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165- Police called as animal advocacy almost makes child cry
95 Plays27 days ago
The brilliant parody that is Kent Young Slaughterers group caused a stir last weekend, crashing the party at the Swan Young Farmers Club family fun day. But raising awareness of animal suffering seemingly needs to be halted if children are on the verge of tears. Riding solo for this episode, Ant looks at this and several more stories from the last seven days or so, all of which have a vegan or animal rights slant.
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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://ww.wtheguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/08/us-poultry-workers-injury-safety
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd6jn5exv24o
https://timesofmalta.com/article/four-cases-illegal-hunting-reported-spring-hunting-season-opens.1108210
https://www.theanimalreader.com/2025/04/13/woman-praised-for-attacking-man-who-hit-donkey-in-egypt/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjwv6l781dwo
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2040592/peta-pushing-extremist-propaganda-schools/amp
https://www.bta.bg/en/news/bulgaria/872216-dozens-protest-against-animal-abuse-in-downtown-sofia
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/ashford/news/police-called-as-vegan-activists-target-farms-family-fun-da-322894/
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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!
Mark, Kate & Ant
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Transcript
Vegan and Animal Rights News Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello everyone, welcome to your one-stop shop for this week's vegan and animal rights news. I'm Anthony and joining me for this episode there nobody is nobody, it's just me. But that is enough of the falafel, it is time for Vegan Week.
00:00:18
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. Brrrr! Take your lab-grown meat elsewhere. We're not doing that in the state of Florida. What about 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.
00:00:37
Speaker
Hang on a minute, you always pick.
00:00:45
Speaker
social injustice has connection 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 all alright. Does veganism give him superpowers?
00:01:00
Speaker
I cannot fly around the city. I don't have laser vision. and Hello everyone, welcome to this week's show where we are looking at the week's vegan and animal rights news. My name is Anthony and if this is your first time listening to us, you should know this is quite a different experience. I'm normally joined by some of the voices that you heard in that intro there. that They're real people, it's not AI.
00:01:26
Speaker
um We were all lined up to record with Mark and Kate. but this week's episode and for one reason or another it's just me recording and by myself here I should say it's it was my fault it wasn't Mark or Kate's fault but we are dedicated to providing you with a roundup of the last week's news so that is what is coming up again if this is your first time listening to us look back in your podcast catalogue because we do as well as news shows we do a show called vegan talk where we look at more sort of philosophical issues in a bit more depth so i do recommend you checking that out too but that is enough of the falafel we are here for news let's hear what has been going on in the news this week
00:02:13
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.
00:02:26
Speaker
We are delighted and honoured to have people listening from all around the world. and We do our best to give round-up of stories from across the globe and not focus just on the UK where most of us are recording
Wildlife Crimes and Legal Actions
00:02:40
Speaker
from. And it is in that vein that I've chosen this to be our first story this week. This comes to us from the BBC website but it's reporting on something that happened in Kenya in Africa, where we are told that ant smugglers have been caught with hundreds of the prized insects.
00:03:00
Speaker
Four men have pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle hundreds of highly sought-after ants out of the country. Now, those of you who live in parts of the world where ants are are quite commonplace, you might be thinking, well, what's what's the big deal? Why are they smuggling ants? what What's going on here? Well,
00:03:20
Speaker
There is a type of ant called a giant African harvester ant, which are apparently valued by some UK-based dealers up to £170 each.
00:03:32
Speaker
The good news is that the Kenya Wildlife Service has seen this, as has intervened, and these four people, like I say, have pleaded guilty. They are used to the Kenya Wildlife Service. They're used to protecting larger creatures such as lions and elephants and and as such this is quite an unusual case in fact they have described it as a landmark case.
00:03:55
Speaker
um If you follow the link in our show notes you can see pictures of these poor little critters um all put up in in little test tubes with cotton wool. Apparently they can survive in there for up to two months just just in a test tube with no food. It's believed that the intended destinations of these animals were the exotic pet markets in Europe and and Asia. So really worrying that the lengths of of depravity that human beings can go to exploiting animals. But great that these four people have been stopped. Two of them were from Belgium, one from Vietnam, and one of them
00:04:33
Speaker
was from Kenya. It's been described as a coordinated intelligence-led operation. Interestingly, the article gives an insight from the general manager of an insect-dealing website called Best Ants UK. Nothing to do with me.
00:04:51
Speaker
um Pat Stanchev is the person's name. Now, he does not sell Giant African Harvester ants, but he did give a quote on this. and He said, it's their big and beautiful size that makes them attractive to those who do want to keep them as pets.
00:05:06
Speaker
It just highlights really the hypocrisy, I suppose, in that this person is saying, oh no, I'm i'm not guilty. i've i've you know I don't sell these animals, but it's clearly the same sort of market, isn't it? So, I mean, my take on this would be great, obviously, that these people have been caught and Hopefully it sends a message. The Kenyan Wildlife Service definitely thinks so. They say this prosecution sends a strong message that Kenya will enforce compliance and must a significant step forward in Kenya's fight against wildlife crimes.
00:05:39
Speaker
And I guess it's It's great that the BBC have reported on this and and shared awareness of these things because actually we do see, don't we, that the media covering things such as ivory poaching and and other animals having their body parts and or their lives exploited for human benefit. Getting those stories out there does touch many people's hearts, which then correspondingly helps them b better protected, whether through funding, through government legislation or otherwise. But um yeah, an interesting story to start us off there.
00:06:17
Speaker
We're going to go across to another country that we don't normally report from next. This comes to us from thetimesofmalta.com, and obviously it's coming from the country of Malta, where the spring hunting season has opened and already cases of illegal hunting have been reported but as you read down this article you see quite how much hunting is also legal so it's I mean it's a no-win situation here.
00:06:47
Speaker
The organisation BirdLife Malta have had at least four cases of illegal hunting reported to them since the spring hunting season opened. This BirdLife Malta group set up a spring watch on April the 10th and has since then documented daily cases of shots being fired every morning across both Malta and nearby goo They say in one of the most serious incidents, a hunter was caught after shooting a turtle dove with a gun fitted with a silencer.
00:07:20
Speaker
Now, the the reason this is being reported is that the trapping of turtle doves during spring vibration is forbidden under the EU Birds Directive. However, like I said at the top, lots of bird hunting forbidden.
00:07:35
Speaker
allowed in Malta. And as we've discussed in previous shows before um with regards to Cyprus, its position in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea does make it a hotspot for migratory birds.
00:07:48
Speaker
In terms of responses from Malta's government, officers are now expected to increase in line with the requirement of fielding seven enforcement officers per 1,000 hunting licences.
00:08:04
Speaker
So BirdLife Malta estimates that there are around 8,000 hunters in Malta at the moment, staggering numbers, which should mean that there should be at least 56 officers in the countryside and they currently is is far short of that.
00:08:21
Speaker
Yeah, good good that this is being reported, but certainly not a nice story to hear about. And obviously, we hope that things will start to change and become more evolved.
00:08:33
Speaker
I think people going to Malta would much rather be doing much more nice things, enjoying the Mediterranean climate and everything else rather than hearing gunshots and seeing innocent birds being killed.
00:08:47
Speaker
So let's stay in the Mediterranean and North Africa we're going to now, but let's have something a bit more
Viral Animal Abuse Confrontation
00:08:55
Speaker
positive. There's a chance you might have seen this in the last week or so so. It is a so-called viral clip that has been going round, and it might raise interesting reactions from vegans and those who believed in animal rights. We've picked it up from the animal reader, but like i say, it's been here, there and everywhere recently.
00:09:17
Speaker
This is the news that a Dutch woman living in Egypt has gone viral after attacking a man who was hitting a donkey very near to the historical and evocative Giza pyramids.
00:09:31
Speaker
and You can watch the footage if you want on the the link in our show notes. and It was posted on TikTok, but obviously has been shared in many other places.
00:09:42
Speaker
The woman really goes at it. Her her name ah is, I'm probably going to say this wrong, Joke Van der Post. Her first name is spelled J-O-K-E. So i don't know whether that's Joke or Yokey or whatever.
00:09:56
Speaker
um Some of our Dutch listeners, you can correct me. She's lived in Egypt for years, is married to an Egyptian and runs the Good karma sanctuary which is a free clinic for working animals like donkeys horses and mules and the video starts off the the footage shows a vehicle approaching it it looks like a donkey i'm i'm not actually an expert really on on donkeys and horses no it definitely is a donkey um and is not happy about the way it's being treated it's being hit by this man it's bucking its back legs and
00:10:29
Speaker
And that's the first bit of the clip. And then we see the woman get out of the vehicle and she just full on punches the guy repeatedly who eventually then runs off.
00:10:42
Speaker
Now, following the incident, the man in the video has filed a complaint accusing Van der Post of assault and emotional harm. She was briefly arrested but has since been released and a court case is still possible.
00:10:58
Speaker
Interestingly, Egypt's minister Ministry of Interior confirmed that the man who hit the donkey had been identified and arrested. He's admitted to hitting the donkey, but basically he's saying, well, there's there nothing wrong with that.
00:11:13
Speaker
It's an interesting one because obviously what's happening to the donkey is it's terrible. At the same time, this activist really, i mean, it is assault. There's no two ways about it. She's really going at it. And i i would say, in my opinion, the Egyptian authorities response in terms of arresting the man, I would imagine may not have happened if this post hadn't gone viral, because this is obviously very bad press for the country as a whole, and also there arguably their biggest tourist attraction.
00:11:50
Speaker
So yeah, you can see why they're coming down on it hard It's difficult as well. And I don't really want to advocate violence, but you can still you can see why she was so upset and it's brought it to attention.
00:12:03
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. Send us your emails. Let us know what you think about that.
PETA's Influence in UK Schools
00:12:10
Speaker
Okay, let's bring things back to the UK where we know big chunk of you are listening from. This is a story from the Daily Express's website where they are telling us about a report that says that Peter are being accused of school propaganda as children are being indoctrinated into being arrested.
00:12:35
Speaker
vegan The materials they use apparently use content promoting extremist views with the goal of encouraging veganism. Now, I'm just going to present things as they are written um and then we'll discuss it later.
00:12:51
Speaker
afterwards. Some of the quotes in this article say that Peter is distributing misleading propaganda. The dossier titled Saving Kids from Peter, so this is the the report that has been produced against Peter.
00:13:07
Speaker
This dossier claims that the non-profit known for receiving millions of pounds in donations annually have been supplying educational materials to classrooms, some aimed at children as young as five.
00:13:19
Speaker
Yep, that would be a school. um According to the report, these materials include controversial content that posted promotes extremist views with the goal of encouraging veganism. There is a former member of the Scottish Parliament, Brian Monteith. He is an advisor to Peter Watch, who is the group behind the report.
00:13:39
Speaker
He has criticised materials saying that they could induce stress and anxiety in young children. One lesson on agriculture describes poultry farming solely in negative terms.
00:13:52
Speaker
The handout claims that animals like chicken, ducks and pigs are kept inside sheds with little room to move, no fresh air and nothing to do. it also includes statements such as chickens form friendships without providing a broader context or acknowledging different values.
00:14:10
Speaker
Viewpoints, another classroom activity titled Zoos, Prison or Paradise, presents students with a list of provocative claims to debate as true or false.
00:14:21
Speaker
Examples include animals in zoos are like people in prison, except the animals have done nothing wrong. And when there are too many animals in a zoo, they are killed or sent to circuses or other zoos abroad.
00:14:33
Speaker
These zoos may be very bad. Now, this is this is a very interesting one. Clearly an attempt to discredit Peter.
00:14:45
Speaker
I also imagine... that this is a ah group of people who who've discovered that this is happening. I mean, to my knowledge, the Vegan Society have been sending or providing educational resources to to send to interested schools for for many, many years too. So it's it's not something that's a recent thing that animal advocacy groups have been supplying educational material.
00:15:14
Speaker
There are some interesting points that I'd just like to raise. The fact about things being not balanced, I'm not sure that there is an imperative for certain things to be presented as balanced. I mean, if you're if you're teaching a maths lesson, you don't have to provide an alternative to two plus two is four.
00:15:35
Speaker
that That can just be taken as a fact, can't it? It doesn't have to be challenged. Or if you take something, obviously that's a slightly extreme example, but if you were to be teaching history, secondary school history. You know, I i studied the the Third Reich and Nazism. I don't think really that was presented in a balanced way that was saying, well, you know, you can kind of see where they were coming from in some regards. it It was presented in a damning way. So I'm not um not sure that there is an imperative on educational material.
00:16:09
Speaker
being balanced, obviously we're living in a culture where animal use is normal, whereas you could argue that regards to Nazism, that that is not a normalised practice.
00:16:22
Speaker
It's also presenting Peter as the bad guys here, as if Peter are sort of storming into a school and shouting these things at young children without any chance for them to say anything back or without the adults in school.
00:16:41
Speaker
having an opportunity to decide whether it wants to be presented. i mean, any kind of educational material passes through the filter of a teacher, of a curriculum leader, of a head teacher.
00:16:54
Speaker
So any of these educational materials that are being presented in schools have been looked at first by a teacher, at least one teacher. adult who's deciding how to present these things. So if balance is ah is perceived as a problem, you can still present these things with the tone that you want.
00:17:16
Speaker
I mean, it's the constant thing that we that we hear as an objection towards veganism in children, in that it's indoctrinating or that it's propaganda. really you just have to flip it, don't you? And say, well, however much propaganda is there in schools presenting farmers as happy, jolly people, as animals being very happy and content to be on a farm, you know, those those things are there across the board. There's no two ways about it.
00:17:47
Speaker
So really, this is providing the balance. The the the number of songs, books, stories, and resources that children will have access to, not just in lessons, but just like in the background in a school that normalise animal agriculture, that are one-sided,
00:18:06
Speaker
that don't show a balanced view at all. Even if Peter got all these resources into every single school in the UK, there would still be an imbalance that is in favour of animal agriculture.
00:18:18
Speaker
So I think this is a bit rich. Obviously, those of you that know, the Daily Express is a right-wing newspaper, so not not surprised that this is being presented. This is right up with what their audience wants to hear.
00:18:33
Speaker
and But definitely something that needs challenging, in my opinion, anyway. Let's move on to another story from the UK now.
Conservation and Extinction Threats
00:18:41
Speaker
This again comes to us from the BBC. see um And this is a report centralised on Lincolnshire, which is in the East Midlands of the UK for for international listeners' benefit.
00:18:55
Speaker
um And this is relating to adders. um And this article is saying they could face extinction in the next 10 years as the snakes are slowly starving to death and dying of stress, according to a wildlife expert. Kevin James, who is a countryside warden from the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, says,
00:19:15
Speaker
said that people should leave the UK's only venomous snake well alone, sounds like a good idea, once they have emerged from hibernation in the spring.
00:19:27
Speaker
Apparently, he said that the reptile had become a victim of its own infamy and urged the public to give them space and to keep them chilled. I think i think that means tone-wise rather than taking them to a cold place.
00:19:40
Speaker
So for context, these adders hibernate from October and emerge in the spring. So they're coming about at this time of year. I'm wondering whether the warmer March that we've experienced in the UK this year may have brought that return from hibernation a bit earlier.
00:19:59
Speaker
the normal. Now during this time they bask in sunlight, shed their skin and build up their body temperatures and can often be seen and I guess because of people's interest in them possibly wanting to get a picture to put on their social media or whatever there is the temptation to get near them.
00:20:17
Speaker
However Mr James said they need peace and quiet if you need to look then look then leave and let them be relaxed. Adders can be found in England, Scotland and Wales, but not in Northern Ireland. They are distributed across much of Europe and Asia too, and also within the Arctic Circle.
00:20:38
Speaker
So obviously really worrying news that and they are on the decline and that they are under threat. I suppose it comes back to, we we say it often, but human beings straying into people's habitats is is the biggest threat, I guess, to these guys. So having areas that are rewilded or that are human free, I mean, we don't we've got enough space, haven't we?
00:21:01
Speaker
We don't need to go to every single square foot of the the area that we live in or the country that we reside in. And this is a very good example of that. So hopefully rewilding projects and and education pieces like this one from Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust can come help tip the balance back in favour of of these native um animals, fingers crossed.
00:21:29
Speaker
Okay, we're going to take a brief pause now. We've got three more stories to provide for you. There's my pick of the week and then couple of more international
Protests Against Animal Abuse
00:21:41
Speaker
stories. We've got one story from the US, more Trump-related changes in the government and how it is affecting things, and also something from Bulgaria.
00:21:58
Speaker
Okay, let's start off in Bulgaria. I think we might have reported one story from Bulgaria, perhaps in the last year and a half, um but certainly no more than that. And this one, I would say...
00:22:11
Speaker
is a positive one. It's always great to hear news of actions that people are taking, whether they be direct action, whether they be campaigns, or whether in this case they be protests. And this is a protest against animal abuse that took place in front of the National Assembly Building in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria on April the 14th.
00:22:36
Speaker
This was the fourth protest organised by activists following the case of two people getting arrested for the torture and killing of animals and doing so on camera to sell the footage online.
00:22:51
Speaker
Really horrific stuff and understandable that it's provoking people to take to the streets. Placards read, we will not tolerate degeneracy and sadism.
00:23:04
Speaker
A great nation is known by the way it treats its animals. Prison for the killers. If the law does not stop them, who will be next? Animal cruelty is a criminal offence.
00:23:15
Speaker
and silence is consent. What's interesting there is that when you think about the context of this story and some of the things that are being said there, it doesn't sound like it's entirely animal rights protesters who are being part of this in terms of the, if the law doesn't stop them, who will be next? That that sounds like a sort of fear-mongering Daily Mail sort of headline that Janice Next Door might might be saying, rather than somebody who's a signed up, card-carrying member of the vegan society.
00:23:51
Speaker
um So it's definitely reaching a wider field in Bulgaria. Nonetheless, two non-governmental organisations, Mecho and Friends and Invisible Animals, co-organised the protest and Zlatin Mladensky from Metro and Friends told BTA, the Bulgarian news agency that we've got this story from, um that they demand amendments to the Animal Protection Act in Bulgaria and in particular towards the penal code towards heavier penalties for animal killers and abusers.
00:24:28
Speaker
They say they also want more focused and targeted police work to prevent these crimes from and last but not least, the creation of an Animal Protection Commission under the National Assembly and an advisory council under the Council of Ministers.
00:24:43
Speaker
They believe that these problems have been going on for too many years now. It's interesting, we we've mentioned education earlier in the show, um and that's that's my background. We're ah Originally working in schools, although now I don't work in a school, but I'm still working within education. And there, a lot of directives and laws or ways of working come from very unfortunate highly publicised cases, whether they're to do with safeguarding, whether they're to do with educational access for all, or things like that, very often the trigger is something very unfortunate happening to somebody.
00:25:28
Speaker
And I suppose my hope would be that in this case, these horrible events that have been caught on camera and and disgusting behaviour from a couple of people in Bulgaria, the silver lining here could be that it could become a catalyst for for change that can affect millions of of people and men millions of innocent animals, whether they're companion animals or who knows, but perhaps wild animals.
00:25:56
Speaker
Very often, animal protection acts basically mean pet protection acts, don't they? But they can all be stepping stones. So I think it's it's fantastic that these organisations and the individuals involved are taken to the street, that things are ah being reported in the news and they're putting pressure on the government. They're doing this protest in front of the National Assembly to try and change the laws in their country and hopefully we can look back at that as being ah a turning point. Certainly a a horrible initial story there but well done
00:26:32
Speaker
those protesters in downtown Sofia.
USDA and Meat Processing Safety
00:26:35
Speaker
Okay, let's keep it political, but head across the Atlantic Ocean to the USA, where we have heard from theguardian.com that the Trump administration is speeding up processing lines for poultry and pork meat packing plants, whilst also halting reports on worker safety. This was announced previously by the US Department of Agriculture recently, it has prompted the Guardian newspaper to talk to folk who work
00:27:10
Speaker
in these facilities. And like all our stories, the link is in our show notes. You can see and read about these accounts. We're increasing the speed that people need to work at and we're not reporting on the safety data anymore, or rather is no longer required. So I suppose a conscientious meat packaging plant, there's a contradiction in terms, conscientious meat packaging plant could still keep that safety data.
00:27:40
Speaker
if they wanted to. Despite this criticism, the USDA have pointed to research that the agency says confirms no direct link between processing speeds and workplace injuries.
00:27:53
Speaker
I mean, it wouldn't harm to just keep the data, would it? Is it really a massive problem to just keep it just in case? just in case that research was flawed.
00:28:04
Speaker
Anyway, this article speaks to four people working at different chicken processing plants, describing the fast-paced working conditions that compound the risk for injury. Understandably, they asked that their names and locations be withheld for fear that the Trump administration would revoke their visas because, as we know, very many people doing these undesirable jobs are not people who have grown up in that country.
00:28:35
Speaker
It is generally work that people take when it doesn't feel like there is any other work available. One young man had only been working at the chicken processing plant for two weeks, said he was still scrambling to learn the job, keep up with his expected workload.
00:28:51
Speaker
After sustaining one workplace injury, he said he kept working until he fell from a 13-foot ladder and broke his back. I could have been paralysed for the rest of my life, the man said.
00:29:04
Speaker
Now he's living with remorse and regret, unable to work or or pay bills on his own. Now this report that basically said that faster line speeds were not the leading reason for injuries did give some other data that is upsetting but I think it's interesting to hear.
00:29:25
Speaker
The high speeds that we're talking about is quote processing between 140 and 175 birds per minute
00:29:33
Speaker
but huh minute The majority, this is 70% of workers, first experience moderate to severe work-related pain within their first three months on the job.
00:29:47
Speaker
81% of workers are at high risk for musculoskeletal disorders. we've We've said it before on the podcast, and I think it is worth repeating and and spreading as far as you can.
00:30:02
Speaker
The fact is, if you choose... to eat meat, the bodies of dead animals, if that is something that you voluntarily choose to include in your diet, you are saying that somebody needs to do this work for you.
00:30:22
Speaker
And that is something that I think, regardless of the animals, You don't even have to think about the animals here. Just thinking about what you're asking other human beings to do, that needs to be something, I think, that people ask themselves and or have it asked of them.
00:30:41
Speaker
This article describes one person who worked on the processing line for 15 years. He spent 15 years doing the same thing five days a week, eight to 10 hours a day.
00:30:54
Speaker
Is that really okay? to be asking somebody eight to 10 hours a day, five days a week for 15 years processing dead animals or killing dead animals.
00:31:09
Speaker
What a thing to ask somebody to do when there is an alternative. you know, there are unglamorous jobs, aren't there, in our society. we do we We decide to allocate these jobs to a small proportion of people rather than take the share ourselves, you know, whether it's, you know, working in ah a funeral home or dealing with sewage or rubbish so or whatever it is, working in a prison or whatever. We we we decide that and Our current model of society is that some people do those jobs, most don't.
00:31:43
Speaker
This one, there is an alternative to. We don't have to ask people to be doing this for their working lives, regardless of whether they get hurt, which it seems like there is a very high risk of.
00:31:58
Speaker
They don't have to be doing this. I think if you ask somebody, would they rather be processing asparagus or broccoli or chickens or pigs? I would be astounded if people would choose the animals.
00:32:14
Speaker
I think we might need to look at people that are saying they would rather be dealing with the with the dead animals, to be honest. But that they don't need, to nobody needs to be dealing with dead animals, do they?
00:32:27
Speaker
Because we don't have to eat them. um Anyway, it was obviously ah an unsettling article to read, but an interesting one, a worthy one to report on um and i'd encourage folk to to learn more about it if um if you can face it and if you can spare a few minutes but that one coming to us from the guardian we've got time for one more story it is an interesting one it made me chuckle and there's some interesting bits too it comes to us from kentonline.co.uk but before we do, we really do love hearing from ah multitude
Activism and Public Reactions
00:33:03
Speaker
of voices. This is our 165th episode and it is the first one that has just got one voice.
00:33:10
Speaker
Having lots of voices involved in the discussion is very important to us. So whether you have got something to say on one of the articles we have commented on,
00:33:21
Speaker
today or whether you found a different one or you disagree with something that's been said or there's anything else vegan or animal rights news related we'd love to hear from you and here's how to get in touch To get in touch with us, just send us an email at enoughofthefalafel at gmail.com.
00:33:41
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.
00:33:53
Speaker
Go on, send us a message today. enough of the falafel at gmail dot com Now, if like me, you live in a rural area, particularly in the UK, you might have come across things like the Young Farmers Club or things like that. It's generally targeted at sort of 16 to 30 year olds, I guess it's quite an isolating job in many ways.
00:34:18
Speaker
ah Being a farmer, you're covering quite a large area, so there might not be that many people in the area that you live, and it's an opportunity to bring people together who are otherwise working very long hours and and and living in quite isolated areas.
00:34:35
Speaker
areas And in Kent, specifically Willsborough near Ashford, there was a young farmers club. In fact, there still is. It's called the Swan Young Farmers Club.
00:34:47
Speaker
They had their family fun day. Sunday, April the 13th, a week ago as we record today, and there were various different activities on.
00:34:59
Speaker
But there was one stall that wasn't expected to be there by the organisers, and it caused quite the fuss. This was the Kent Young Slaughterers, which who presented their Fluffy Tails Slaughterhouse Tour.
00:35:18
Speaker
Their banner says, join us for a fun-packed tour of your local abattoir and see how these cute lambs are transformed into delicious meat. Adults £5, kids free, £10 extra for a souvenir lamb's tail, cuddly toy and lamb chop. Now at some point during that description, you may well have correctly understood identified the fact that this was a parody and obviously an important bit of activism too. It wasn't just a sketch show trying to do something a bit tongue-in-cheek.
00:35:53
Speaker
And eventually police were called to the Swan Young Farmers Club after the activists running this stall and talking to folk in the queue as they lined up to enter the day were targeting people.
00:36:08
Speaker
folk at the fun day to spread awareness i suppose you could say some parents said that young children were upset imagine that imagine being upset we can't have that interestingly some people saw the funny side of the stunt but one mum said her six-year-old daughter almost burst into tears and Isn't it interesting how vegans are called snowflakes?
00:36:36
Speaker
But all takes is someone's child to nearly burst into tears and the police are called. Hmm. Who's the snowflakes now? One of the activists, Giles De La Boot, I reckon that might be a made-up name, but I'm not sure, said, we need to bring back honesty in farming. And I think that parents should have these conversations with the little ones from an early age.
00:37:01
Speaker
Lambing events are the perfect opportunity, but unfortunately, farming is a fundamentally dishonest profession. Interestingly, It seems like several of the people there weren't that bothered. they They were laughing or they they weren't too fussed by it. um Santana Smith told Kent Online, as I walked past, the police were already speaking to the activists. One of the boys handed me a leaflet and I laughed. They were actually quite calm and not causing any problems from what I saw.
00:37:37
Speaker
I think after the police left, that is when they started being a bit more in people's faces. Apparently one of the leaflets that was being handed around had a QR code directing people to a YouTube video of people abusing animals in a slaughterhouse.
00:37:54
Speaker
The part of this story that i wanted to focus on, really, was the fact that folk seemed to be saying that the main issue was that this wasn't the place for these kind of messages to be pushed around, which begs the question, where is then?
00:38:11
Speaker
If you have an objection to animals being commodified for food, where exactly is the right place to spread that message? Because we've heard earlier in the show that schools aren't the right place for it to be said.
00:38:24
Speaker
Young farmers get-togethers, they're not the right place either. So what is it? Is it the just outside the National Assembly, like the protesters did in Bulgaria?
00:38:36
Speaker
You just have to protest on the streets? We get told off for being keyboard warriors, so complaining online doesn't seem to be the right thing. If we've got an objection to these things, where exactly is it that people who think it's okay...
00:38:52
Speaker
to eat animal parts. Where would they like this to be shared? i think probably the answer is nowhere. They don't want it.
00:39:03
Speaker
They don't want to be told it anywhere. So in which case, I think all bets are off and and you can you can just do it anywhere you like. I mean, for what it's worth, I think This is a great bit of activism.
00:39:17
Speaker
reminds me of the Elwood's Organic Dog Meat parody website campaign. We've seen billboard campaigns across the world um capturing lots of people's imagination.
00:39:29
Speaker
from that particular campaign, anything that's creative, a bit different. We heard last week about a summary of Animal Risings, campaigns against the RSPCA, Assured Scheme. They did all sorts of different things and actually where you're creative,
00:39:48
Speaker
where you use a bit of humour, that does that just capture the headlines and it it gets people's attention. And vari variety is the spice of life, isn't it? think we're attracted to things that are different and new, and very often we'll see folk being turned off to the same repeated bits of activism done. That's not to say that they're invalid and that they shouldn't be done, but I think if you just show people footage, folk can get resistant to that. So anything that mixes it up and catches people's attention, I think is a really good idea. I'll just finish this segment by giving a quote from another one of the activists from the quote Young Slaughterers Association.
00:40:33
Speaker
ah They say that the campaign mirrors the Young Farmers Club and aims to bring awareness around where food comes from. They said they want to bridge the disconnect between the animals seen in fields, such as the lambs shown at the Swan Farm event, and the roasted legs of these being typically eaten on a Sunday.
00:40:54
Speaker
They said by offering tours of an abattoir, people can see the reality of how the animal has its life cut short so it can be eaten. They can then make an informed choice about whether to carry on buying into what society considers the norm or whether to break out of it, make the connection between sentient being and meal choices and stop eating animal products entirely.
00:41:17
Speaker
They also said that the young slaughterers is not ah vegan organization. I mean, that's going to be a conversation for another show. i think ah that's a very interesting final statement there. Is that because they're not vegan, they're just vegetarian?
00:41:33
Speaker
Or is the word vegans such an anathema to some people that they wanted to distance themselves? interesting, interesting. But either way, I applaud their efforts.
00:41:45
Speaker
Yeah, anyone doing anything to advocate on behalf of animals, I reckon. Job well done. 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 you think might enjoy it
Listener Engagement and Future Episodes
00:42:03
Speaker
too.
00:42:03
Speaker
We don't have a marketing team or a budget to spend on advertising, so your referrals are the best way of spreading the free Enough of the Falafel Joy further still. And if you haven't already, we'd be really grateful if you could leave us a rating on your podcast player.
00:42:19
Speaker
That will also help the show pop up when people search for vegan or animal rights content online. Thanks for your help.
00:42:31
Speaker
Thanks everyone for listening to today's slightly unusual show. i know it's always better when we've got a multitude of voices. So if you're still with us now, the best part of three quarters of an hour in, thank you for your patience. And i hope you've still found it entertaining, informative and ticking the boxes for whatever crazy reasons it is you listen to are enough of the falafel shows. I hope today's episode has still ticked those boxes for you.
00:43:01
Speaker
The next edition of an Enough of the Flaffle episode will be coming out, as per usual, on Thursday, Thursday the 24th of April. Myself, Kate and Carlos are on that one and we are discussing what's the point a vegan outreach on the street. great conversation and I know you will enjoy it listening to that one.
00:43:25
Speaker
Anyway, that is enough of the falafel for this episode. Thank you everyone for listening. Thank you Mark and Kate for researching and preparing to record these new stories.
00:43:37
Speaker
um and Sorry we weren't able to record when we were scheduled to. Anyway, I've been Anthony, you've been listening to Vegan Week and we are the Enough of the Falafel Collective.
00:43:52
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.
00:44:07
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.
00:44:33
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, around a dozen news items from around the world each week. So check back on your podcast player,
00:45:01
Speaker
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. Thanks for your ongoing support wherever you listen to us from.