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202- Bullfighter killed; how should vegans react?
90 Plays8 days ago
If we're covering a story from LadBible, you know it's gone viral. This week, Rich, Dominic & Anthony pull apart the week's vegan and animal rights news, including the story of a 22-year old bullfighter making his first...and last appearance inside the ring.
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Enough of the Falafel is a community of people who love keeping on top of the latest news in the world of veganism & animal rights. With the Vegan Week podcast, we aim to keep listeners (& ourselves) informed & up-to-date with the latest developments that affect vegans & non-human animals; giving insight, whilst staying balanced; remaining true to our vegan ethics, whilst constantly seeking to grow & develop.
Each week we look through news stories from the past 7 days in the world of veganism & animal rights.
If you spot any news stories that might catch our fancy, or have an idea for a discussion topic, get in touch via enoughofthefalafel@gmail.com.
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This week's stories:
https://www.theanimalreader.com/2025/09/03/charges-dropped-against-activists-who-climbed-iceland-whaling-ships/
https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/25431658.worcester-racecourse-dealers-death-signs-dead-horses/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15057621/Animal-rights-activist-sobs-court-accused-stealing-live-crayfish-tank-posh-seafood-restaurant-throwing-harbour.html
https://www.ladbible.com/news/animals/portugal-bullfighter-manuel-maria-trindade-killed-campo-pequeno-582873-20250826
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/vegan-dog-food-study
https://eu.farmersadvance.com/story/news/2025/09/03/tyson-foods-sued-in-chancery-court-over-claims-of-chicken-farm-cruelty/85957574007/
https://vegconomist.com/studies-and-numbers/study-masculine-norms-prevent-men-adopting-sustainable-diets/
https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202509020027
https://plantbasednews-org.webpkgcache.com/doc/-/s/plantbasednews.org/culture/sport/vegan-ultra-runner-damian-hall-lakeland/
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Thanks everyone for listening; give us a rating and drop us a message to say "hi"; it'll make our day!
Dominic, Richard & Ant
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello everybody, if you are in a search for vegan and animal rights news, search no more. You're in the right place, you've got the podcast that is going to tick the boxes for you. I'm Anthony, joining me for this episode are Richard and Dominic, but that is enough of the falafel.
Challenges and Misconceptions About Veganism
00:00:16
Speaker
It's time for Vegan Week.
00:00:19
Speaker
So I think vegans go looking for trouble even when they're not looking for trouble. That's not what butter's used for. Brrr! Take your flab-grown meat elsewhere. We're not doing that in the state of Florida. What your protein and what about your iron levels? Should I call the media and say, hi, sorry? They're arguing like, oh, poor woe is me.
00:00:38
Speaker
Hang on a minute. You always pick
00:00:46
Speaker
of social injustice has connection with another. That's just what people think vegans eat anyway. As long as you didn't get the wee brunions with the horns you'll be alright. Does veganism give him superpowers?
00:00:58
Speaker
No I cannot fly around the city. I don't have laser vision. Hello everyone, my
Recent Vegan and Animal Rights News
00:01:08
Speaker
name's Richard. Welcome to this show and thanks for being here.
00:01:12
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello. My name is Dominic and this is our news show where we will look through the vegan and the animal rights news from the last week or so.
00:01:24
Speaker
That's enough of the falafel. Let's hear what's been going on this week.
00:01:31
Speaker
For more details on the upcoming news stories, including links to our original source material, check out our show notes for this episode, available on your podcast player.
00:01:42
Speaker
Okay, we're going to start off this week's stories with a trip to Iceland, the country, not the supermarket. It's a story from the Animal Reader and is featuring whaling ships. and we're going to ask Dominic talk about this because he loves so to talk about whaling. He's done it several times on the show for us before.
00:02:00
Speaker
I'm going to say that this is a positive story. ah There was a protest that happened in 2023 where two quote-unquote environmental activists, Alyssa Phillips and Anahita Babayi,
00:02:13
Speaker
Apologies if I've but said anyone's name wrong there. um They climbed aboard whaling ships Hvalor 8 and Hvalor 9. It was a quote peaceful bit of civil disobedience. They delayed the whale hunt and it started a global discussion about the country Iceland and its continued whaling activities.
00:02:34
Speaker
There were some legal bits of pushback against this. However, the great news this week, as reported in the animal reader, is that prosecutors have dropped maritime safety violations against the two activists.
00:02:47
Speaker
um the maritime safety laws used against them don't apply to whaling ships docked in the Reykjavik Harbour. So I'm not sure whether it's just like they've got off on a technicality or whether it's been a couple of years of prosecution stuff and it's not going anywhere. But either way, Dominic,
00:03:05
Speaker
I think we've got to take this as a ah positive because there's folk who are speaking on behalf and acting on behalf of animals in the environment. And if they don't get criminal charges against them, that's a good thing. It sounds like a very good and very inspiring thing to me.
00:03:21
Speaker
I do want to clarify something that Ant said a moment ago when he said Dominic's been doing this on the show many times. Ant meant talking about whaling. Not that Dominic's been out
Cultural Traditions and Ethical Debates
00:03:33
Speaker
wailing. Guess what I've been doing? Boys, lads, lads, lads, lads. No, no, no, no. Not that. Not that. wondered what that harpoon was in the background. Yeah, not that. Not that.
00:03:43
Speaker
I have said previously that there are all different types of vegans. I am vegan and feel proud of vegans.
00:03:58
Speaker
Being vegan and choosing to abstain from buying certain things. I sometimes feel inadequate when I look at all those campaigners and I often feel a little bit scared as well because the world is so often unfair and so i absolutely ah tip my hat in joy to these marvellous people doing a marvellous thing and achieving marvellous thing.
00:04:25
Speaker
I think that I'm not the only one who sometimes feels like, oh, am I doing enough? Am I doing enough? And everybody's got different capacity ah to do things. What I do believe, in my view, I'm able to I was about to say we can all do, but no, no, don't speak for other people, Dominic.
00:04:42
Speaker
I know that I can be positive about this story and and other stories like this in public. I think that if you're the kind of person who isn't out campaigning against whaling, when it comes up in conversation, if you have the privilege that you do feel you won't be...
00:04:58
Speaker
put into a place that you don't want to be by by vocally be so saying, what a good thing. think that's a really good thing for us all to be able to do. And I think this is a tremendously good thing.
00:05:10
Speaker
Hooray, hooray. Yeah. and And whilst sharing the good news of this story, you can slip in the fact that the ah the companies who whose boats they climbed aboard a couple of years ago, Hvalor, we did mention in the show um a few months ago,
00:05:25
Speaker
that they have not been hunting whales at all this summer. They're citing falling demand and lower prices in its main market in Japan. Maybe there's a little bit of a fear of getting some backlash from environmentalists and animal rights activists as well.
00:05:40
Speaker
Who knows? But definitely a raft of positive stories when it comes to that horrible industry. That's great. Thank you, Dominic. Let's move on to another story now. This one is from Ladbible. We have taken things from them before. Generally, if things are on Ladbible, it means that it's being featured in quite a few places because they're not really renowned for their animal rights content.
00:06:01
Speaker
And indeed, this story has been reported in many different places. This is the news that a 22 year old bullfighter in Lisbon, Portugal um has died after being slammed against a wall by one of the animals.
00:06:17
Speaker
This was in in the event itself, so in front of thousands of spectators. um the The person's name was Manuel Maria Trindade. He was making his debut, so it was the first time he'd sort of done this in public, and it was on the 22nd of August, so obviously a bit of a lag in this being reported more globally.
00:06:35
Speaker
This is a really interesting one, Richard, isn't it? Because we've we've seen lots of different responses from people, obviously obviously in a sense, no no Nobody wants to see anybody killed. that's That's not the message of veganism. That's not the message of compassion.
00:06:51
Speaker
And yet, can we use it as an opportunity to advocate for how horrific this, quote, sport is? or I mean, goodness, so many different angles to take. What's what's your take on it?
00:07:03
Speaker
So bullfighting is different depending on what country you look at. And for example, in Portugal, it's different than in Spain because they don't kill the bull on the ring, but they slaughter the bull after.
00:07:17
Speaker
I think what happens many times here is there's a conflict between... ethics and culture and what I mean by that is we need to preserve culture you'll always hear that you know we need to keep our traditions we can't lose our identity but we don't question whether what we've been doing for many years is the right thing and so I think well I can talk for Spain at least you know when they say well it's something we've been doing for centuries I think and it's kind of it's cultural it's embedded in our identity well
00:07:49
Speaker
Is that the kind of identity you want for yourself? Can we just challenge the belief that because something is labelled as cultural and tradition means we need to keep doing it?
00:08:01
Speaker
It's just to challenge the perception that traditions need to stay forever, regardless of what they do. We need to evolve. I'd be interested to know what both of you think ah about the opinion I'm about to put forward. My my gut instinct reading this, the story mentions the fact that his father was a bullfighter, so he's he's following in his tradition.
00:08:23
Speaker
It's in front of thousands of people who've paid to, ah they've shown that there is a demand for this spectacle. And obviously the the guy has died. So this might seem like an obvious statement, but I feel really sorry for him. Obviously, in a sense, he's chosen to to do this and he's,
00:08:40
Speaker
culpable for his own actions. But I just kind of think of the the cultural and family pressure, perhaps, to do this. um Obviously, I don't know the guy, you know, I feel like he's a real victim here. And we shouldn't be looking past the animal victims.
00:08:55
Speaker
We shouldn't be because if vegans and animal rights activists aren't looking up for the animals then who's going to but i i feel like there are lots of people culpable for this not least those in the stands and arguably his family i don't know that's i' i'm making lots of assumptions there but what you're saying is the environment you grow up in defines who you'll be and the beliefs you have so you shouldn't can strongly influence it, can strongly influence it, not necessarily dictate Okay, so it's about nobilifying that person in such a way because there's many more actors there, like the people that are paying the ticket, the industry itself,
00:09:38
Speaker
the breeders that are as guilty as the person doing it itself, right? That's what you're saying. I would agree with that. I mean, it all that's why that tailors with my point that maybe it's about changing the tradition and the perceptions because ah it's not good just to put all the blame on that person, but the whole system, I think that would be fairer.
00:10:03
Speaker
It is about changing traditions. um I've said on previous podcasts, I happen to be a gay man in my 40s. And a lot of gay men in their 40s have, not through their own choice, severed ties with their families because of homophobia, because of prejudice.
00:10:21
Speaker
And that can be awful in obvious ways. It can also be liberating. It can also make a person more free thinking because they're not...
00:10:32
Speaker
being surrounded with views that they might feel unable to challenge. And it is a great privilege to be able to. I'm not saying that all families are that way, but certainly, you know, the idea of the dominant patriarch is not gone. That's not vanished. You know, there are plenty of families where I'm the breadwinner and what I say goes. And yeah, I think that it's it's a complicated situation.
Animal Use in Sports and Protests
00:11:01
Speaker
I agree with what you said, Ant. Our next story also relates to a, quote, sport where animals are being used and abused and indeed dying. ah This one comes to us from the Worcester News, which I'm just going to say I think is a horrible publication. However, they are reporting the they are reporting the actions of some very wonderful activists who I have driven past. I do work in Worcester and I've driven past these people on a race day,
00:11:31
Speaker
probably other people who weren't there on this particular day, um protesting, um often in small numbers, but they're out there getting the message saying that actually horse racing is unethical.
00:11:42
Speaker
And the point that they're really trying to stress here is that horses die when when they do it. They quote that eight horses have died at Worcester Racecourse this year in 2025 alone. And Worcester Racecourse is not a very popular one. It's not one where there's races every single week. So That's quite the statistic.
00:12:03
Speaker
Another angle that they're taking, and I'd be interested in your thoughts on this one, Dominic, is that they're saying, well, children aren't allowed inside betting shops. However, this was a family fun day at Worcester Racecourse that they were protesting.
00:12:18
Speaker
So on the one hand, we're saying, yeah, children, come along to this place where horses are dying quite regularly. And indeed, the main activity that's fueling it financially is something that children aren't allowed to do.
00:12:34
Speaker
What do you make of this, Dominic? I think that the protesters are amazing, doing an amazing thing. I think that there are huge talks to do about gambling and the prevalence of it on our high streets. And it's a complicated matter, short version Not keen, not keen, you know, and definitely not keen on things that are introduced as fun days. When we were doing that whaling, i was talking about, isn't it good if you've got the privilege to say, i don't think whaling's good.
00:13:10
Speaker
We use the word speciesism sometimes on this podcast and different people react differently to different animals. You see cruelty to a cat. People... often react differently to cruelty to a cat than they would do cruelty to a rat.
00:13:28
Speaker
And, you the vegan stance is, you know, let's not be cruel. Let's not, eh? Let's not. I think that it's on the, that we've got cats versus rats. We've got whales versus dogs or horses.
00:13:41
Speaker
I kind of think that, um, A load of people go, I love horses, that's why I love the horse racing. Oh, dogs are so cool, can't wait to see them at the Greyhound track.
00:13:52
Speaker
And I think that it takes more, it's ah is a more difficult thing. I've certainly done it in work scenarios. If you can say, i don't like this, if you can turn down work do invitations when the Christmas party is at a racing thing,
00:14:10
Speaker
And if you can say in a way of integrity and be heard, like, oh, well, i'm I'm going to choose to not do that. That's a really good thing.
00:14:20
Speaker
Really. and And going back to Richard's story there, family pressure is one thing. Work pressure is another. The expectations of being part of a team and to be the one who goes, I don't like that.
00:14:31
Speaker
That's wrong. Isn't an easy thing to do. But it is a good thing to do. And what a good thing. What a good thing these protests are doing. Well done, all of you. a Absolutely. Absolutely. And I mean, Paul, who often appears on the show, has has protested at this very site and his his feedback and other people I i know, because it's an area I know well, is that it is a tough gig standing outside telling people that what they're what they're about to go and support is really unethical.
00:15:03
Speaker
and And but but it it does make an impact. We see it making an impact. So keep up the good work, everyone who's able to do that. Fantastic. Definitely. and Definitely. and And I will add as well, I've said this on previous podcasts. So that's how I became vegan by people.
00:15:19
Speaker
protesting and talking to me and challenging my beliefs.
Pet Food and Nutritional Ethics
00:15:22
Speaker
I wasn't born vegan. I went vegetarian, thought, oh, I've ticked every box. I'm vegetarian. You know, what these mad vegans up to? They take things too far.
00:15:30
Speaker
And then it was from having people be courteously confrontational with me and saying, but what about this? What about that? I, as a kid, I would have been like, oh, dogs are great, isn't it?
00:15:43
Speaker
Isn't it great? And I think as ah vegans, it's good to remember if you have previously had a different mindset. I think that's a helpful starting point for communicating with people. If you can empathize and be like, yeah, I can see why you'd think dogs are great. Let's go to the dogs. I can see that.
00:16:01
Speaker
But How are the dogs? Indeed. And how are your dogs, listeners, the dogs that you share a home with? We we know that talking about people evolving from from one standpoint and and going going to another one, we know that actually many people will follow a plant-based diet, um but actually the food that they feed animals that live in their home might often still be animal-based.
00:16:27
Speaker
um And indeed, we're giving Richard all the popular stories this week. Dominic's getting the niche ones. Richard's man of the people. He is getting the headlines. This is the other story that appeared in many, many places recently.
00:16:40
Speaker
this week. I've chosen to take Nottingham University's take on it for some reason. I can't remember why, um but it was reported in lots of places. This is the... Oh, it's because the study was done by them.
00:16:51
Speaker
That would make sense, wouldn't it? They have done a study that has found that vegan diets for dogs sold in the UK generally provide similar nutrition to meat-based diets.
00:17:02
Speaker
Now, listeners, you might be thinking, well, I'm sure I've heard this before. There have been other studies done before in other countries. So we are looking at Brazil and Canada that basically similar research was done, similar findings.
00:17:16
Speaker
I guess the thing to point out here is that It's gonna depend on what brand of plant-based dog food you're looking at, and I suppose animal-based one too, and I think that might be what some of the discrepancies are.
00:17:29
Speaker
Anyway, the study was led by Rebecca Brociak from the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science. It's been published in PLOS One, Public Library of Science, which is a very prestigious journal, so well done, Rebecca. It highlights the importance of balanced and nutritional diet for canine companions, as phrased on this website.
00:17:50
Speaker
I don't know what your take is, Richard. We'll hear it in a moment, I suppose. But I thought it was a quite well-written piece. It probably won't be read by that many people because it's on Nottingham University's website as opposed to the Daily Mail and the Guardian where it's also appeared. But they're pointing out that actually what animals need is specific nutrition, not necessarily specific food. So it doesn't have to be animal-based.
00:18:13
Speaker
It did highlight that there were some... differences and some discrepancies and I suppose it's fair to say that if we're looking at things nutritionally not every plant-based dog food is going to tick all of the boxes but then I suppose all animals are different you've you've lived at home with with animals and weighed up plant-based diets for them what's what's what's your take on this news that's making the headlines rich My take is that as long as it contains the nutrition needed, it's a suitable food.
00:18:43
Speaker
What I mean by that, and let me clarify it, is that why would you choose to kill animals to feed animals? It seems like a bit strange thing because usually you don't really know that well.
00:18:58
Speaker
I mean... Let me rephrase that. I mean, I've always been astonished why when you have pets, you really love them. I'm assuming the majority of people and they want their best for them.
00:19:08
Speaker
However, the food that you feed them with is not fit for human consumption. What does that mean? Is there anything there that's not good? Do you know what I mean?
00:19:19
Speaker
Like, why would it be that way? Well, I mean, what what was interesting about this short article, I thought, was that it actually said across the board, so they looked at 31 different, quote, dog foods, and 30 them...
00:19:35
Speaker
you know, some plant-based, some animal-based, 30 of them had at least one essential nutrient missing. Now, I mean... Iodine or B or these things. yeah I mean, that's assuming that that's the only thing that dog's going to eat. You know, I've had my dinner before we record this. and Very nice it was too.
00:19:53
Speaker
I'd be astounded if it had every single nutrient that I needed. so that's That's the issue. can you know Can you believe? Eating, I'll go for whole rice, not white rice. Okay, just to be generous here. for the next 10 years, surely you'll have some deficiency.
00:20:07
Speaker
yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I wanted to point out also that this... don't know if we covered this ah ages ago, but in America, I can't remember the state, they found that there were...
00:20:20
Speaker
dogs in dog food because they used euthanized dogs in dog's food, which I thought was just completely insane.
00:20:31
Speaker
So I'm not saying every bad brand will be like that, obviously, because that's not the case. But we should be thinking like when we're feeding a pet, we are killing another animal to feed an animal.
00:20:44
Speaker
It doesn't seem right. Well, i think I think it links back to stories that we mentioned earlier in terms of culture and tradition. I think it's it's it's seen as normal to so live with a companion animal. like i I wonder how many of the people who identify as vegan but are feeding their companion animals non-vegan diets.
00:21:09
Speaker
I wonder how many of them had the animals living in their home. in the first place do you know what mean so it's it's it's kind of like generally you're needing to adapt to a situation that you're already in which which is is quite difficult isn't it you know if we if we start completely from scratch and say right i want everything in my life to be completely vegan and i've got a blank slate that's that's a lot easier isn't it And one last thing, and I'll let you move on.
00:21:36
Speaker
There's something I've never understood. Never. I need to ask ChatGPT if he can give me an answer. Why cat food and dog food? You'll usually find beef.
00:21:47
Speaker
You'll find these huge animals sometimes. I've never seen a group cats hunting cow. and think a cow I've never seen that. So that leads me to think, is it really when they say it's food designed for your cat?
00:22:04
Speaker
No, it's not. It's because it's cheaper from the perspective of animal agriculture, feed animals with the the animals they already slaughter. I think Richard is cheaper. I also think there's a certain degree of, um I'm going to use the wrong phrase here, like personifying it. That's not the right phrase. What I mean by that is that because a lot of people eat beef, but not everyone eats rabbit, do they? Not everyone eats rabbit. So if you add like rabbit cat food, you know, that that that's going to trigger different things in a person. So it's making it sound
00:22:39
Speaker
appealing to people so like when they look at it in the supermarket or hidden away in a little box they're oh yes i can i can imagine that would be succulent yes you know yeah yeah goodness me goodness me we we i think we could have a whole podcast that is just focused on you know diets and and and think things with regards to having a companion animal Like it's it's such an interesting area and um yeah, mental gymnastics abound, don't they? for
Legal and Ethical Implications of Activism
00:23:08
Speaker
For those who are vegan and those who are are not yet vegan.
00:23:11
Speaker
Well, I mean, we're talking about companion animals and one animal that people generally don't have in a tank at their home is a crayfish. However, if you did, it perhaps would be under threat by Emma Smart. Who is Emma Smart?
00:23:26
Speaker
You might be saying, well, she, according to the Daily Mail, is an animal rights activist and she has been in court this week, or rather at the at the very end of August as it happens.
00:23:37
Speaker
and She's accused of stealing a live crayfish from a tank at a quote posh seafood restaurant and throwing it into a harbour. The irony is that this... Clearly it's going to be impartial and fair, isn't it Ant? Yeah, absolutely. Yes, there's already loaded terms.
00:23:55
Speaker
if If you follow the link in the show notes and read the whole thing, you can keep a great big tally of all the emotive guiding language that they are using to a make up our opinions for us on what we think about Emma.
00:24:08
Speaker
Well, I know whose side I'm on, that's for sure. um She's a a marine biologist, um for what it's worth. um She appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court on Tuesday, being charged with theft and assault.
00:24:20
Speaker
She denies it. um And interestingly, the judge has questioned, why is so much time needed on this case? It's the theft of a lobster from a restaurant, isn't it?
00:24:31
Speaker
Said the judge. Basically, this restaurant, its its whole thing is, oh, we do this whole kind of from the sea to your plate experience. It's it's right on the quayside.
00:24:42
Speaker
on the south coast of England. And basically, Emma has ran into the restaurant. She is accused of pushing staff out of the way. I'm sure they'll get over it. um Taking a crayfish out of the tank and throwing it back in the sea. Now, we don't know the fate of that crayfish. We don't know if it's okay.
00:24:59
Speaker
um Interestingly, that wasn't brought up. in the court proceedings. The Daily Mail have made a big thing of the fact that she was crying. but Again, that's just them trying to say, oh, look at this. Look at this person. They're crying.
00:25:11
Speaker
And basically, in June next year, there's going to be a three-day trial about this, which is what the judge was saying. Why are we spending three days on this? This is ridiculous.
00:25:23
Speaker
Dominic, we've been saying thus far in the show, it's great to get exposure for things. Obviously, when it comes to the Daily Mail filter, they're making their headline is animal rights activist sobs in court. then They're not really saying what a great protest this was. Is there still something that we can take from it or is this one that we want to blow over?
00:25:44
Speaker
I say well done, Emma. What a difficult thing for her to see. I'm not saying that being pushed is nothing to get over it. I'm not saying that.
00:25:57
Speaker
But I am saying that... I struggle to see how it's not understandable that the the death, there are really cruel way of dying. I mean, not that there's a non-cruel way of dying, but it's well-publicized seafood. Well, to those who want to look into it, it's it's not hard to find out how very, very cruel it is.
00:26:18
Speaker
And on the level of... being killed that way or getting a push, I'd say being killed is the the greater thing, like pushing people out the way. like I can really, I really put put myself in her her shoes. I can really put myself in her shoes. It's really a really heartbreaking story. Really, really heartbreaking. And, and,
00:26:38
Speaker
you know it's the kind of thing where if this was made into a children's cartoon you'd have a hard job painting the restaurant people as the goodies wouldn't you you'd have a hard job like i write for children that's one thing if i received a commission right we want the uh you to write a story of the big bad animal activist who saves the uh saves the life of beings that don't want to die you know what bad person like you'd be really challenged to write that story because it's a bad story good on emma good on emma yeah well i mean me maybe that's a challenge for you dominic you challenging me with my uh my segways i i yeah you're absolutely right and so would the media have covered it differently if this was a foreign country and someone had saved the dog when they say dog
00:27:30
Speaker
from the kitchen to the table or however they call it? Would that be different? What an excellent comparison, Richard. Excellent, excellent. yeah exactly And we reported something a few months ago where um there was somebody in Egypt who saw a man abusing a goat and And she basically went over and punched him.
00:27:54
Speaker
And this went viral on on TikTok, I believe. And he was trying to press charges against her. But, you know, the whole the whole world and his dog were basically saying, no, good on you. Like, that was absolutely the right thing to do.
00:28:08
Speaker
And I think you're absolutely right, Richard. The fact that it's in another country means it's easier for us to do. But this is ah you know a Michelin-starred restaurant, I think, in the UK. And so a UK newspaper is going to go, oh, you're stealing the fish. What do you think you're doing?
00:28:24
Speaker
No, absolutely right. Well done, Emma. And it seems like she's been very upset by the whole experience of of being in court and having all this exposure. Let's hope that that passes and she's able to continue being an excellent advocate for animals from what we can see anyway.
Corporate Responsibility and Legal Actions
00:28:40
Speaker
One more story then before we hear Dominic and Richard's pick for the week. It's from the USA. We say hello to all of our North American listeners. We know there's lots of you out there. Tyson Foods, we hear a lot about them. They are, speaking of big baddies, Tyson Foods.
00:28:57
Speaker
um One of their shareholders is suing them to obtain documents related to claims of child labour violations and animal cruelty. So interesting, normally it's animal activists who are doing the undercover work, who are doing freedom of information requests and what have you.
00:29:14
Speaker
This is the actual shareholder of the company. You might be thinking, well, why are they doing that? They're saying that these practices harm the company's business and shareholder value. So we're not going down the moral line. It's bad to use children in your labor. It's awful to use...
00:29:30
Speaker
animals in this way. No, no, no. This is going to reduce our share value. um They also seek to investigate potential mismanagement and breaches of fiduciary duty. I've never heard that phrase before. I'll have to look that one up in the break. But yeah, this is um a Delaware judge that has been asked to force the company to turn over documents.
00:29:51
Speaker
relating to to child labour and and animal cruelty. I'm not going to go into all the details, but Rich, when you when you read this and you you see the arguments, they're clearly not arguments we're going to use as animal rights activists. They're saying, look, these animals are malnourished.
00:30:06
Speaker
Therefore, they'll die before they're slaughtered. That's bad, isn't it? Like that these are not vegan arguments. Is it nonetheless a story we can get behind or we just need to move on and and focus our efforts elsewhere?
00:30:19
Speaker
So two things here. First, fiduciary is when your actions go to the enhancement of the client rather than your own interest.
00:30:31
Speaker
So you always do it as for the client, the best for the client. Because it's an economical term. Very good. ah Or it's used in in economy. ah The second thing is, although I would like the reasons to be ethical and vegan, or ethical related to veganism, I think when there's a news about the company that clearly violates some sort of either regulations, we can talk about what type of regulations, because that's another ah big story, you know, how they...
00:31:05
Speaker
are legally allowed to keep animals. But let's focus just on on this story. ah think it's good, nevertheless, because it undermines the company's and the perception and the reputation of the company.
00:31:20
Speaker
And therefore, it will allow in the future for certain people to question the morality and other aspects of the company. So and it's like, you know, if you think about companies that have been sued in the past, when if I tell you Monsanto,
00:31:37
Speaker
Do you think about core values and brilliant things and, oh, how splendid they are? No. So it's a bit similar, right? It's a bit it's a bit like, well, if they're doing this, it flags the practices they have. Yeah, well, I mean, I'm i'm all for it. It's it's it's definitely not going to be, you know, a story that I share to my Facebook followers or anything like that. But I think the more the more infighting that um shareholders of animal ag can do, the more that they can be...
00:32:12
Speaker
um I mean, there's photos on this news article, investigation photos. It shows the horrible state that these chickens' lives are in with them. And we've we've said on the show many times before, it's never the the law, it's never anything like that that they expose these things. It's all these animal activists. Well, if we can get shareholders to be doing it, then that's gotta be better for animals, hasn't it?
00:32:36
Speaker
Right, let's take a quick break. We are coming back after this break with Richard and Dominic's pick for the week, and we are comparing the meerkat with toxic masculinity.
00:32:48
Speaker
As well as producing these audio shows, our podcast hosts at Zencaster also provide the written transcript for each show. This is AI generated, so it might not always be 100% correct, but nonetheless, we hope that this will increase the accessibility of our show. So to access any of these written transcripts, head over to zencaster.com forward slash vegan week.
00:33:17
Speaker
going to spell it all for you.
00:33:24
Speaker
then a forward slash, and then the word vegan, V-E-G-A-N, then a hyphen, and then week. zencaster.com forward slash vegan hyphen week.
00:33:35
Speaker
and then each transcript is embedded with any of the shows that you click on.
00:33:42
Speaker
Okie Coke, it is pick of the week time. We're going to start with Dominic's. He is going to talk to us about toxic masculinity. He's written poems that made me think he would be exactly the right person to be asking to talk about this.
00:33:56
Speaker
And you're getting studious, Dominic. This is all about study conducted at the University of Bath, University of Zurich. What's this got to do with veganism? Well, this story comes from the Vegconomist.
Masculine Norms and Dietary Choices
00:34:08
Speaker
So it is a vegan business magazine. So unlike the Daily Mail in the previous story, these are people who are pro-vegan, who are who are, you know, wanting to share views that I would imagine similar to mine.
00:34:23
Speaker
And they're talking about how masculine norms prevent men from adopting more sustainable diets. So as you say, it's from the University of Bath, Zurich and Bryant.
00:34:36
Speaker
And their definition of masculine norms, I've not read how they came to these. There's a list of things that um we could do a whole podcast on each one of their point. For example, um seeing being independent as a masculine quality. I mean, you know, we could we could write a thesis on that, couldn't we? is that Is that the case? Is that the case?
00:35:01
Speaker
um They're saying that there are a lot of men who want to avoid being seen as feminine, avoid getting involved with emotional stuff. They want to be seen as aggressive because aggression is masculine.
00:35:15
Speaker
They see eating meat as connected to achievement. So, yeah, they've come up with these ah six points that they hope would make plant based eating more appealing to men who value the things I've just listed. So six things. Number one, prioritising taste.
00:35:36
Speaker
And I reckon everyone listening to this podcast has met people who are like, oh, well, but I love bacon. I love that. and And yet we also know people who've eaten things not knowing they're vegan, who are like, but it tastes delicious. So I'm behind that prioritising taste.
00:35:51
Speaker
Number two, focusing on health and nutrition, talking about all the health benefits. Number three, They say using implicit messaging, subtly linking plant-based foods to values like performance and strength and adventure.
00:36:10
Speaker
They say that currently that the lack of adventure that perceived in plant-based food alienates men. Wow. There we go. Number four of six but is balancing a clarity and appeal in labelling.
00:36:27
Speaker
So using like familiar wording can can be ah less sort of pushing people away. Acknowledging social influence. So we've talked a lot on our previous news stories about how partners and family can really shape the environment in which we're brought up.
00:36:46
Speaker
So interventions in this through, I'm presuming, through things like social media and powerful advertising. And finally, to address cost concerns.
00:36:58
Speaker
That's certainly something that I have a talk to non-vegans over all the time I couldn't afford it. I couldn't afford it. What? You can't afford lentils.
00:37:10
Speaker
What you're talking about? What you're talking about? um One of the main points of this study is saying that eating is a fundamentally social activity. And if your peer group has got certain values, how difficult it is to ah go against those values if you want a sense of belonging I think for me, Ant and Richard, what I've really realised is how um my friend group is not all alpha males. I was reading this thinking, men don't think this.
00:37:41
Speaker
What are they talking about? It's 2025. And it's like, oh, it is 2025, isn't it, where some people are going out painting England flags on roundabouts. So maybe there are men who don't have the same views as mine. And maybe I live in a little bit of a bubble where I don't always see people with strongly opposing views.
00:38:01
Speaker
So, yeah, yeah. ah I mean, really thinking about it, a Beyond Burger is a similar shape to a roundabout. So really, could we not be doing that? but you larry You're doing the implicit messaging.
00:38:15
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, that's what we need. Put it on the back of the old burger with a little red St. George cross on it. Yeah. Yeah, brilliant. That's the implicit. One of six. ticked get ants on the case get as your market I mean, you raise a really interesting point there that I too was thinking, you know, I was looking at the screen.
00:38:37
Speaker
There's the three of us here. I don't think any of us decided to become vegan because of subtle messaging or, or you know, leveraging social influence and and and things like that. It was it was about the ethics.
00:38:53
Speaker
But we want what is best for animals, don't we? And actually, what is best for animals is not, let's say, United Kingdom, because the three of us are recording from the UK. We don't want a a country that is 2% vegan.
00:39:06
Speaker
beacon We want more than that. So we've we've got to find different ways of of increasing that number. And so in a sense, wait it's important to hear our thoughts and our gut instincts on these things. But really, in a sense, we're the last people that need to be consulted on things like this. It's it's those who are not over the line. And it's It's difficult though, isn't it? Because sometimes people can be disingenuous with their with their obstacles. You know, when people can say, oh, I would be vegan, but dot, dot, dot, dot.
00:39:37
Speaker
Very often that can be a very disingenuous excuse that someone's giving. And you could meet that need and say, okay, well, here's an affordable way of being vegan. Oh yeah, but there's also this, you know, it's it's really difficult. And thank goodness there are people looking at ways of overcoming this because it's definitely beyond my intellect.
00:39:57
Speaker
Gosh, we should write a book about um excuses. I've not got enough time, Rich, sorry. That would be like a long book. I've got bad leg. Hey.
00:40:08
Speaker
a I think that all of us, when we're trying to communicate about anything, we try and look for where we've got shared values with a person, shared values, because, you know, that's a good foundation. We've got shared values, because different people value different things.
00:40:27
Speaker
Now, I talk a lot about being a poet. That's my career. But what not everyone knows is that I'm also a martial artist. I'm a black belt in Taekwondo. And as a 45-year-old guy, I'm really proud that I can, like, you know,
00:40:41
Speaker
kick sturdy bits of wood in half and I go to places that are full of you know men who might be similar to the men in in this and and certainly I do use the opportunity to say yes I'm vegan yes I'm vegan but you know uh to to really bring up that that point because there is no one's surprised that the limp-wristed poet is vegan no one is surprised at that that That is not shock news. i dumbshhop news But to see the same person who's also a black belt in a martial art who can win a tournament, who can, you know, beat meat eaters in a fight.
00:41:20
Speaker
That's a surprise to some people. So I absolutely I do make a point being like, right. So, you know, where can I go for vegan food after this? And I do. I do. crowbar into the conversation and i think that that yeah perhaps we all have different aspects of our life that are more or less helpful on finding where we might have some shared values and shared common ground because all these people are thinking oh isn't it good that he's strong and it's like yeah strong on beyond burgers yo Yes, absolutely.
00:41:51
Speaker
Absolutely. We need more sporting heroes like Dominic. ah Suggestion five, leverage social influence. There you go. It stacks up. Thank you for that one,
Exotic Pets and Ethical Concerns
00:42:01
Speaker
Dominic. Richard, let's move on to your pick of the week. You've gone all the way around the world and almost back the other side to Taiwan, where people are talking about meerkats.
00:42:11
Speaker
Do you want to tell us some more? Yes, as a brief summary, so on September 2nd, two major animal protection groups, the Taiwan s SPCA and EAST, like EAST, ah called out the Government Department of Animal Welfare for moving...
00:42:29
Speaker
to put meerkats on a grey list which would allow them to be legally kept, bred and traded under said provisions. Instead, they're urging a total ban. ah The push comes after an August 6th meeting on exotic pegged rules and ahead of another round of talks.
00:42:48
Speaker
Now, and in a nutshell, what well matters ethically is that um They're saying that meerkats are highly sociable, non-domesticated animals, and in captivity they often develop this stress behaviours, aggression, self-harm, and this can be a threat not only to people, but to the ecosystem, should they start escaping and all this.
00:43:14
Speaker
So from a vegan lens, or from my lens, my key thing here is I understand why we want to ban certain animals from being allowed as pets but through that raises the question why do you allow some animals to become pets and not others because um i guess getting back to the example of a dog and everyone you know is very familiar with having a dog which was a process that started probably about 10 000 years ago with agriculture that with the agricultural revolution um we it's socially acceptable now to have a dog
00:43:54
Speaker
However, we have that eager to just, out of pleasure, just to keep animals that are not meant to be with us, or even the ones that cope well with us.
00:44:08
Speaker
You could even argue that the best domesticated animal is the chicken, because there's billions of them, although probably they would argue otherwise, because the way they're treated. it So again, and just to wrap it up, I think one of the things here we need to take into account is that when we start make kink When we start putting differences between species, we fall into the trap of speciesism and believe that some of them deserve certain a certain treatment different from others. I mean, what this story made me think was that the importance of of kind of nipping things in the bud and and getting things when they're on the cusp of becoming a ah thing. we we could We could have many a long conversation debating the ethics of of having companion animals in the home and And you've already touched upon there, Rich, like, you know, why some animals and not others.
00:45:04
Speaker
The fact is Taiwan is a ah country of nearly 25 million people. there's actually only one to 2,000 meerkats kept nationwide. um This is an estimate from owners group in in the country.
00:45:17
Speaker
So it really feels like now's the time to make really strong arguments for this. It's, I don't know what you made of the arguments that they're, they're making because they seem a little bit all over the place they're sort of saying well if they get out this could be an environmental catastrophe it sounds like there has been such a thing in Taiwan with green iguanas they're talking about the sociability of it as well so I've got an example I went to Spain about a month ago and there's a river where where I live where I was born in Girona there's a river that crosses the the city do you know what animals live there now
00:45:56
Speaker
capybaras, they must have escaped from someone that was keeping them and they started breeding and now the river is full of them. And that raises a very interesting debate between people saying, oh, they're so cute, they should stay there. Others saying, oh, they're an invasive species, we need to kill them. The other ones...
00:46:18
Speaker
ah So are they doing any harm? Are they doing blah, blah, blah? And it all started because ah someone decided that it was a good idea to have them as a pet. And following the same argument, you could say, well, if we need to end all invasive ah species, maybe we should be confined to the Rift Valley.
00:46:35
Speaker
But that's the whole story. I was going to I really get um really get hot under the collar when people start talking about invasive species. It's like, no, no, no, no. no and no Like, we're in no position to judge.
00:46:48
Speaker
that just Just one thing I wanted to pull out from this article as well was the argument by the Director General, Chiang Wenchuan. So they're the director of the and um Department of Animal Welfare.
00:47:01
Speaker
And they're saying, if we did a total ban, it could drive ownership underground and complicate management. I mean, that's not an argument, is it? If something's wrong, it's wrong. I mean, that fine, we could we could take a pragmatic approach and, you know,
00:47:16
Speaker
similar arguments are ah made about i don't know legalizing cannabis aren't they you know i do get it but i was going to say just like legalize fentanyl that's it yeah yeah yeah exactly that's it's it's not really the the strongest response is it the strongest leadership but um yes we uh we look forward to seeing how this one develops and hopefully whatever happens it is in the meerkat's favor thank you for that one richard and thank you dominic for for both of your picks for the week now obviously listeners myself and richard and dominic we've agreed to come on here express our opinions but we're not the only people with thoughts opinions and uh stuff that is worth putting out there we love hearing emails from you we had a wonderful one
00:48:02
Speaker
this week which um you know it did say that julie had the best voice but you know no offense taken from the three of us but we really do love hearing from you so here is how to get in touch with us To get in touch with us, just send us an email at enoughofthefalafel at gmail.com.
00:48:22
Speaker
We see ourselves as a collective. our listenership stretches all around the world and everyone's opinions, questions, feedback and ideas are what helps shape the show.
Vegan Athleticism and Stereotypes
00:48:34
Speaker
Go on, send us a message today. Enoughofthefalafel at gmail.com. Okey Coke, we are pretty much at the end of our news for the week, but I thought we'd just crowbar this one in just before we round things off. It's got a couple of things that are of personal interest to me, and I think we're going to say it's a good news story. This is the news that runner Damien Hall won the 2025 Lakeland 100 race, the significant thing being there.
00:49:02
Speaker
that this article from Plant-Based News prefixes Damien Hall's name with the word vegan many, many times. What we often do in these cases is we say, well, is he really? Or is he just following a plant-based diet?
00:49:17
Speaker
I can't find anything that's confirming things either way, but Plant-Based News have used the word vegan many, many times. so I'm not going to question it. for now, but listeners do feel free to do our research for us and you can confirm either way.
00:49:29
Speaker
um The event is 100 miles long, as the name suggests. I attempted a similar event in July that was 100 kilometres long in the same part of the UK, in the North West the Lake District, and it was blooming difficult. It was blooming difficult. I didn't quite finish it. I did about three quarters of it.
00:49:46
Speaker
um So the fact that a vegan runner has not only done about twice as far as I did, but won the whole thing is is a big deal, um this race. you You can't just enter it and get a place. You have to put in your name for it in a ballot, kind of like the London Marathon and other big marathons. It's very well subscribed.
00:50:06
Speaker
It was his first time competing in the race. um He did the 100 miles, which is over thousands and thousands of feet of elevation and climb because it's a very hilly part of the UK.
00:50:17
Speaker
He did it in under 20 hours and he's 49 years old too. So, you know, it's a fantastic achievement. I'm reading here. It says it's actually 105 long, and half feet.
00:50:28
Speaker
six and a half 1,000 meters of elevation gla gain. So absolutely fantastic stuff. The article, if you if you read it, talks about other vegan ultramarathoners who've won things or completed notable things at the same time. But the the cherry on the cake for me is that apparently whilst running an event started in Derbyshire and went up to the Scottish border, he did this in 2020, a mile route. he did it in hours.
00:50:59
Speaker
um Whilst running, him and his team were picking up litter as well as raising £4,000 for green peas. But what about this? Like, Dominic, why don't you give us your response first? A litter-picking vegan who's beaten the competition.
00:51:13
Speaker
This is surely, surely this is ah the the view of vegan masculinity that your pick for the week is crying out for. I was about to, like, be really sarcastic and make a silly joke and go, picking up litter, what a load of emotional beta mail.
00:51:32
Speaker
Of course I don't mean that. Of course I'm being silly. Yeah, absolutely fantastic. and And, yeah, like, what an achievement. Older than me, fitter than me, than me.
00:51:47
Speaker
Ha, ha, ha. Not jealous though. Comparison is the thief of joy. and ah No, really fantastic thing. what What a great thing. And exactly the kind of story that we want to be sharing with people who who value that kind of thing. Everybody values that. Oh, isn't it great to be healthy? Isn't it great to, you know, look after the environment? But there's some people who especially that's going to connect with.
00:52:13
Speaker
Wonderful story. Wonderful. If you've enjoyed today's show, we'd love it if you could take just a few seconds to share it with someone else who you think might enjoy it too.
00:52:26
Speaker
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00:52:42
Speaker
That will also help the show pop up when people search for vegan or animal rights content online.
Conclusion and Future Episode Teaser
00:52:49
Speaker
Thanks for your help. Thanks everyone for listening. We hope you've enjoyed it.
00:52:56
Speaker
Just to let you know, the next Enough of the Falafel episode coming out will be Vegan Talk. It will be available from Thursday, 11th of September with Anthony, Mark and Kate.
00:53:09
Speaker
The theme, what is the most effective form of animal right activism? Gosh, there's lot to unpack there. A lot indeed. Anyway, that's enough of the falafel for this episode. Thank you, Richard.
00:53:21
Speaker
Thank you, Anthony, for your contributions. And thank you, everyone who has been listening. I've been Dominic and you've been listening to Vegan Week from the Enough of the Falafel Collective.
00:53:37
Speaker
This has been an Enough of the Falafel production. We're just a normal bunch of everyday vegans putting our voices out there. The show is hosted by Zencaster. We use music and special effects by zapsplap.com.
00:53:52
Speaker
And sometimes, if you're lucky, at the end of an episode, you'll hear a poem by Mr Dominic Berry. Thanks all for listening and see you next time.
00:54:18
Speaker
This episode may have come to an end, but did you know we've got a whole archive containing all our shows dating back to September 2023? That is right, Dominic. There's over 100 episodes on there featuring our brilliant range of different guests, people's stories of going vegan, philosophical debates, moral quandaries, and of course...
00:54:39
Speaker
around a dozen news items from around the world each week. So check back on your podcast player to hear previous episodes. And remember to get an alert for each new episode, simply click like or follow and also subscribe to the show.
00:54:54
Speaker
Thanks for your ongoing support wherever you listen to us from.