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238- A week of victories for animals, from South Korea to Swindon
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Our remit at EOTF is global, and so we've been delighted to come across a whole host of stories from around the world that point to progress, hope & in some cases, immediately improved outcomes for animals. In this episode, Shane & Ant dissect nine bits of recent news from the vegan & animal rights space.
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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.humaneworld.org/en/blog/south-korea-ends-bear-bile-industry
https://www.theanimalreader.com/2026/01/02/florida-launches-animal-cruelty-database-under-dexters-law/
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2025-12-31/defense-bill-ends-experiments-animals-20260188.html
https://vegconomist.com/studies-numbers/report-google-searches-veganism-outpace-climate-change-flexitarianism-mainstream-globally/
https://theinkswindon.substack.com/p/a-sad-day-for-swindon-as-the-greyhounds
https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/vegan-diet-kids-plant-based-nutrition-children-study/
https://abc7ny.com/post/animal-rights-advocates-hold-city-hall-rally-carriage-horse-owners-block-veterinary-exams/18332881/
https://nypost.com/2025/12/31/us-news/nycs-horse-carriages-must-get-city-vet-inspection-or-have-license-revoked-11th-hour-adams-order/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3r1lx75nl8o#:~:text=A%20ban%20on%20unofficial%20fireworks,spent%20on%20them%20this%20year.
https://www.theanimalreader.com/2026/01/03/fireworks-cause-fear-and-missing-pets-in-the-netherlands/ (my pick of the week)
https://plantbasednews.org/lifestyle/fashion/luxury-fashion-rick-owens-ban-fur/
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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!
Shane & Ant
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Transcript
Introduction and Overview of Vegan Week
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello everybody, if you're looking for vegan or animal rights news from the last seven days, well you are in the right place and you probably knew that already. You might already know that I'm Anthony and you might already know who Shane is. Either way it's going to the two of us talking about vegan and animal rights news.
00:00:17
Speaker
That is enough of the falafel though, it's time for Vegan Week.
Animal Rights Milestones in South Korea
00:00:22
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! Roaty.
00:00:29
Speaker
Take your flat-grown meat elsewhere. We're not doing that in the state of Florida. Should I call the medium and say, hi, sorry. True education. younger generation are getting to know how brutal these practices are.
00:00:42
Speaker
That leaves a lot of pizza delivery companies in problems with things. What is this? What kind of movie is this? It's comedy gold, maybe. Any form of social injustice has...
00:00:53
Speaker
a connection with another as long as you don't get the wee brunions with the horns you'll be all right does veganism give him superpowers
00:01:04
Speaker
cannot fly around the city i don't have laser vision hey everyone this is shane welcome to enough of the falafel and thank you so so much for listening indeed indeed we're so glad that you're here Now, this might be your first visit or you might just be hard of thinking or have a bad memory, in which case I'll tell you that what you're about to listen to is a breakdown of the last seven days or so in terms of vegan and animal rights news. And we do this every week. So if you're into this kind of thing, get us in your podcast feed and there'll be more of this next week too. But that's enough of the falafel. Let's hear what's been going on in the news this week.
00:01:47
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.
00:02:02
Speaker
Righto, Shane is going to get the ball rolling this week, and I believe we're going to South Korea, Shane, for news about a horrible industry, but one that's seemingly coming to an end, in South Korea at least. Yes, this is good news because it looks like the bear bile industry is going to be ending in South Korea. Apparently, bears are bred and kept in tiny cages so that bile can be extracted from their gallbladders. And this is just a horrific practice involving catheters inserted into the bears, open wounds. They can be kept for 10 to 20 years in small cages where they can't stand up, cannot turn around.
00:02:42
Speaker
They're fed a very poor diet. They often show signs of psychosis. And um as I was looking at this, i I had heard of this practice, but I was wondering why are they doing this? What is the point of this? And so I kind of did a little research.
00:02:56
Speaker
So in case like me, you weren't sure what this was about, Apparently, bear bile has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for all sorts of ailments. And some of these have been proven effective by science.
00:03:08
Speaker
Others have not been a proven effective. But of course, all of them are done with harm to the bears and without the consent of the bears. So now that South Korea is ending this bear bile industry, they Humane World for Animals, which is um where this article came from, is calling for the creation of more sanctuaries for the roughly 200 bears that are in these farms. And I think all of us are also hoping that other countries that allow bare bile farms, like China, that's the main one, where it's legal, will end the practice.
00:03:38
Speaker
And then also other countries that where it is illegal, but it is still going on, and these include like Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. We're hoping that they're going to crack down on the practice and really just end this all together.
00:03:53
Speaker
Anthony, did you have any thoughts on that story? Well, I mean, like you, i my first thought was, A, where else in the world is this still going on? um And B, why is it going on in the first place? Because it's such ah such an invasive procedure, isn't it? An ongoing suffering for these animals. You know, if if if my unused toenail clippings could could bring some joy or some pain relief or something to somebody or or an animal, fine. But like this is this is completely fundamentally changing these animals' lives. they They have no quality of life. at all. Like you say, for many of the uses, it's it's not actually doing what it says on the tin. So I mean, credit to the the folk who were a campaigning against this. Great to see a win. And I don't if it's me, i don't know if it's my algorithm, but South Korea seems to be putting quite a lot of...
00:04:51
Speaker
focus on improving outcomes for animals. Maybe things were awful for animals in the first place, so it's easier to see these big headline wins. Like I say, maybe it's just my algorithm when I'm researching the show, but we've obviously got the the ban on dog farming. That's been announced and will be effective at some point next year, 2027. Campaigns against bullfighting yeah um have a bit been ramped up in the country. So whatever it is, it it does seem like outcomes for animals seem to be improving or will will soon be improving. So credit to those guys, I say.
00:05:28
Speaker
I feel like I have covered several stories about animal rights in veganism and veganism in South Korea. So that is so good to see.
Global Developments in Animal Rights and Veganism
00:05:35
Speaker
I know that your next story comes from The Vegconomist. And apparently, the Vegan Society has published an analysis called Veganism Around the World. And it's looking at how plant-based living is shaping culture, travel, commerce.
00:05:51
Speaker
Can you tell us a little bit more about that story? Yeah. Yeah, well, i'm looking I'm looking at this survey now because it's it's the Vegan Society who's done the survey and we've we've taken the vegconomist's analysis of it, if you like, but we've got a link in the show notes for both original sources. And I'm looking through this report, trying to find South Korea and see how it's it's doing. It looks like combined vegan and vegetarian tallies up to 6% of the population. So 3% vegan, 3%. vegetarian. It's quite a deep dive that they have done. So there's quite surface level things like that um in terms of rates of veganism and and vegetarianism across maybe like 40 countries, 50 countries max. But then there are deeper dives for a selection of about 12 countries. Interestingly, not including the UK, which i I can't quite work out, obviously. I'm not being UK-centric here, but the Vegan Society is originally a UK organisation. So i I find that unusual, but I'm sure there's a reason in in terms of how they've sourced things. and The main headlines that the Veg Economist gives, it's an interesting one, Google searches for veganism outpace those for climate change. I mean, that's not necessarily... a good thing. Maybe animals alive now ah are pleased with that, but animals to be born in the future... of it
00:07:19
Speaker
It's not necessarily a better thing for them, is it? And for those of us that are climate conscious too, i'm not sure that's a great thing. And the other part of the headline says that flexitarianism is now mainstream globally. Obviously, that's part of a press release that that the Vegan Society have put together and Vegconomist's own analysis of it.
00:07:38
Speaker
In terms of my own take on these things, i think it's, I'd really encourage you to just follow the link to the original report. It's very pictorial. It's it's very graphic friendly. So it's, um that's not even a phrase, is it graphic friendly? There's lots of graphics, so you don't have to wade through loads of text.
00:07:59
Speaker
And you can see basic things like, oh, well, to what extent do people understand what veganism is in other countries. Do they think it just means not eating red meat? Or do they think it's a dietary thing? Or do they understand that, you know, so it's interesting to see those trends. Like I say, I was a bit disappointed that the UK's figures weren't involved with that one, but it covers vegan businesses, animal product alternative companies per country. it even covers like restaurants and things like that. But I think the main positives that I would take away from it is that awareness of veganism seems to be really high. That's the first step, isn't it? We can't expect the world to go vegan if people don't even know what it is.
00:08:41
Speaker
So that's really great. And in terms of the popularity of people looking into it and learning about it, Though we could argue we need a longer amount of time to see whether things remain as a trend or what have you. It seems like the peak for people learning about veganism was about five years ago, but it's not dropped since then. So we've seen ah you know quite a sharp increase across the 2010s, but that whilst it's not been increasing massively since 2020 or so, it's not gone down.
00:09:16
Speaker
So I think that's really good. I'd love to fast forward 10, 20 years and and see what that trend does. And i suppose part of that is down to us as vegans, isn't it? To make sure that trend goes in the right direction. But what what do you think, Shane? Are you like a numbers person? Do you like nerding over graphs and saying, oh, look at that. Vietnam's got 10% combined vegans and vegetarians. Or is that not your bag?
00:09:38
Speaker
No, I'm 100% the opposite. I cannot keep the numbers in my head to save my life. So I would not, I will not remember any numbers that anybody says to me, but I love hearing about trends. I can remember that. Yeah, trends are good, aren't they? Trends are good. And dim yeah, like I say, i think I think the trends are a positive for veganism. I don't know, maybe this is ah an unambitious thing to say, but the exponential growth of veganism we saw in the previous decade, to expect that to continue in the next decade, whilst we'd love it, I think if it's just sustaining and then we have another wave... Because actually, what I think what I've seen just in the media and just just folk that I've chatted to is you get a pushback to these things. And actually, if what we're experiencing our pushback is veganism sustaining its level of interest, not regressing, but sustaining it, then that's great. you know if the If the lean years are years where things stay the same, then when we have and the next positive wave, then we're doing that from a position of strength. It's very common in social movements for there to be what they call a backlash, where you you see progress and then all of a sudden there's this this backlash and everything seems to go back. And then hopefully after that, there's another wave of progress that goes even further than before. And so that's hopefully what we're going to be seeing. Yeah, absolutely. And it's it's all about people's awareness and giving them time to process these things and stuff, isn't it? So yeah.
00:11:10
Speaker
We shall see. You shall hear it first on Vegan Week. um So on to your next story then, Shane. ah we've We've mentioned that South Korea has been a place that's been getting a lot of vegan news lately. And Florida as well has been ah and an area that we we cover a lot. In fact, it's even in our intro, isn't it? Kate doing her best impression of the the governor of Florida. What's this new animal cruelty database all about then? like is Is that a a positive thing? It's hard to see how it could be a negative thing, but i've ah you're the one who's looked at this one, not me. Now, this is amazing. This is so necessary. I wish every single state would have this. Basically, Florida has launched a public animal cruelty database. It went live on the 1st of January, and it allows the public to search for people who have been convicted of animal cruelty or who have pled guilty or no contest to animal abuse charges.
00:12:04
Speaker
And this is so necessary for animal shelters, rescue organizations, and like i said even the public. Even let's say that you are trying to find a home for your dog or cat.
00:12:15
Speaker
They can check if someone has a history of animal cruelty and you know they can check adopters, fosters, or before rehoming. And before this happened, it was very difficult to do any kind of background checks because you you're going to have to search through county court systems, if that you're even able to do that. And I can speak from personal experience and rescue work. I worked for many years at a rescue called Houston Pets Alive. And I was actually the person who was going through and approving adoption applications. And it's you just have to trust what people say. There was no way for me to go and see
00:12:51
Speaker
if a person or an and an adopter had any history of any kind of animal abuse. And you're really looking at the application and you're trying to read between the lines. And you maybe are asking follow-up questions, but you're just having to trust people. And of course, people can lie and on their applications. And you know there's there is nothing worse than when you've done an adoption, you've approved an adopter, the adopter's gone through the process, and then you find out later that something has happened to that animal in their care. I mean, that is just...
00:13:20
Speaker
the worst feeling imaginable. So I think this is such a necessary thing and I think it needs to happen in every state. And ah one other element of the law, it's called Dexter's Law, is that it allows courts to impose harsher penalties on repeat offenders.
00:13:35
Speaker
And so judges can apply stronger sentences in cases of aggravated animal cruelty, especially if the person has a history of abuse. So hopefully this is going to help shelters and rescues make safer decisions when they're placing the animals that are in their care. I mean, it's it strikes me as being the kind of legislation that... we would have in a vegan world. Yeah. um Isn't it? You know, it it in in that, you know, these are the kind of registers that we see for human centric crimes or or human victim crimes, I suppose, and placing that real esteem of animals, well-being and their right to be free from violence.
00:14:16
Speaker
abuse and ah abuse is a horrible thing to contemplate but if it if it does happen the the best thing we can do to respond is to say right what can we learn from this how
Fashion Industry Shifts Due to Activism
00:14:26
Speaker
can we prevent this happening again so kudos to the the folk in florida who've who've got that through that's great isn't it yeah it is wonderful so my story was good news but your next story is a tragic story according to the headline says it's a sad day for Swindon as the Greyhounds say farewell to Abbey Stadium.
00:14:47
Speaker
And apparently after 73 years, the stadium has held its last all grace on December 27. So I'm wondering if you're feeling particularly depressed today about this, Anthony.
00:14:58
Speaker
Well, I mean, clearly some people are. And, um you know, that's that's fine. People are allowed to feel sad about things. But no, i I don't think myself or any of our listeners are really going to be feeling sad about this. I i did wonder for a second if you'd misread the the article there when you teed me up there, Shane. So well done. You called my bluff.
00:15:20
Speaker
um That's the headline. The headline said it was a sad day. Indeed, indeed. The Ink Swindon's sub stack is definitely picking a lane. Although right at the end of the article, they are they are sharing folks' opinions that are sceptical of how seriously safety concerns and welfare concerns of dogs in greyhound racing is taken. So at least they're airing that, even if that might not be their own opinion. But yeah, I've i've started to become involved with a relatively local anti-Greyhound racing group near where I live. There's on the great britain sorry the Greyhound Board of Great Britain website, they list 19 tracks that are currently active. And actually, when I first started campaigning with this group, um I saw that this website was out of date because one of them is quite local to me and has been closed down for a couple of months. And ah this track in Swindon is on the list too. So by my maths and my very limited awareness of closures, that list of 19 is already at least down to 17. And that's just in the last couple of months. So that's fantastic news. Yes, this article will be paint the tales of people who've been going to the Greyhound races for years and, oh, there's some people going to lose their jobs and what have you. But the fact is, it's it's not going to be used for that anymore. it It looks like popularity, perhaps poor management of the facility is increasing. is part of the reason too. An interesting thing that I didn't know was that a lot of greyhound tracks will share their facilities um with a sport called Speedway. So it's basically kind of like motorbikes going round. It's like a dirt track that greyhounds will will race on. And so it's either the case that there are Speedway tracks where they'll let people do greyhound racing
00:17:23
Speaker
or or vice versa, which is something I hadn't been aware of. And there is some hint that the Speedway folk are going to,
Political Support for Veganism and Animal Rights
00:17:33
Speaker
they've launched an application for an alternative venue in this town, Swindon in the UK. And some folk are concerned that, oh, you're doing it as a Speedway application, but you, once that's been approved, you're going to let the Greyhound races take place there.
00:17:52
Speaker
If I had to guess, I'd say no. I think it's this a, quote, sport on the decline. So i'd I'd be surprised if that would be the case. But we'll we'll see. We'll keep an eye on this one for you. Just wanted to get this one in the running order because it's it's positive. I don't know about you, Shane. I've heard...
00:18:11
Speaker
Some vegans say, well, single issue campaigns aren't the way to go. And I do understand that perspective because we're about a broader philosophical concept, I suppose.
00:18:23
Speaker
At the same time, it's great to see victories, isn't it? I think sometimes that that single issue campaigns, you know when they are successful, they can give people motivation to keep on working toward their goals, especially when sometimes there's a lot of not much progress or it seems like there's not much progress. Exactly. where We're subject to human emotions, aren't we? So feeling like there's wins and progress is a good one.
00:18:47
Speaker
However, this next story is is an interesting one, I think, because if you hear about a victory or progress that features something that you didn't know was an atrocity going on, It's it's a strange one, isn't it? Because you're kind of like, well, I guess it's great that that's stopped, but I can't believe that was going on in the first place. And yeah, the headline for our next story, it comes from starsandstripes.com. Military ends painful experiments on cats and dogs and stops shooting of animals in trauma exercises. I hate to ask, Shane, but what what's this one all about? So I actually did know about this. This has been going on for a long, long time. And I remember, I wanna say in the 90s, early 90s, that PETA campaigning against this. And that's when I first learned about this. And so at the, I think at the end of the year in December,
00:19:42
Speaker
the President of the United States signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act that is going to put an end to military experiments, well, many military experiment experiments, not all, on cats and dogs. And ah they are also going to stop shooting animals and trauma exercises. So taking those both separately,
00:20:05
Speaker
They're going to stop doing the experiments, basically only the painful research experiments on domestic cats and dogs, And then they're not going to do live fire trauma training.
00:20:17
Speaker
And that apparently targets dogs, cats, non-human primates and marine mammals. Although my understanding of it was mainly that they were using goats and pigs to help in treating combat injuries. like I guess they would shoot them and then try to um treat the injury.
00:20:35
Speaker
And I've spoken several times on the pod now about these government wide efforts to phase out the use of live animals and tests. And so this seems to be another element of that. You know, sometimes we have strange bedfellows where we may have an administration that we don't agree with, but they seem to be doing some things that we can get on board with.
00:20:58
Speaker
And we can absolutely support this. Again, it's not ending all experiments on the animals. There is still going to be some experiments on these dogs and cats. But i guess if it's in the exception of national security,
00:21:14
Speaker
why we would need experience. I couldn't work that out because I thought surely if you're doing this under the guise of the military, surely you could argue that any of it is for national security. Yeah, that's a good point. And and the whole thing about, ah sorry, if you were going to ahead and and and say this, but like they're also, says the The quote says, it's indefensible to waste tax dollars designed to boost our national security on cruel and pointless experiments on cats and dogs. So are they saying that they were pointless, but there could still be some that have a point to them? It's is one of those where, in a sense, like the headline sounds great and it's a nice and nice thing to announce. But if you're sceptical, you could look at it and go, I'm not sure that this is a guarantee.
00:22:04
Speaker
that this horrid stuff is going to stop. Yeah. And I think everybody's really kind of watching what happens in the next few months to a year to see if all these promises of phasing out the experiments and the use of animals in the CDC, the NIH, the military now, if these actually, if this actually happens. So it's interesting to see if that really happens or what, as you're bringing up the excuses,
00:22:32
Speaker
are for continuing it. So ah do do they not use animals in the military in the UK then? Well, i'm i'm as has been made apparent, I'm quite ignorant about these things. So I i wouldn't be surprised. Maybe they're very quiet about it. I i don't know. i I wouldn't be surprised, unfortunately.
00:22:52
Speaker
ah Just one final thought on this I had was, as we've seen, last week we reported on a whole wave of new initiatives that the UK government has.
00:23:04
Speaker
has said it's going to start working on. We'll see whether it actually happens.
Future Trends in Veganism and Ethical Practices
00:23:08
Speaker
But the the biggest headline for me there was this grassroots campaigning is having an impact. This is a ah US veterans based website, as far as I can yeah tell, but they are citing people for the ethical treatment and of animals in here. And it it just shows that this this campaigning works. And it feels like hitting your head against a brick wall so often, you know, like we're shouting into the dark, but actually we we need to hold on to the fact that people do listen, um not as often as we'd like, and their actions aren't as quick or as meaningful as we'd like, but it it does make an impact. So we have to keep speaking up. No, I think that's an excellent point because also i think we tend to think of animal rights and veganism as a more leftist type of ideology. But I don't think that that the military would be considered a a more liberal organization. And I think that that kind of for me, it just reinforces the idea that
00:24:08
Speaker
Being vegan isn't politically left or right. And anybody on both and both people on all sides of the political spectrum are in favor of treating animals better and and care about animals. And so maybe all these things that we're saying, they might seem extreme in their early 90s. But now, you know, 30 years later, 40 years later, people don't find them so extreme. They're getting used to the idea and they're, oh, this isn't set this is something we should do. Hopefully.
00:24:35
Speaker
Well, I honestly think that so far our stories have been relatively positive. They've been, you know, good stories on the positive side. um So your next story is about vegan children and nutrition.
00:24:50
Speaker
so I'm wondering if we're going to continue this trend. Well, it yeah, it seems to be. It seems to be. i I'm sure there were going to be... Lots of listeners listening to the the takeaways that I'm going to share shortly and saying, well, that's not news. I knew that already. But the fact is these studies keep being released.
00:25:08
Speaker
ah The headlines get out there. And this one, um a ah study looking at the eating patterns of nearly 50,000 young people, is basically saying well-planned vegan and vegetarian diets can be healthy for children. In fact, there's lots of areas in which those following a plant-based diet came out with much better figures and things like that. So hooray for that. In terms of the numbers, like say, just under 50,000 children and teenagers is the phrase they've used. We won't get into a discussion as to whether teenagers are children or not. so 40,000 omnivores 7,000 vegetarians and just under one and a half thousand vegans so pretty good spread pretty good sample size and again I can hear Julie in my ear saying they might not be vegan and they might just be plant-based I'm going
00:26:01
Speaker
just quote the article and we can have that debate another time. The study found that vegan children consumed substantially less protein, fat, saturated fatty acids, and cholesterol than omnivores. So mostly positives, but the protein one we could say, that sounds like a shame. Ingesting higher amounts of carbohydrates, fiber, iron, vitamins, B6, B9, folate, vitamin C, vitamin K, magnesium, and potassium. Lower levels of LDL cholesterol, the quote bad or unhealthy form of the substance that can build up plaque in arteries, and the quote vegan children had much more favorable cardiovascular health.
00:26:44
Speaker
profiles. It is confirmed later on in the article that the meat-free eaters did consume sufficient amounts of protein. Interestingly, it says they had significantly higher levels of iron intake, which is kind of counter to what you might think, although the absorption doesn't seem to have translated in that the meat-free eaters did have higher chances of, or higher instances, I should say, of iron deficiency and anemia.
00:27:14
Speaker
um And for listeners that don't know how that could be, basically ah things like vitamin C when consumed with iron can increase your absorption. So it seems like the even though the plant-based and vegetarian kiddos were having more iron, Because they perhaps weren't pairing it with vitamin C, it wasn't being absorbed as well. ah So yeah, this is not the In a Nutshell podcast. um You are very much recommended to go listen to that. They talk a lot about ah plant-based eating and and you know the the healthiest way to do it and what have you. And um the wonderful Daisy, who is we know is a regular listener of Enough of the Falafel, and is on that show regularly. So that's the place to go to get your your best dietary advice on these things. But yeah, none of the ah objections raised by this study, like i say, is a very balanced writer. None of them
00:28:08
Speaker
are without ways we can overcome them. Regular supplementation, things like that. you know it It says vitamin B12 didn't reach adequate levels without supplementation or fortified foods for the plant-based folk. that These are ah normal things that we know. So I don't think that that my takeaway, Shane, is that there's nothing new here, but i I just think the thing with health studies is unfortunately, because it's costly and perhaps a bit tedious. But we just need to keep repeating these things over and over again, because there's a lot of misconceptions that are baked into people's consciousness.
00:28:43
Speaker
Hopefully in 20 years, we're going to have a fleet of vegan children who've been raised vegan from birth, are very happy and healthy. And there are examples. But until then, I think, you know, have having these studies that that show these things. And let's let's be frank, you know, there'll be folk who aren't quite getting it right for for the best outcomes for health. so So having reminders as... as vegans that, Oh, actually, yeah, regular supplementation is important or combining vitamin C with iron. If, if, you know, if if health is a ah real priority for you, i think it's important to get that info out there, but, um,
00:29:24
Speaker
Yeah, it's ah it's it's a real good study, real good headline, which I think is all we can ask for. And just a final thing, it's it was covering that big sample size. It was across continents. So researchers from Italy, Australia and the US have done this. And it was kind of like a ah meta study as well. So it's covering lots of stuff. So ticks all the boxes, I think. I think so too. And I think that that it's good to reinforce that veganism is a healthy diet and kids are not harmed by being on it. And I think that we need to keep that in the news because there's always nutritional studies in the news. And a lot of times they're funded by the meat industry. So we need to make sure that we're countering that narrative. And and actually, I would say most vegans that I know are actually pretty gemmed up on nutrition.
00:30:12
Speaker
I mean, I certainly am compared to I mean, I went vegan when I was 23, so I hadn't got that much time to learn about these things before then, but I i knew next to nothing. yeah it it that age Yeah. Yeah. So I think we're in a good position to ah argue and debate if that is where the need of the conversation is.
00:30:31
Speaker
Super stuff. Right. Well, that is the first six stories of the show that Shane and I are bringing you. After this short break, we're going to look at our picks for the week. Shane is keeping things stateside and we are looking at a campaign with regards to horse carriages.
00:30:49
Speaker
And i am going over to the Netherlands to look at a story about fireworks. As well as producing these audio-based 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.
00:31:14
Speaker
So to access any of these written transcripts, head over to zencaster.com forward slash vegan week. going to spell it all for you.
00:31:29
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.
00:31:40
Speaker
And then each transcript is embedded with any of the shows that you click on.
00:31:48
Speaker
Okay, Shane, let's get the pick of the weeks going then. Pick of the weeks. Picks of the week. Knickerbocker's glory. I always get that sort of thing wrong. um Tell us about whats what's going on then in... Is is it New York?
00:32:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's New York. Yeah. Horse carriages. We've talked about this before. So this is further developments... Yes. So I'm coming back to the the horses that are pulling carriages in New York City. And this story in particular is about a independent equine veterinarian who was hired by the city to conduct basic health and welfare examinations of these carriage horses.
00:32:29
Speaker
you know, just basic things like looking at lameness, doing blood testing for drugs. The carriage owners refused the city vet access and the vet did do some observation and flag signs of abuse and a possible neglect with the horses. Well, when the carriage owners refused the the examinations, residents in New York organized a rally at City Hall to protest, and that what took place on December 30th.
00:32:57
Speaker
And then then that the next day, the last day of the year, The outgoing mayor, because the new mayor was sworn in on January 1st, issued a it an executive order that mandated that drivers have their and their animals undergo city-hired veterinarian inspections.
00:33:15
Speaker
looking for drugs, for abuse. And if they do not comply with that, they're going to risk losing their licenses. Now, as I said, that will happen on the very last day of the year, the one of the last things the outgoing mayor did.
00:33:29
Speaker
And so this is going to be up to the new examination the new administration to make sure these examinations occur. And um it's up to the health department to enforce. Now, the new mayor is Zoran Mamdani, and he is in support of ending the horse-drawn carriages. He has said that he supports removing them and he wants to deliver on getting rid of the horse-drawn carriages. And just as I was looking at this story, there was a new story that came out on January 8th.
00:34:01
Speaker
I saw several reports come across social media about a carriage horse that got free in Midtown Manhattan and crashed into several vehicles.
00:34:14
Speaker
So again, just highlighting the danger of these horses being in and this area. I mean, New York is one of the largest cities in the world, and the traffic is ridiculous. It's it's bumper to bumper, and it's very dangerous for these horses, and so putting them in this situation is wrong.
00:34:32
Speaker
Why the carriage horse owners don't want to participate in the exam seems... to raise some questions about what are they trying to hide but i'm hopeful that this is a step in the right direction are you hopeful what do you think well well i mean you've got a better grip on i don't know what the the the the culture of of of which we're we're speaking of in in New York compared to me here in in snowy, snowy Shropshire. But like the the fact that there's been this directive put out there saying you need to have these vet exams or you're going to use, lose your license and folk are saying, nah,
00:35:12
Speaker
You can't examine our horses. Like i know we're ah I know we're being the cutting edge here and reporting things, you know, just days after they've happened. But surely that's a state of affairs that can't continue for much longer. It's going completely in the face of what's been said. the The issue that I have seen in New York, just I don't live in New York, just so just looking at this from afar, is that New Yorkers are overwhelmingly against carriage horses in New York City. This is basically something that the tourists are doing. It's not something that the locals are in favor of. There aren't that many carriage horse operators. I want to say it less than 50.
00:35:51
Speaker
ah So, you know, when they make arguments about this is a loss of jobs and all of this, it's not really going to affect that many people. For the last, I don't know, three or so administrations, the mayors have been against carriage horses and have tried to ban it.
00:36:07
Speaker
And something is happening in City Hall. That is not allowing that to happen. I don't know if it's some carriage horse mafia that has control over it. And I'm saying what people I know in New York have said to like, what hold do these people have over City Hall? So I'm interested to see what happens. Now, Mom, Donnie's come in. He's um a Democratic socialist. He's a different sort of mayor. He's already done some new things, some interesting things. So I'm interested to see where he goes on the carriage horses, if he's actually able to get this done. Yeah, it's it's obviously awful for these horses, but that the whole notion of of the resistance that there seems to be is is fascinating, isn't it? and but you know We do know we have a lot of listeners from from this part of the US, so do get in touch us if you know something that we don't there.
00:36:57
Speaker
But it's um it's hard to put your finger on it. It's not even like I was thinking, well, maybe the you know local officials are taking a backhander. But if there's actually that many of them in operation, there's not much money you're going to make from it. I don't know. I'd love to hear if there's somebody local that knows what's going on, why the why City Hall is holding on to this.
00:37:18
Speaker
I'm not seeing it anywhere. No, one really reassuring thing is just that the amount of column inches this is getting across ah a range of different websites. I think we've covered stuff from the New York Post before. On their website, it reminds me of The Sun or The Daily Mail in the UK. just it's It's clearly designed for a certain type of reader. And and then we've got...
00:37:40
Speaker
you know stories on on other sites, you know, ABC News and and and things like that. So it's it's covering a different lot, a whole range of folk. And like you say, folk are overwhelmingly against it. So goodness, goodness, it's sure surely by this time next year, it's not going to be a thing, but we we'll see, I guess. We'll keep folk up to date. And like I say, if you can update us on anything you hear at your end, listeners, we'd be grateful to hear it. One of the other things that was happening at the very end of the year was fireworks for New Year's Eve. And I saw a lot of people on social media talking about how fireworks should be banned, how they're very traumatic for a lot of animals. And you have a story coming out on this topic in the Netherlands.
00:38:25
Speaker
Yeah, I do. And it's one of those stories that folks shared with me just as a, oh gosh, I i expect you'll be covering this on the podcast. You know, the Netherlands have banned fireworks. to and The Plant Based News' take on it is they've banned fireworks to protect people, animals and the environment. You think, wow, that that sounds great, doesn't it? Like, fantastic. What a great outcome for animals. Yeah.
00:38:50
Speaker
Then you look on the BBC News website and it it looks like there's been full-scale riots in Amsterdam over over New Year. right yeah I mean, I'm perhaps being slightly hyperbolic there, but you know some of the images. maybe Maybe it's not hyperbolic. There's a lot of stuff going on. Something that surprised me, and I'm not going to make a generalization about Europe here, but just something that I experienced. I've been to Berlin in Germany maybe five or six times and always found it be an incredibly forward-thinking, progressive, fantastic city. And I've happened to be there at New Year two or three times. And considering it's a city that welcomes huge numbers of refugees, I was astounded at how the city is transformed with regards to fireworks. Just in the middle of the street, there seemed to be no regulation. You could buy them at a supermarket almost regardless of what age you were. People would let them off in the middle of the day, like two days before New Year's Eve, three days afterwards. It was terrifying, absolutely terrifying. And like I say, there's many thousands of people in Berlin. It won't be the only city like it, but there's many thousands of people there who have fled wars and things like that. And it just, it seemed to literally fly in the face of everything else that the city seemed to stand for, which was really progressive and and forward thinking. So don't know if there's a bit of a cultural thing on the continent about fireworks, but in Netherlands, it seems like enough is enough. All sorts of violence, like I say, um in Amsterdam over New Year. The animal reader has commented on it too. Again, obviously with an animal ah bent. They say fireworks cause fear and missing pets in the Netherlands. They report about ah an animal that was was panicked by the the noises, ran away, was hit by a car, tragically later died. from their injuries. So obviously lots of cases from an animal rights point of view for fireworks not to exist. In fact, I think our sixth or seventh ever episode, we featured the the concept of silent fireworks and whether that could actually be a real positive pro-vegan, pro-animal move. I will say, i don't think that the primary motivation
00:41:17
Speaker
of the Dutch Parliament has been animal-focused here. We've also said on the pod many times that animals don't care why things happen, and I do agree with that. Although, if the reasons for change aren't to do with animal rights, I think it's easier to flip back and against it. So if the people of the Netherlands decide that animals have a right to not be completely terrorized by fireworks, I'd say that's unlikely to change in the next few years. Whereas if a parliament has said, well, citizens can't set off fireworks they so themselves, there's been too much damage escalating recently, blah, blah, blah.
00:42:05
Speaker
I could see a different government trying to win over people saying, vote for us, we'll bring back fireworks. You know, so I don't want to put a downer on things, but I think that is the broader context of things in the Netherlands. And I think it's absolutely right for the animal reader and plant-based news to say, hey, this is a great improvement on things.
00:42:27
Speaker
for animals. Just for context as well, I'm aware that I've almost presented things here that loads of stuff happened at New Year and then the Dutch Parliament have banned it. That's not how it went, that the ban was announced in April 2025. And perhaps that has sparked the, literally, the big, you know, hurrah. Last hurrah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Last days of Rome. All the firework sellers in in the Netherlands, and you know, shipping as much as they could. A final bit of context for me is that it is citizens that are not allowed to buy fireworks moving forward. However, organized displays will still be able to happen. So it's unfortunately, it is not the case that animals in the Netherlands will be free from this. But i don't know, Shane, it's probably fair to say that if if these things are less frequent and concentrated in smaller places that That is going to be an improvement for animals, would you say? I would because so in this city I live in Houston and in the city limits of Houston, fireworks are outlawed. they You are not allowed to buy fireworks. You're not allowed to bring fireworks and you're not allowed to set them off. And not to say that nobody does that, but it's we I don't hear a lot of fireworks here.
00:43:44
Speaker
And um in the suburbs, outside of the city limits, there are, i mean, just as soon as you cross the city limit into one of the suburbs, you'll see firework stands and people are buying them. But they do allow ah the big firework shows. So for example, on the 4th of July, which is Independence Day, they'll have no an organized firework show.
00:44:02
Speaker
And that doesn't take place too far from where I am. And I can kind of hear like the sort of like the the boom, but you know, when they ah shoot out the firework before it I think before it explodes or maybe it has to do with the sound. And that's like but we don't see it until after. I don't know. That's physics.
00:44:19
Speaker
But um I can kind of hear that. And but that isn't really, i think, as traumatic for most people or animals as the like pop, up pop up up pop, pop, you know, and that That frequent not knowing when it's going to be because a firework show is going to be, what, 20 minutes at the most, 30 minutes, you know? So, I mean, I think knowing, oh, there's going to be a firework show at 10 o'clock on this day, you could take ah precautions if you know you have an animal that is afraid of that.
00:44:45
Speaker
And you could say, okay, we're going to put on the thunder vest. We're going to you know you know, go into the closet or whatever. But if you have no idea when it's going to happen and it can happen all the any time, then that is a different story. think it's also interesting that this is happening countrywide.
00:44:59
Speaker
It's not just that it's happening in Amsterdam or in some city, it's happening in throughout the whole entire country, which that's that to me is amazing because that seems like a lot of people to have to regulate. Yeah, it is. And I wonder about, and we've we've covered some some great victories in this week's show and um our last story,
00:45:20
Speaker
coming up after our last little break is is an example of another one. I wonder whether change like this happens by there being like a big headline change that affects a segment of society, but not not wholesale, but it does send a message that like this is on the way out or this is being more tightly restricted, which gives those in industry the chance to write start start selling your stock, start making plans for elsewhere. We covered last week about um ah dairy farmers in the UK, the fact that production is now starting to cost more than you're even selling the product for. And that combined with lots of things over the last few years is is causing many people to say, right, I think I might be on the way out of this industry. I'm going to make other plans. And I think that's realistically how these things change. It's we're unlikely to get things where it's like, right, the whole thing's banned.
00:46:18
Speaker
it's It's more likely to be like, here's a warning shot. And then people start to get their affairs in order so that it a wholesale ban or shift can happen. Certainly hope so anyway.
00:46:31
Speaker
Yeah. Cool. Thank you for helping me with that one, Shane. Right. We've got time for one last story. But before we head over there, Me and Shane have been giving our opinion on these things. And we like to just give you a reminder that we really like to hear lots more opinions, whether it's on stuff that we've covered or on stories that maybe we haven't covered and you think we should be, or just any other feedback that you've got for us. So for that, you're going to need our email address. Here it comes.
00:47:01
Speaker
To get in touch with us, just send us an email at enoughofthefalafel at gmail.com. 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.
00:47:21
Speaker
Go on, send us a message today. enough of the falafel at gmail dot com Okay, one last story. It's coming to us from Plant Based News.
00:47:32
Speaker
Those of you who've got your ear to the ground and are fashion savvy will know exactly what Rick Owens is all about. Luxury fashion brand, according to Plant Based News. Shane, did you know anything about Rick Owens? had never heard of Rick Owens, so I guess I am not fashion savvy whatsoever. Have you heard of Rick Owens?
00:47:56
Speaker
I did a Google search, a Google image search, and I thought I must have mistyped Star Wars or something like that because like the costumes that are being worn, i i can't quite believe it. I mean, they look quite physically ah impractical, um really, but...
00:48:18
Speaker
We're told by Plant Based News, and who am I to question them, that they are a luxury clothing company and they are a big fashion brand. And why are we mentioning them? We're not just educating you on the hippest new ways to dress, listeners. We're reporting on them because they have pledged to ban the use of fur in any future collections. Now, it was their hand forced? Are they jumping the gun on these things or anticipating the inevitable?
00:48:50
Speaker
That's going to be for you to decide. But they've said, over the past decade, we've reduced and eventually ceased the production of fur. We will not engage in fur production in the future. As a company, we will continue to work towards further sustainable practices each season.
00:49:07
Speaker
They do say, we still have a way to go, but we can all aim higher and start somewhere, which I really liked. It looks like there's been lots of protesting. So the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, CAFT, have been making a five-day protest immediately before the announcement.
00:49:29
Speaker
That's interesting timing, isn't it? ah Rick Owens had previously removed mink and beaver fur handbags from its web store in December.
00:49:41
Speaker
That's quite interesting too, isn't it? The director of Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, Susie Stork, great name, says fashion leaders can either evolve or fall behind. Rick Owens chose to evolve.
00:49:55
Speaker
We expect others who still profit from the cruel fur trade to take place. notice. um And it's also worth noting, it seems like a lot of things happened in December here and we're seeing the fallout of it now. and But another thing that happened in December, the Council of Fashion Designers of America announced they'd no longer promote fur products on social media, their website, or any official events, including New York Fashion Week. Shane, I seem to remember you mentioning that in our news review of 2025. In a sense, this is not surprising news that this progress is continuing.
00:50:31
Speaker
Yeah, I was covering how Hearst Magazines and Condé Nast, who are some of the biggest ah publishers of fashion magazines, were not going to be featuring new animal fur um or any advertising. of So they're not going to be showing it and in their...
00:50:47
Speaker
I don't know, fashion pages, and they're not going to be using any advertising of that. And so maybe not surprising that then Rick Owens decides, well, I'm not going to use fur because, of course, he's not going to be able to be in Cosmopolitan or Vanity Fair or GQ or Vogue if he does.
00:51:02
Speaker
um The other thing I thought that was interesting about this story, and we were kind of talking about this earlier, how, you know, maybe over that all this time, activism has started to have an impact on people. Susie Stork, who you had mentioned is the executive director of the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, said the industry is changing because activists are forcing it to change.
00:51:25
Speaker
And I think that's that's great. That's something that we can really go into 2026 knowing that that activists are making a difference. we're We're making changes, even though sometimes it may not feel like it. Yeah. i I'm going to ask you an uncomfortable question. We sometimes hear about folk coming to veganism for a dietary impact.
00:51:47
Speaker
And that sort of, we might call it a one-dimensional approach to things could lead to fickle outcomes. So when you've you've got the desired impact, you might go back to doing what you were doing before from a dietary point of view. Is there a risk that of that from, you know, potentially another fickle industry, you know, fashion trends, the whole point is to be edgy and and change and things like that. Could there be a chance that we'll see a
00:52:19
Speaker
ah a flip back in a couple of years to, oh, actually now mink fur's in. i mean, I'm saying that and I don't believe it, but it feels like it could be a risk. it's I'm sure it's a risk. I mean, I don't know that much about fashion, but i know people always can change their minds. But it does seem to me that since maybe the early 90s or the mid ninety s I remember protesting outside like Saks Fifth Avenue and places that had fur.
00:52:48
Speaker
And then they really just don't carry it anymore. And a lot of those places, it's just been phased out over over years. And I just think it's something that's that's going to be ending. And like we I cover the story also about Poland, who's going to be ending their fur farming.
00:53:04
Speaker
And so I feel like the that we're seeing that happening across the world. And I i hope that there won't be anybody going back. It seems like the trend is getting rid of fur.
00:53:15
Speaker
I think as well, something that reassures me is that to produce these products, there needs to be a certain level of infrastructure, doesn't there, to to deliver a fur coat to a consumer. You can't just do it in your back garden. you know There needs to be farms that are are exploiting these animals and and and things like that. And that's not to say that these things couldn't be regenerated, but it's not like...
00:53:44
Speaker
I don't know, why i'm like all our listeners, I'm sure, I'm disheartened by the resurgence of a lot of right-wing or extreme right-wing ideologies at the moment. um And so I sort of thought, oh gosh, I thought you know as ah as a civilization we'd got past that, i thought we were re evolving back past that. but It's quite quickly for an idea to to to nest in someone's head, isn't it? Whereas this there is a practical side to this. So we'd we'd hope that if, you know, fur farms and and and things like that are being shut down and ah or maybe made illegal, it's harder to get those wheels turning again. You would have thought. It may just be that fur becomes something that's difficult to get. And so maybe you only have like the billionaires who are going to be wearing that. And then, of course, if they ah get pushed back, maybe they won't want to do that. We'll have to keep an eye on it. Yes, yes. i'm My mind then went to ah the episode of The Simpsons where Mr. Burns is looking to make a ah coat out of Bart's puppies or something like that. So yes, of its if it's just the Mr. Burns of the world ah doing the exploiting of animals, that's whilst not perfect, that's a much better
00:54:55
Speaker
better position perhaps isn't it cool well that's all from me and Shane in terms of commenting on the news for the last seven days we do hope you've enjoyed the show if you have there's a little favor we'd like to ask of you 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.
00:55:19
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.
00:55:35
Speaker
That will also help the show pop up when people search for vegan or animal rights content online. Thanks for your help.
00:55:47
Speaker
Thanks again, everybody, for listening. we We have so much content this month. Just to give you a heads up about what you can be listening to. On Monday, we have our new show. this is That's what you've been listening to today.
00:56:00
Speaker
On Thursdays, we have our vegan talk show. um And this month in January, we also have our Going Vegan series, which is airing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
00:56:11
Speaker
And these are the, well yes, these are the vegan journeys of our contributors. So only Sunday are you without enough of the falafel in your ears. And if you are looking forward to that vegan talk episode on Thursday, it will be coming out on January 15. It will feature Anthony, Julie, Carlos, and Dominic. And the topic is how do we cope with dystopia?
00:56:35
Speaker
Also, i just wanted to give a big shout out to some special episodes we aired over the festive period. We know that lots of you will have different routines over the holiday period, so you might not have caught our shows that came out on Christmas Day and New Year's Eve all of that, but there were four special shows and that are just a few episodes ago in your podcast provider, and we think they're really good, and we've had lots of feedback that lots of people enjoy them too. so do go back and listen to them because they're really not Christmassy at all. They're just good, lovely content that we know you'll enjoy. Anyway, that is enough of the falafel for this episode. Thank you, Shane, for your contributions. Thanks everyone for listening. I've been Anthony and you've been listening to Vegan Week from the Enough of the Falafel Collective.
00:57:28
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.
00:57:42
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.
00:58:09
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? twenty twenty three 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.
00:58:34
Speaker
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.
00:58:44
Speaker
Thanks for your ongoing support wherever you listen to us from.