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264- Viva shuts down pig farm!
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After nine years, and much hard slog, we're delighted to report that Hogwood Farm in Warwickshire, UK, is to be shut down! It's not all good news this week, but Paul, Julie & Ant nonetheless bring their critical and analytical eye to the last seven days of animal rights and vegan news.
Like what we do? Want to help it sound even better? Join our KoFi gang here: https://ko-fi.com/ENOUGHOFTHEFALAFEL
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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.rspca.org.uk/w/whatwedo/press/shocking-multi-animal-welfare-image-ai-generated
https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/etsy-bans-animal-fur-as-industry-sentiments-continue-to-shift/2026040387275
https://euroweeklynews.com/2026/04/03/animal-welfare-group-in-mijas-say-hunting-efforts-driving-wild-boars-into-towns/
https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/25998110.protesters-call-end-animal-sales-pets-home/
https://www.farminguk.com/news/orf-found-on-nearly-90-of-uk-sheep-farms-study-reveals_68294.html
https://www.theanimalreader.com/2026/04/06/robot-lawnmowers-killing-hedgehogs-calls-for-a-ban-in-germany/
https://www.theanimalreader.com/2026/04/05/us-removes-protections-for-rare-whale-species-in-gulf-of-mexico/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c74v0lglw05o
https://www.newgreektv.com/news-in-english-for-greeks/greece/item/38655-greek-vegans-protest-against-easter-lamb-and-goat-slaughter
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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!
Julie, Paul & Ant
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Transcript
Introduction to Vegan and Animal Rights News
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello everyone, if you are looking for animal rights and vegan news, you're in the right place. Congratulations, it's enough of the falafel. That is what we do. I'm Anthony, joining me for this episode are Julie and Paul, but that's enough of the falafel. It's 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. Brrr! Rootsie. Take your flabro meat elsewhere. We're not doing that in the state of Florida.
00:00:30
Speaker
Should I call the medium and say, hi, sorry. True education. younger generation are getting to know how brutal these practices are. That leaves a lot of pizza delivery companies in problems or things.
00:00:42
Speaker
What is this? What kind of movie is this? It's comedy gold maybe. Any form of social work.
00:00:51
Speaker
As long as you don't get the wee brunions with the horns, you'll be alright. Does veganism give him superpowers?
00:01:00
Speaker
I cannot fly around the city. I don't have laser vision. Hello everyone, this is Paul. Welcome and to everyone listening to the show. If you're first-time listener or a long-standing listener, and thank you for being here.
00:01:11
Speaker
Hello everybody, it's Julie here. If this is your first time joining us, a special hello to you. This is our new show this episode and it's where we look through vegan and animal rights news from the last week or so. But that's enough of the falafel. Let's hear what's been going on this week.
AI Concerns in Animal Welfare Imagery
00:01:34
Speaker
For more details on the upcoming news stories, including links to our original source material, check out our show notes for this episode, available on your podcast player.
00:01:46
Speaker
Well, we have often covered the RSPCA in the show on Enough of the Falafel. And we reported relatively recently that they've got a new CEO. And we've asked Paul to look at this story from the ah RSPCA to start with. And I'm wondering, Paul, whether as as well as a new CEO, there might be new marketing folk, because ah this is This story's got an interesting PR angle. it it The headline, a multi-animal welfare image is so shocking that it was thought to be generated by AI. And then you read the story and I i don't know that there's actually a confirmed bit of information where they're saying so-and-so thought this was...
00:02:27
Speaker
an AI image. But anyway, let's get to the the actual facts here. It is a really shocking image. It's an image of dogs being rescued from a multi-animal household. The RSPCA has deemed it sensitive enough that when you follow the link in the show notes, you initially won't see the image. You have to click on a button to say that you are happy for it. so I've got it here in front of me.
00:02:49
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's depressing. there's There's dogs, as far as the eye can see, not looking very happy at all. This was 250 Poodle Cross Dogs that were found at the same property. ah The RSPCA took in 87 of the dogs, the rest going to the Dogs Trust. it's I mean, there's several different angles we can look at this one, Paul, isn't it? But the the main thing it made me think was, is this something that we might encounter more and more as animal advocates? is is people with Whether or not this has happened with this story or not, or whether it's just clever PR from the RSPCA.
00:03:27
Speaker
people actually refuting the content that the undercover folk have found and saying no that's not real i i don't believe that that's actually happened yeah well i guess we are somewhat sadly in my point of view in the era now where you know i always remember the old phrase the camera never lies and now that's pretty much out the window isn't it because um if there's anything that someone disagrees with any kind of image including this sort of one it's very easy just go oh it's photoshopped it's a now Photoshop was the old idea where someone had to manually put a lot of effort into doing it. Now you can create pretty much any image, music, whatever, news story, and and that can look you know reasonably um believable. So it doesn't surprise me that people queried this. But in a way, like you say, it's given the opportunity for the ISPCA to use that as a bit of an angle to say, you know, it's it's that bad, it's that shocking. that people couldn't believe it. And, you know, that's obviously what they've they've run with here. And they've provided that assurance of reality around it.
00:04:24
Speaker
And I actually noticed, so you just come back to me, that I can't remember what it was. and It was another organisation... that had a similar they'd kind of gone with a similar sort of um note and this was just on facebook where they presented a couple of pictures and said you know this isn't ai this is reality so i'm wondering if it's almost like ah a bit of ah a tool that people are using to sort of say look how horrific this is image of whatever it's real you know um don't ignore it this is the reality of the situation so i i don't think it's going to be the last time we see that sort of um
00:04:59
Speaker
approach taken with them reporting. But yeah, of course, um you mentioned about some of the figures there, you know, there's a huge load on these organisations, RSPCA and Dogs Trust to deal with these scenarios where you get multi-animal households rehoming this number of animals at one point in time has a massive um spike on of demand and and so for fulfilling the the the spaces that these organisations have. I think there's a perception among some of the public that the RSPCA and others have this sort of unlimited sized kennel that any dog can go into. But the reality is again, that that's not the case. My local RSPCA has recently built some new kennels, but even those, um They come at a great cost and prior to that they were using of essentially third party kennels at another organisation to to house these dogs whilst they're awaiting rehoming. I guess the other thing that this springs to mind here is they do talk about the incidents are increasing of this sort of nature where there's multi animals. So that's by the RSPCA definition that's more than 10 animals in at the same address.
00:06:07
Speaker
And last year they had 4,200 incidents of that that's quoted. and it's rising all the time. They talk about sometimes the things like ah people's mental health or have got maybe out of control in terms of ah their good intentions have gone a bit wrong as to what leads to this sort of scenario. I think the other thing to remember is that, like you say, we've... On the show, we've levelled some criticism at the RSPCA and personal view. Some of it, some of it's got justification. Some of it I might not necessarily agree with, but this is a good example of what the RSPCA yeah and others like Dog Trust do. It's their, this is their bread and butter. They are the organisation.
00:06:43
Speaker
or one of the organisations that will go in deal with this sort of situation and it is a charitable donation, they're not funded by the taxpayer so I think whatever you think of them, you have to set your hats off to them for what they're doing here and dealing with it along with other organisations and if you've got space in your life and in your home to adopt an animal and certainly don't buy one, then this is the sort of thing you can help alleviate so that they can hopefully save some other dogs as well.
Protests Against Pets at Home
00:07:12
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. is and We certainly don't want a world where there is an absence of an organisation or organisations that are going to properties like this and and uncovering this sort of stuff and responding to those most urgent of calls. And Paul mentioned there ah the the fact that ah buying from a ah breeder or even a dealer, or maybe a a huge multi-million pound dealer like Pets at Home is not a very good thing to do. And they have made the news this week because a dedicated group of campaigners have not only sent ah an open letter, this is the animal welfare group Rescue Not Retail, but there have been a lot of folk who have protested outside Pets at Home stores. That is a pet shop in in the UK for international listeners. We've got this one from the Daily Echo, the Southern Daily Echo, reporting a protest that took place, I think it was Southampton, wasn't it, Julie? Yes, although the protests have been happening all over, even up here in Scotland and Edinburgh and Glasgow. So it's a nationwide week of action and it's to coincide with the start of the sort of directorship of the new CEO of Pets at Home, who is a gentleman called James Bailey. So and they've been without a kind of, well, not you know, not proper is not the right word, but they lost their CEO last year. So now they have this chap in. There'll be lots of really sick jokes going about as a result of the fact that he has come from Waitrose.
00:08:58
Speaker
And now he's in charge of the retail of little animals and things. and He was with Sainsbury's before that. He does have a very strong food retail background. What can we say about this?
00:09:11
Speaker
This group, the animal welfare group, Rescue Not Retail, want the whole breeding industry stopped so that we cannot go, well, not us because we're not doing it, but other human beings cannot go buying little animals in places like Pets at Home and they would rather that people adopted these little creatures rather than they were bred. So that's what they're saying. Who knows how receptive Pets at Home is going to be to that message. and I do not know. They certainly will never stop the trade in some way or other of these little animals. Because a lot of their custom relies on that and am on selling all the paraphernalia that goes with it. The Pets Foundation are supposedly Pets at Home's independent charity. And that's the thing that they keep telling us about. That is, you know, we're really into animal welfare and we are all about rehoming as well. You know, we we support both things and we are very virtuous and all the rest of it. And they say they're the biggest rehomer of small animals like these wee mice, wee gerbils, these types of wee things in the UK because they've got these in-store adoption centres, believe it or not. But you know what? It's an absolute con because they that place is where they put
00:10:45
Speaker
the little beasties that don't get sold you know once they get to a certain age or if they have something a wee bit wrong with them or a wee deformity or something that puts people off buying them they go in the kind of bargain bin in there so it's really for their leftover stock so when animals don't sell like they would want them to they either try them in a different branch and And then if that doesn't work, they put them in this area, which is the rehoming area. How horrible is that? and I don't think a shop premises is a place for any animal to live for any amount of its life at all. And the thing that's really worrying is, see, if you look online, You'll see a few reports, quite a few of these campaigns have gone on previously as well as this existing one. And they're always accompanied by comments. And quite often the comments come from people who've worked at Pets at Home. And they will talk about the high mortality and illness rate of these vulnerable wee beasties. It's horrific. And also how short their lives are, even if they go into somebody's home from that shop, but you know, retail place. and and how the vets don't expect them to live and they are you know there's a very high incidence of stroke and things like that so I completely understand why loads of people want to have an animal or more than one in their lives and to have that connection with you know a non-human animal I absolutely I so get that I understand But I think it would be so much better if people could wean themselves and their children off the desire to have these very vulnerable wee animals like wee mice and rats and guinea pigs and hamsters and things. in cages in their homes because they are just so vulnerable so if you would like to join in the campaign against this the call to action here is you can go on the rescue not retail website www.rescuenotretail.co.uk and
00:13:07
Speaker
As well as you could make a donation, you can volunteer, you could get really involved. But if you just want to put your name to it, youre sign their petition and then you'll be doing something to help end this horrible trade. Yeah, it's um it's a simple and straightforward website. I'm on it at the moment. And if you're someone that likes to wear wear your voice, as the saying goes, they've got like a a little shop there. You can wear hoodies that, you know, that it sounds quite trite and just like, oh, you know, whatever. What good is that going to do? But, you know, the the couple that I've got in front of me here, one says adoption is resistance, ah rescue, not retail and like quite, quite strong messages and things that are quite thought provoking. So, yeah, lots of ways to do that, including, as Julie says, there's a petition there as well. Julie expressed
00:13:56
Speaker
scepticism that pets at home are going to stop selling animals in their shops. And I think I i share that scepticism. And yet this week, okay, Etsy are not a pet shop.
00:14:11
Speaker
However, we have seen from fashionunited.uk this week, Etsy bans animal fur as industry sentiments continue to
Etsy's Fur Ban After Campaigning
00:14:21
Speaker
shift. This is off the back of a 50 plus day protest campaign. So the the fact that pets at home, that they're part of their core industry is is pet supplies and live animals. So them making a change is arguably a bit more integral to their business. But we've seen that change can happen from this article here um on Fashion United.
00:14:45
Speaker
So a 50-day-plus protest campaign by the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, we've reported on them before in the show, have been in-person protests outside Etsy's HQ in Brooklyn, New New York. And this ban on the sale of all animal fur on Etsy will come into place from August 2026. We've heard lots of news about fur bans, particularly I think in Poland, the second largest producer of exploited fur products. They've they've banned it, their government, but not until 2033.
00:15:25
Speaker
Whereas, ah great to see, Paul, that this is before even the year is out, we're going to see this ban coming into place. Yeah. It's something I thought when I read the article, but I must admit, I i forgot to make a note of it be quite right. Cause typically we see, I think, especially with governmental bands, it's hugely long way. And it's kind of like, well, we'll have to phase it in and people will have to make changes and stuff like that.
00:15:47
Speaker
This one, like you say, great to just go, they've gone, now we're going to stop it. And, and, uh, I mean, it's not instant, but it's pretty flipping quick. So that's good. That's that's a good thing. um I don't think it's all good news, though, here. I mean, the it's another great example, and I think we've got a few of these this week, where this is protesting action and protesting action having a positive impact. So, you know, for people out there who are who maybe be wanting to get involved in protests and maybe query the value of it, um I'm not saying all protests will have the right impact because they might not have the right focus but there are examples where you can affect real change and ah real benefits for for animals and I think this and and and others are examples of that I was slightly but I was slightly perturbed by the statement from Etsy that's quoted in this article um now I'm assuming that it's been recorded correctly
00:16:37
Speaker
but it talks about what their, what their approach is and they they talk about what they're, uh, banning and it's not just natural fur from, um, the the sort of animals, um, like mink and Fox and and and rabbit.
00:16:53
Speaker
but it's not including taxidermy or by-product animal materials. And this is interesting because by-product animal materials are quoted as leather wool or sheepskin. And I think they've fallen into the old trap of assuming that these animals are killed primarily for meat. And then, oh, we've got ah we've got some skin left over, so we'll use that and we'll make a coat or something like that. um A couple of things here.
00:17:18
Speaker
um they've included rabbits well as far as i'm aware people do um kill rabbits for meat um and they they so that that seems to have confused they've confused the two sets of um animals there if we are were to agree with what they're saying however i think all of us on this um podcast would say that um this myth of byproducts for animal materials like These are is exactly that. So it's a myth. It's ah quite liked actually this article because it talks about leather wool and sheepskin being co-products with meat. And they quote that is ah on the basis of the profit that's made from these products. so It's actually $400 billion dollars a year that's made from these sort of skins. So it's a massive, massive market, huge market. So that that will still go on. And maybe that's another step in the future to work with people like Etsy let's see on. um Obviously, yeah there's, ah there's a I suppose, a longer term goal here for us to remove all animal products. But so and that might be a battle for for another day. yes Yeah, I thought it was also notable that so in terms of the protests, it wasn't just at headquarters. There was, it was across 17 cities and also they targeted Morgan and Stanley technology, media and telecom conference in San francisco Francisco. So again, I think we've talked about this before, you know, it's a well-organized campaign and if you can target shareholder activities, that's a really good thing to do. You know, whether you're trying to work within, know, if you're a shareholder of Etsy and,
00:18:49
Speaker
which I actually think I am, I've just realised thinking about it, um then, you know, you might be able bring ah an an action to ah make this sort of change. So, yeah, that's really good. I did realise I might have shares and and that's a bit of a worry. a So, yeah, really, really. can have more leverage, Paul. Well, exactly. That was exactly the reason why I did it. Yes. so's ah um But we've seen other stories, haven't we, like that where people have have taken these sort of actions. So I think we'll see more of that in the future. This article also talks about the ongoing focus that CAFT will have and and have done historically at Milan Fashion Week.
CAFT's Activism Success
00:19:21
Speaker
um Obviously, these walkway um protests have been pretty big targets in the past when you think of people like Petter and etc. it seems like with this particular approach it's a bit like a process of attrition they've um they list out how there's been accumulation of gains in terms of fashion-based um bands they talked about sheen marketplace they've talked about things we've talked about which i think was around um ah fashion magazines no longer uh promoting or showing animal film which i think we reported on is it condonast at condonast that we reported on perhaps several months ago uh yeah i think the poland ban that you mentioned earlier on um and that was another thing that they've mentioned as well so they've also gone in and sort of say that there's um other political moves going ahead here to try and
00:20:10
Speaker
have bans at that level but I think the general perception certainly from CAFT is that that's a bit of a bottleneck and again a slow process certainly in the EU there are still five EU member states permitting fur farming and you mentioned Poland earlier on don't either of you two can remember the other four that they were there are there oh I would have said somewhere in Scandinavia uh you're right yep So Finland, I think, is one of the one of the the biggest still. And then you've got Denmark.
00:20:39
Speaker
And then the other two are Greece and Spain. So there's there's moves to sort of do have an outright ban. But I think in terms of the EU political machinery... ah There are still some member states calling for improvements to welfare for animals in these sorts of things. So I think there's a bit of pushback. And again, worldwide view is perhaps still um problematic because we have quotes about Canada's surge in fur sales and some particularly repugnant quotes from ah Doug Chiaerson, who's the executive director of the Fur Institute of Canada. What a job to have. and talks about how, again, their their market is growing. And they talk about all the good that's come out of the work of the trappers. I don't know what that is exactly, but apparently there are some. And says the that industry has stood the test of time and perhaps more than anything else. And this was the bit that got my goat. The propaganda thrown at it by others. So, yeah, we're we're the bad guys protecting the animals and they're the good guys slaughtering all the animals, obviously.
00:21:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Oh, dear me, Doug. Oh, dear. He's got to say something, I suppose, hasn't he? But yeah, that's, ah like you say, Paul, definitely a good news story and nudging the needle in the right direction. I like the fact that, you I mean, you rightly pointed out the the hypocrisy in them not banning taxidermy or leather wool or sheepskin, but I like the fact that they've said It doesn't matter how old it is. It doesn't matter where it's come from. If it's a product from an animal that is natural fur, natural pelt, it's it's not it's not being sold. So that that's good because I think we've seen in the UK, people have said, well, you know, if it already exists, then we can still trade it It's just new fur. And that grayness is not helpful. for anyone So yeah, good to see that. We're going to move on to another story now relating to the surface of animal skin. However, we are looking more at animal ag here and specifically
ORF Disease and Farming Practices
00:22:37
Speaker
sheep. I was not aware of that. The disease known as ORF is a highly contagious viral skin disease affecting sheeps and goats, characterised by scabby lesions. Sorry, should have given you a warning there. Scabby lesions, particularly around the mouth and muzzle. Obviously, Julie will know all about everything to do with sheep. So it was only right for her to to have this story. The reason we're talking about this is because a study by the Royal Veterinary College in the UK found that 88.8% of farmers have seen the disease in their flocks, which obviously shows how widespread it is and the ongoing risks to... This this comes to us from Farming UK. So they're saying the ongoing risk to animal welfare, farm productivity...
00:23:28
Speaker
and human health, because it's a ps zoonotic disease, it can affect humans too. Only 23.8% of farmers said they'd consult a vet when ORF is suspected, and only 34.5% of respondents used pain relief in affected animals, suggesting that welfare considerations may be overlooked in some cases. Julie, did this surprise you or not?
00:23:57
Speaker
No, I think it tells you everything you need to know about farmers' attitudes to getting good care for their sheep because they're being asked by a veterinary organisation about whether they would consult a vet or not. They don't have to be doing it. They don't have to evidence that. They don't have to prove that they would actually. They just have to say the right thing and make themselves look good and they can't even do that.
00:24:26
Speaker
So these 23.8% of farmers who said they would consult a vet, I think you can tell you really be sure it's a much lower number than that in reality. That's them on their best behaviour talking to someone from a veterinary survey. So I'm not surprised about that. And I would be very surprised if as many as 34.5% used any kind of pain relief. I have witnessed and heard about all kinds of procedures, including surgery, botched basic surgery, getting carried out on sheep by shepherds, whatever you want to call them, with absolutely no pain relief.
00:25:14
Speaker
you know, stapling lamb's eyelids together, you know, sewing up things. Yeah, absolutely. So I don't think any sheep with ORF will get any pain relief. I'd be surprised. And if they did, and it was the whole flock, and they were getting some kind of anti-inflammatory, they would use the same needle for all 1,000 of them.
00:25:37
Speaker
I bet you anything. So anyway, there I go with all my cynicism. Yes, I'd heard about Orph. It's one of these things where i would like to be high and mighty and say my sheep the sheep in my care, I should say, will never have that.
00:25:54
Speaker
ah It's completely preventable. It's not. It's a bit random. It's a virus. It can have secondary bacterial infection implications, but it's in the main a virus. There's not a lot you can do to prevent it. It is more prevalent where obviously there higher numbers of sheep and they're more intensely grouped together. um And the main time that it strikes is where you have lambs and in particular where you have lambs that are being bottle fed because these artificial teats that people use to bottle feed lambs, their mouth can get damaged and the virus gets in that way. So these people, these hypocritical people who take their children to petting farms to bottle feed lambs, not only is the stuff in the bottle rubbish for the lamb, although it doesn't matter because they're not going to get to live very long anyway, but they are very high risk for ORF. So if you absolutely have to bottle feed a lamb, well and good, But sometimes that situation is artificially created so that there's enough lambs for the public to come and bottle feed. they're actually taken away from their mums for that. So they're then put at this very, very high risk of this orf, which is why all this wash your hands, wash your hands to the families coming in. Well, maybe you might say, well, it's kind of...
00:27:22
Speaker
tough justice if they get a bit unwell after it. They wouldn't get unwell, they would just get a sore, it clears up on its own, you know. But for sheep it can be fatal if it's a wee lamb because if their mouth gets too sore that they won't drink and they're not able to eat grass at that stage, Or if it then spreads to their mum's wee teat and she gets too sore for them to drink from her, you know, then the wee lamb will die of starvation. So it can kill sort of indirectly in a way. so it's a horrible illness i hope that the sheep in my care never ever get that there's nothing i can do to prevent it you can't use a virus against it you're only allowed to vaccinate against it if there is the evidence of the virus being on your property or within the sheep in your care because it's a live virus they use so people the
00:28:19
Speaker
the animals do get a low grade of the active virus so they do get sores and things so you don't mess with that so it's another really good reason that if you do come across a sheep in your day-to-day life and you're not in contact with the person who's responsible for its care whatever you do don't touch it if you can avoid it don't feed it bits of grass or anything like that or whatever because you don't know if they are incubating this illness and you could then you know end up with it and because they don't show symptoms always, they can be carriers of it so unless the person who's responsible for that little animal is around and you know everything is fine and you have their permission as well because you know some animals it might not be a kindness to give them certain food you know but yeah just don't don't touch sheep's noses says the girl who gets kissed on the face by a sheep twice a day every day of her life don't don't don't pay sheep if you can avoid it unless you know them really well ah yeah so that's it it's a shame I wish there was a better story to tell on this one but I am not surprised that farmers don't get the vet and don't give pain relief because these things cost money and farmers with sheep spend very little money or as little as possible on them
00:29:48
Speaker
Yeah. Well, i mean I mean, if nothing else, I found this story just to be indicative of animal and agriculture in general. I mean, here we are, there's a disease I've not heard of. There's a situation i wasn't aware of. And you don't have to scratch too far below the surface to find, oh, okay, there's people abusing antibiotics here. This is something that's completely preventable or largely can be reduced if we weren't doing things in in the way that we are with animal agriculture. And you yeah, you can see all these all these different things that are repeated across the sector. So yeah, if nothing else, it just ah just shows that those things are not things that should be going on.
00:30:29
Speaker
Now, we are reporting on a story now from a different part of the world to where me and Julie and Paul live.
Hunting's Impact on Wild Boar Behavior
00:30:37
Speaker
And so pronunciation can be difficult. and You know, that the headline here, animal welfare groups in MIJAS, I think it is, M-I-J-A-S. say hunting efforts are driving wild boars into towns. We'll get into the story in a minute, but I mean, we do need to apologise for the pronunciation of some of these things. it it can be tricky. We don't have Richard with us. We don't have Elena, who, you know, native Spanish speakers. But Paul, I reckon you and i we know how to pronounce Marbella.
00:31:06
Speaker
don't we you know that's really obvious so shall we just talk about Marbella when we're talking about this well I've been fortunate to be uh to have been uh to Mijas or Mijas um it's a lovely it's a it's a lovely place if you get there away from all the costas away from all the uh full English breakfasts and Union Jack shorts it's a lovely place to go to or certainly it certainly was um I mean this story might suggest that there might be some um challenges going there now. But essentially what we've got here is a story whereby i think we've had a few of these in the past where that whole thing about human habitation and animal habitation ah crossover slightly different with this one in that um the
00:31:51
Speaker
the thing that is causing that crossover is by essentially excessive um and expanded hunting of wild boar. And um what this story talks about is that that there is a reported large increase, 60% increase,
00:32:08
Speaker
during hunting periods of wild boar collisions and so traffic collisions that occur. There isn't much more in terms of the stats on that, which is a bit of a shame because I'm not quite sure where that's come from. and There's no sort of real primary evidence ah quoted for this. but so let's Let's go with it as ah as a statement. What they're doing here I think is quite good. Whilst we would look at this as an an article where we would be wanting to promote the focus on animal welfare, I think the fact is that we know that um that isn't going to...
00:32:42
Speaker
to connect with everyone. So what ah what's happened here is obviously they're saying ah there's also a very important point here about road safety and, you know, hey, you could get you could get injured because a wild bull comes out in front of your car and you and your family could be at risk due to this hunting that's going on. So i think it's quite a good...
00:33:01
Speaker
a good way of um connecting with other people and you know hopefully you might find that road safety groups might partner with animal welfare groups to promote ah opposition to this and then that might remove this extended um hunting permission that has been granted by the local government so that may be a positive about you know different people working together I think the um The other thing here is that it also talks about the risk ah to other um wildlife that is being um potentially caused by this extended hunting. And again, whilst people might think they're not, maybe they're not really interested in wild boar from an animal welfare, they might be more interested in other wildlife. And so again, it's another aspect that might be, is being sort of tapped into, I think here potentially to get support
00:33:52
Speaker
to stop in the future the um the extended hunting. So it's also ah quoting that there's no real evidence of this extended window, extended hunting actually um meeting its goal of um trying to control the ah population of wild boar. Again, how many stories have we had where Man is trying to control the population of other animals just because it doesn't suit them. So again, it's I guess another one of those things. The focus now is really on the on the regional fish officials that have allowed this to go forward over the last few years and hopefully they'll be pushed to remove that in the future.
00:34:36
Speaker
o Yeah. I mean, there's always going to be a clash of cultures, isn't there, in ah in a non-vegan world. But it's it's been fantastic to see on this non-vegan news site, euroweeklynews.com, the fact that actually it's quite a sympathetic audience.
00:34:54
Speaker
reporting of this and that there are both individuals, groups and officials that are putting forward a message that we might say is pro-animal rights or is is certainly advocating on behalf of those animals and not just saying, oh, they're a pest and we need to get rid of them in in whatever means we do. I mean,
00:35:14
Speaker
don't get me wrong, that viewpoint is being expressed too, but it's not the only one. So yeah, fantastic to see. And indeed, our next story from the animal reader is another one where in Europe, in Germany specifically, there are officials. So we've got Claudia Kalisch, who is vice president, German Federation of Cities and mayor of Lüneburg, told The Guardian that gardens in cities have become important habitats for animals.
German Proposal on Robot Lawn Mowers
00:35:44
Speaker
And in fact, she's saying that there needs to be a ban on the nighttime use of robot lawnmowers. Now, some listeners might think, what what is this an April Fool? but what what What is this story all about? Robot lawnmowers are these ones where it's maybe the size of a dinner plate and you can program it or it just will kind of program itself and just drive around the lawn, do, do, do, across the course of the day that are very often they're solar powered or they're, you know, they've got long batteries and they, you know, they just clip away at the grass just following a ah random pattern or what have you.
00:36:20
Speaker
But the problem is that um many people are programming them to work at night and small animals like hedgehogs that are most active after dark can be seriously hurt or killed by them. Particularly, it seems hedgehogs are at risk because they curl into a ball when they feel threatened rather than running away, and that seemingly can make it difficult for these lawnmowers' sensors to detect. I mean, Julie, you've had a look at this one. it's um and In one sense, it seems like a
00:36:57
Speaker
particularly niche thing, obviously not for the hedgehogs, it's their their whole world, their whole life. But nonetheless, when you read this, it's it's great to hear that there are ah people you know backing a a ban of these or a partial ban.
00:37:09
Speaker
you know It could be so easy to just say, oh, this doesn't matter. let's you know There's ah bigger fish to fry, to coin a non-vegan phrase. It's good to see that the advocacy is happening nonetheless. Yeah, well, hedgehogs are a protected species in Germany and you get fined a huge amount of money if you cause the death of a hedgehog. So that might have some bearing on it. and But it's also not just hedgehogs who are falling victim to these and robot lawnmowers operating at night. You know, ah personally, I think...
00:37:42
Speaker
I don't really like the idea of anything with sharp blades operating without supervision in the dark like that. You know, it could lots of things could be getting hurt by that or damaged or whatever. doesn't seem terribly responsible, but I mean, that's the whole idea, these things, that they're doing the work while you rest up, I guess. So that's the whole point. such an arduous thing, isn't it, mowing a lawn? I mean, I don't know how people find time for it. I have to have big lie down after I've mowed a lawn. Some people can't do it. They're older or am disabled or whatever. So I totally understand.
00:38:19
Speaker
Sorry, Paul, you were going to say something there. what were I was just going to come into something and and thought I'm going to sound like a bit of a dick when I say this, but there's... um Yeah, so I know if I'm playing golf, and you see a lot of them on things like golf courses, and I don't know run them at night, and I'd never even thought of this, but you see them running in the day, and I'd never even thought about like what the dangers could be for it. So yeah, sorry, I was sort just kind of musing over that. So you do get different types of robot lawnmower and quite a lot of research has been done into the ones that really cause damage or even kill and the ones that do not. So one possibility here is to actually ban the production and the sale of the ones that don't have this technology that protects the things that it kind of bumps up against, if you see what I mean. So that would be another thing that could happen there because I don't know how easy it would be to enforce a ban on using these robotic lawnmowers at night.
00:39:23
Speaker
you know and especially just given when you know what's what's going to be the cutoff time and does it change in the winter or not i don't know but and who's going to kind of police it and everything maybe another set of robots yeah could go out and patrol Yes, but they better not squash any hedgehogs where they're patrolling either.
00:39:46
Speaker
The other thing that cross my mind is that, you know, there's quite a lot. I know where I live, there's a lot of love for hedgehogs. And a lot of initiatives, you know, to make our gardens accessible and to them and friendly for their sort of ongoing existence. And one of the things that we're encouraged to do here is to create gaps in the boundaries of our gardens. so that we animals are allowed a sort of safe passage from garden to garden and that's going to keep them hopefully away from the streets and roads where they would come to harm. So it kind of crossed my mind that you might find in some cases that without a solid boundary around your garden, your robot lawnmower might just sneak off and then just go on an absolute grass-cutting rampage across your entire neighbourhood until it ran out of charge, you know. so You might not see it again. It's Hollywood film here.
00:40:55
Speaker
So there we go. Yes, ah all praise though to the mayors of all these different a cities in Germany who appear to be quite united in this and I wish that they would give protected status to all of the animals, not just their hedgehogs. Yes, indeed. Yeah. And it does just show the difference it can make, doesn't it? You know, as soon as you're on the the right side of the law, any old random mayor will alert will advocate on your behalf, it seems. So yeah, great that that's happening.
00:41:26
Speaker
Thank you for that one, Julie. So we're going to take a quick break now. And when we come back, we're going to hear Paul and Julie's pick for the week, the story from the week's news that each of them thought was the most interested and the most comment worthy. And they both this week involve removals, the removal of a protection and the removal of a whole farm.
00:41:48
Speaker
As well as producing these audio-based shows, our podcast hosts at Zencastr 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.
00:42:08
Speaker
So to access any of these written transcripts, head over to zencaster.com forward slash vegan week. I'm going to spell it all for you. Zencaster is Z-E-N-C-A-S-T-R.com and then a forward slash and then the word vegan, V-E-G-A-N, then a hyphen and then week.
00:42:30
Speaker
Zencaster.com forward slash vegan hyphen week and then each transcript is embedded with any of the shows that you click on.
00:42:42
Speaker
Okay, Paul, let's start with your story.
US Whale Protection Controversy
00:42:46
Speaker
Yours is the one I think we're least happy about, the removal of protection for rare whale species in the Gulf of Mexico from the United States government. And um I mean, none of us speaking on the show this week had heard of this type of whale. It's that it's that rare, the rice's whale.
00:43:06
Speaker
Can you tell us some more about this one? Yeah, so I'd never heard of it and it was only recognised as a separate species in 2021. I think I said earlier on in our chat it was 2011, but it really is very recent. But I think probably from our perspective, it It is important to the story, but it's also like ah well it's it's it's an it's an animal and it's losing protection. So, you know, there's this there's that other view we can have as well. But I'm sad to say this is quite a depressing read, certainly, I think, from our perspective, because what we've got here is the classic case of changes to protections purely for financial protection.
00:43:44
Speaker
again It's basically being sold as a move to defend, to protect oil production. um And I guess especially at this moment in time in history and and kind of wrapping it as a national security issue, which I think is a very cynical move here, probably promoted by the industry itself and those that profit from it. So, yeah, essentially what is being said here is that ah to date things like the speed of um the ships that are passing through the areas where the whales are is currently limited and there is also a requirement for monitoring of the animals when there are ah oil drilling operations going on which no doubt is a cost um for those all operations and what this ah what this
00:44:41
Speaker
is doing is removing those two criteria for the oil industry so they can basically now whizz on through max speed in their boats propellers potentially chopping up whales in ah in this area and there are only 50 of these that are still alive in the gulf of mexico so essentially what people are saying is Well, know we could save ourselves probably a few million quid here, and we're quite happy to do that if we make a species extinct. And and now that seems to be, for me, a very depressing state of where we are with society, in that we just go, yeah, fine, we'll let that.
00:45:15
Speaker
that that species die out because yeah we can make a bit more profit for our shareholders and we can make it a bit more bit more money and what these whales also have um previously ah somewhat ironically and depressingly experienced oil-based impacts before in the past when the 2010 deep water horizon horizon oil spill occurred about a fifth of these whales were killed and now again it's the oil industry that could potentially um wipe them out by paying no respect to their natural habitat. There is maybe a slight light at the end of the tunnel and environmental groups are now going to court to try and reverse decision and they're arguing that it's illegal and could lead to a complete ah extinction of the species and they're saying obviously highlighting that that would be the first time in 300 years that a whale species would have been made extinct in North American waters so good luck to those
00:46:07
Speaker
guys and again we mentioned this earlier on but you know you wonder who that those who who are out there who invest in oil companies maybe don't give this sort of thought to that and whether ah you know again we could make impact by taking shareholder action against that that sort of thing if you if you do invest in them I don't um I should say but yeah I think people just kind of look at things like oil industry, petrochemicals and just see, oh, you know, blue chip company, make money, make money, a better life, et cetera. know, bollocks to the animals, basically. So really just depressing because this is almost like the American capitalist dream in full flight now. um You know, it's it's just money, money, money, nothing else. And that's that's, I think, incredibly depressing for where we are as a human race.
00:46:56
Speaker
Yeah, no, obviously agree with you there. that the The one crumb of comfort I take from this is just internationally how the US government's decisions and stances on things is generally being more and more isolated as not acceptable and unusual.
00:47:15
Speaker
I suppose, historically unusual in ah in a contemporary sense. And so whilst there's ah whilst it's it's no good for those animals right now or or anyone else who is suffering from from those extreme decisions, I i kind of hope that they are outlier decisions and that at some point the the tide is going to turn the in the opposite direction. But yeah, there's there's no other way of looking at this other than a ah a negative one, really, I think. Thank you nonetheless for reporting on that one, Paul. Julie, you're going to cheer us up though, because if you've had your ear to the ground in the last 10 years, particularly the UK animal rights scene, you'll know that the campaign group Viva have done a lot of focus on Hogwood Farm in Oxhill, South Warwickshire, and it's going to be no more, Julie.
Closure of Hogwood Farm
00:48:08
Speaker
That's right, Anthony, that is. So Hogwood Farm in Oxhill, South Warwickshire, has a capacity in its, well, I don't know if you want to call it Hedy, but when it was running at full capacity, it housed 15,000 pigs, believe it or not. So it's an intensive pig farm, a factory farm, and it was bought by the current owners back in 96, 95 or I think. But from onwards, it came to the attention of Viva. And they went in four times sort of over the intervening years. And it became infamous because it was the subject of a documentary you might have seen called, it came out in 2020, called Hogwood, a modern horror story. And it's fair to say as well that not just, well, I think if you've seen any of Viva's content about pigs in factory farming, you'll have seen Hogwood because it is the poster farm for abuse in factory farming So they have, you know, had got a lot of mileage out of all the footage and all of the stills that they've been able to obtain because of how awful the place is. It's still running at the moment. It won't actually officially close till September, I think, when these last little piglets that are in there just now, sadly, will be sold. So anyway, what did Viva find over the years?
00:49:53
Speaker
They found overcrowding, pigs eating other pigs, sick animals just being left in the gangways, wee piglets getting routinely mutilated, ah workers hitting pigs with metal bars. Just filthy, filthy living conditions.
00:50:14
Speaker
On concrete floors were no bedding for the pigs and no enrichment. And also piles and piles of dead pigs being dumped illegally in the sort of woods next to the building where the pigs were living.
00:50:33
Speaker
So after Viva exposed this animal abuse, the farm was dropped from the Red fat red Tractor Assurance Scheme and and that's the scheme that is meant to give people buying products from pigs in the supermarket and things assurance that they were raised, you know, adhering to certain welfare standards. So even the red tractor scheme, which we know are not fussy, my goodness, they authorise and kind of have on their book some dreadful farms.
00:51:13
Speaker
If even they wouldn't endorse this farm, it shows you how bad it was because the standards are not high. And also the abuse came to the attention of Tesco who are a big supermarket in the yeah UK and they wanted nothing to do with Hogwood Farm either. So they didn't deal with them directly but they dealt with them via Cranswick, this huge meat processor and producer. So they instructed Cranswick to have nothing to do with Hogwood. So that cut off that line of business. So what Hogwood had to do after that was only sell to smaller places and to really skanky people who didn't have high standards for pig welfare.
00:52:01
Speaker
So the farm's owner, Brian Hobble, he has struggled since 2017 and rightly so. He has tried on two previous occasions to apply to his local council for permission to use the site for housing instead of intensive pig rearing and it's been turned down which is quite heartbreaking Because I read the document that the latest application, not well, actually not the latest one, the the one before it. I haven't seen the latest one because I don't think it's even finished yet. But the the the one that had a decision made on it a couple of years ago.
00:52:41
Speaker
And it's heartbreaking when you see the reason that the council gave, you know, about houses, everything. spoiling the character of the lovely rural rural environment and they're happy to have an absolute hellhole big pig shed instead. And oh, just they weren't convinced that the farmer couldn't make a living anymore out of the business that he was running. They thought it could be turned around and all the rest of it. Just awful. It just shows you that the farmers definitely are people to target.
00:53:16
Speaker
and consumers when we're talking about animal rights, but the planning process is also one to have conversations with the people behind all that about the decisions they make and their value base and what they understand about what goes on in some of the places that they are giving consent to. and refusing to allow to change as well. So it's kind of inspired me to take a different tack with activism in a way. So anyway, I digress.
00:53:47
Speaker
So the story of Hogwood Farm and was also in a Channel 4 documentary, again, that you might have seen or heard of called oh The Truth About Vegans. I don't know how truthful it was, to be honest. And within that, but Brian Hobel actually gets his 15 minutes of fame on national television And he if it if it wasn't concerning animal abuse and killing, it would be funny, but he blames the Viva investigators for the failure of his pig farm rather than his own non-existent standards of animal welfare. So, yeah, that's... Just ridiculous. And he does say at one point that the something along the lines of the the pigs within his so-called care, you know, have a a better standard of living than most care homes.
00:54:41
Speaker
I don't know what the care homes are like in his area, but I'm hoping there's not older people just lying on bare concrete in their own faeces and things. But anyway, gosh, horrible, horrible and situation. Anyway, the thing that's interesting about it is that, you know, the people within Viva, they haven't had to break into this farm. They didn't have to sort of pose as employees.
00:55:11
Speaker
it The security was so slack that in Juliet Galatly, don't know how she pronounces her name, Juliet was able to walk in there and to comfort a dying sow and also help a wee runty piglet to drink from its mum.
00:55:29
Speaker
you know, and be filmed doing that and and nobody came and arrested or did anything. So, you know, people were able to walk in and out. So that as far as I know, there was no damage or anything like that. That's just what that place was like. Julia is featured in a video where she is in the woods. This is on YouTube. With the skeletal remains of loads of dead pigs. And I mean, at first I thought, hmm, that's a bit of a funny thing to do. And, you know, I could see how she was getting a bit emotional. And I thought, I wonder if this might cause people to switch off a bit or ridicule her in such a way or whatever. And just when I was feeling a little bit kind of cynical...
00:56:14
Speaker
I suddenly found myself, because she just then burst into an outrage and I was joining her. I was crying and it was more anger than anything else because she, of course she's right.
00:56:27
Speaker
She is absolutely right. And she does really find the words for it in a beautiful way about just how frustrating it is about people who are... to all intents and purposes on the animal side, animal lover, all the rest of it. And yet just this blind spot, you know, when it comes to certain animals and pigs being one of them and and the difference it would make if people just made that connection and all the rest of it. It is really frustrating. And so I was crying and I was raging along with her. and it made me think of that thing about vegan plus bacon and I just thought you know for anybody out there who is a vegan plus bacon person there is the face of your plus bacon there it is look it in the eyes and then go oh yeah oh yeah I'm vegan but plus bacon though hahaha yeah just do that and see how you feel Anyway, enough of me ranting.
00:57:31
Speaker
On the positive side, what I want to share, as well as the fact that, yes, this farm is not going to be a farm anymore at all.
00:57:43
Speaker
So, the rest of Brian Hobble's farm is 181.8 acres and it's arable. and woodland and it is staying and that's going to be what it is. So that is fantastic.
00:58:01
Speaker
So the bit of ground that we're talking about is only 6.7 acres. That's not a big field at all. So he did try and sell it by the way as well as trying to get housing, and you know, permission to put houses on it and he couldn't sell it.
00:58:15
Speaker
So I've got an idea for that bit of and I think he should offer it on a private basis, private sale to the vegan land movement, who could rewild it and they should do it. Private arrangement, you don't need lots of lawyers, this and that or anything. That would be fantastic because who else would want a site that's as small as that right in the middle of just like arable and woodland and all probably doesn't have access for... It'll take a lot to make it into a housing thing, which is why the housing application, if it gets turned down a third time, it's not really going to have many options.
00:58:53
Speaker
Vegan land movement, get on the case. I will donate happily towards the buying of that land just to keep it safe. and So that's the first thing. The second thing that i think is really positive is the Red Tractor Scheme did the right thing for once. And I also think that they and Tesco, who also did the right thing, should make a very large donation to Viva for doing their inspection work for them and for saving them from continuing to support a farm that doesn't meet their standards.
00:59:31
Speaker
you know Viva's done their job for them. I think Viva deserve a big donation for that. And lastly, I think it's just really heartening. This is a really good example of very effective undercover, peaceful undercover investigation and then effective public campaigning. So Julia and everybody at Viva have my absolute heartfelt gratitude for what they've put themselves through and what they've risked and all the hard work that they have done, you know, to bring this about. So I i just think they've done absolutely amazing. I absolutely love them for it.
01:00:16
Speaker
Yeah. And it's fantastic, like looking through the references in this story and just, you know, a little bit of Googling, you can see the chronology of of how it's all gone through from, you know, 2017, from when the first, the first exposes were done or the PR ah that's been done. And, and yeah, now we're getting to this stage where it's null and void and, you know, no one's interested in this farm. Um, and,
01:00:42
Speaker
like you say, Julie, terrible. There've been bits of red tape preventing it actually changing purpose and and being sold, but but really good to see that that's that's happening now. So that's that's fantastic news. I did just do some Googling of of Brian Hobbill and and Pretty much everything that comes up is about his farm in Oxhill, but he is also a member of the Oxhill Table Tennis Club. I'm very sad to report he did lose his last match. So never mind, you have our consolation there, Brian. Best of luck for your next game. But yeah, fantastic news. What a nice way to finish our pick of the week. section. Julie and Paul have expressed their opinions on the news stories this week, but listeners, we we really want to hear your opinions. It might be you found a news story that we haven't covered, or maybe one that we have covered you've got opinions on. And um social media wise, we're on Facebook, we're on Instagram, we're putting those stories out, particularly on Facebook. We tend to put links to each story each day of the week so you can see them more easily. So if you want to comment on them there, you can, but we love receiving emails too. We've got a mailbag show coming up. We've received several emails in the last week or so, which we've been delighted to read and we'll be commenting on in that mailbag show. so you're going to need our email address. Here it comes.
01:02:04
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.
01:02:23
Speaker
Go on, send us a message today. Enoughofthefalafel at gmail.com. Also, non-vegan related news here. at The, yeah you know, on the side panel of the BBC's website, and you get it on a lot of news websites, um reading about that, um you know, the Hogwood farm being sold, ah that BBC's top selection for the next story I might want to read would be the fact that um the TV show Balamori is back. So Miss Hooley and PC Plum are returning. So i was I was delighted to see that too. So that's more good news. Anyway, last story of the week. This is coming to us from newgreektv.com, but it's been reported in lots of places and many of you may have been experiencing not so pleasant feelings over the Easter holidays um as you know the glorification of the consumption of really young sheep, lambs, or or possibly other animal and other animal products.
Greek Activists Challenge Easter Traditions
01:03:25
Speaker
you know a lot of Easter eggs are ah riddled with dairy products, aren't they? And that just being norm and that being the way that
01:03:32
Speaker
people celebrate it being that time of the year, whether or not they're religious, it seems. Well, there's pushback. There's always pushback for these things. You as listeners may push back in conversations with people.
01:03:43
Speaker
And we've been delighted to find in Greece, Greek vegans protest against Easter lamb and goat slaughter. Members of the Panhellenic Federation nemesis held a symbolic protest in the center of Athens on Easter Sunday expressing their opposition to the mass slaughter of lambs in anticipation of Easter and if you follow a link in the show notes there they are boldly standing in the middle of a busy square with their placards Helpfully, somebody has translated them for me because my reading of Greek symbols is not very good. Apparently, they say slaughter is not love.
01:04:21
Speaker
The time has come to see animals as individuals. And there's a third one, which I don't know what that one said, but there we are. um According to the official announcement of the Federation, nemesis, the action was not a performance, but a protest against the normalization of violence. And they say, it was a silent cry against the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals in the name of a tradition. We wanted to remind you that Easter, like any celebration, does not have to be based on pain and blood. Lambs and goats, baby animals of four to five weeks old are ah slaughtered en masse with religious cover and social acceptance. Can love be based on death?
01:05:07
Speaker
Paul, kudos to these people. Fantastic, isn't it? What a bold move. Yeah, absolutely. It's a short article, this. I think you've covered a lot of it already, but I love some of the quotes here, you know, can love be very based on violence. It seemed it's quite a sort of philosophical quotes in here. So i really liked it. And I guess the main theme, as you've mentioned there, it's really about...
01:05:30
Speaker
the need for us again again you protest being positive hopefully although we didn't really i'd have loved to have some um reports on you know like passers-by you know in terms of impact that'd been really nice but we don't have that here but it is about that um importance to challenge traditions you know especially essentially religious traditions here um for what they really are and you know that odd thing you know, I always get perturbed by Mother's Day, you know, where you go out for a Mother's Day meal and eat loads of dead animals and you think, this is is nuts, let's just step back and look at what you're doing in here, it's it's madness. So that whole thing of food does form a lot of celebrations ultimately and, you know, I like food and I love eating food and i love celebrating but... when you're kind of going yeah let's kill something and then celebrate it it's just like really so yeah ah really good to kind of draw that attention to it uh might be a bit controversial uh greece certain parts of greece pretty heavily heavily religious a lot of religious um background there i think and it's important to jolt people's memory from well jolt them out of ah ah out of um
01:06:39
Speaker
normality to some degree to say hang on a minute this thing you're just doing without thinking like you know crossing the road or driving a car or something like that what does it actually mean what does it actually what does actually do and you have to get people to step out of that and go hang on a minute yeah maybe this is a bit flipping weird or bad so I think that's good. As I say, it'd be really nice to see how successful they measured that moving forwards. Yeah, absolutely. I really liked as well, Julie, the fact that we often hear the phrase, you know, as vegans, we're defending the voiceless. I really liked how the activists here were saying, well, they they do have voices. We're just choosing not to listen to those voices. They've really expressed themselves well in in the PR and the protests here, haven't they? Yes, absolutely. So I've been doing a wee bit of reading around this and it's been reported in a few different places.
01:07:30
Speaker
So and I like to see the different articles on this protest and I particularly... was interested didn't enjoy reading the comments as you can imagine because some of them were very pro-meat but I was very interested in the carnists what they had to say in response to all this and it is amazing the stuff they come out with isn't it I mean one i was gonna say one carnist there wasn't just one there was quite a few of them I noticed um in different places were kind of
01:08:02
Speaker
saying words to the effect or writing words to the effect of, oh no, here we go again. The vegans at Easter, they're back again. They do this every year. la la la la, la you know, whatever.
01:08:16
Speaker
And i didn't, I have responded to one of the comments, but it just, it stuns me that they're not making the connection that, but hang on a minute, it's because you're doing the same darn thing every single year.
01:08:32
Speaker
You know, I'm sure these individuals would rather spend their ah holiday period doing something very different. But it's because you keep doing your meat stuff the whole time and especially at Easter that these things are happening. So, you know, if you want it to stop, you know what to do.
01:08:54
Speaker
I wasn't sure what the idea behind the outfits or sort of lack of them was in the protesters. Was it just to not detract from their message that they're kind of almost, could be seen as almost, well, the the guys have only got shorts on and that's it. And a Anna, the the lady...
01:09:16
Speaker
is wearing a sort of bran shorts that are kind of skin colour. So but at first glance and in the distance, you know, she she comes across as quite naked, but maybe that's the kind of vulnerability or something. She's of lambs, she's echoing. I don't know. Nobody, didn't see any comments about that, which I was pleased about so i was expecting some smarty pants to write something...
01:09:42
Speaker
sort of derogatory about that but i ah ah ah ah that the symbolism of that has gone by me I'm afraid but I just like you I loved what they were saying I loved that message and an easter without blood and pain makes perfect sense to me I'll say that much and I even enjoy the name of their organisation because I use the word nemesis or I hear it, I don't really use it, but hear it used in a slightly different manner from its true meaning and I was unaware, ignoramus I am, I won't deny it,
01:10:16
Speaker
that Nemesis is the goddess of retribution and vengeance and she has a particular line in punishing arrogance. So yeah, I just think they've got a great name.
01:10:28
Speaker
So absolute shout out to them and if even one person just thinks again and does a bit of research or does a bit joining the dots or does a bit of something and then thinks,
01:10:44
Speaker
even if it's just they don't want to eat lamb anymore or they're not going to do meat anymore and that leads on to more and more compassionate choices, then that whole thing has been a success. I mean, i i agree with you. And i think for me that the more likely outcome, positive outcome, is that that you've got three people there who are are doing a protest and the number of people who are animal allies and are vegan and animal rights advocates...
01:11:17
Speaker
like that will see that and feel empowered themselves. And actually we've seen this week that change can happen by people protesting. I don't know whether three people stood in the middle of a square is going to make any systemic change happen, but though the coverage coverage might. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:11:38
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And that the the instances where we have seen this week change happening, that's because there's been a larger group of people applying pressure over and over again. And actually, where does that large group of people come from? it comes from people being inspired by seeing other people doing stuff. So I think this can be be part of a a big wave that we're seeing across the world anyway. But so particularly, I imagine any Greek vegan seeing that would have been like, way fantastic, up the revolution and redouble their efforts. And yeah, like you say, Julie, Nemesis, goodness me, known for representing balance, justice, and vengeance. Her name translates to she who distributes or deals out.
01:12:20
Speaker
Wow. Don't mess with Nemesis. Outrageous. That's fantastic. ah Thank you for that one, both. We've reached the end of our stories. At this point in the show,
01:12:30
Speaker
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01:13:04
Speaker
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Speaker
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01:13:40
Speaker
Thank you everyone for listening. The next Enough of the Falafel episode coming out will be a vegan talk one and it's available from the 16th of April. It will feature Ant, Kate and Ishani discussing activist burnout and proactive wellbeing for animal advocates.
01:14:03
Speaker
Anyway, that's ah enough of the Falafel for this episode. Thanks to Anthony and Julie for all your contributions. Thanks again, everyone, for listening. I've been Paul, and you've been listening to Vegan Week from the Enough of the Falafel Collective.
01:14:22
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.
01:14:32
Speaker
We use music and special effects by zapsplap.com. 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.
01:15:03
Speaker
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01:15:24
Speaker
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