website
NYClass Facebook
Revolution Philadelphia Facebook
 
Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Dan Buettner on living better, longer and kinder with Blue Zones lifestyles | Episode 46

Dan Buettner is a prolific writer, traveler and advocate for the human species. His work with National Geographic led to an interest in areas of the world where people live the longest and most healthy–areas he dubbed Blue Zones. Since then, one of his missions has been to understand the commonalities among those areas and how people in other parts of the world could adopt them and reap their benefits. He calls those common attributes the Power 9.
 
We were interested in Buettner’s work because one of the Power 9 is that people in the Blue Zones eat much less or no meat. Where meat is consumed, it is done so only seldomly and usually entails pork in small portions, each about the size of a deck of cards.
 
Once again, what helps animals helps us all.
 
In this interview, Buettner sits down with Wayne Pacelle, the president and founder of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, and host Joseph Grove to talk about the benefits of eating a diet that is as kind to our own bodies as it is to the animals it spares. It comes just as preorders are being taken for his newest book about Blue Zone living, “Blue Zones American Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100.”
 
The book is currently the No. 1 new release in Amazon’s Natural Food Cooking category. With beautiful photography and essays by the author about his experiences, the book makes a great holiday gift for anyone who wants to eat better and at the cost of fewer animals.
 
You can visit Dan Buettner online here: https://danbuettner.com/. He also can be followed on Instagram, @danbuettner.
 
Also: Marty Irby, executive director chief lobbyist for Animal Wellness Action, updates viewers on the organization's legislative efforts at this Congress comes to an end.
 
Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com); License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)