Voices for Animals
A series of interviews with those who speak out loud and clear for all who are born non-human
Trade Secret
is a powerful exposé of the polar bear fur trade between Canada and China.
Respected South African environmental journalist Dr Adam Cruise spent six years contributing to the footage in this film. Now it has been premiered at the Climate Film Festival in New York and Dr Cruise shares more of the story with Animal Voice.
Animal Voice:
Welcome home! You and your fellow filmmakers dedicated six years to capturing footage for this exposé. The film reveals the shocking slaughter of polar bears in Canada, with around 800 – 1,000 bear skins exported annually to China at USD 80,000 each. How utterly horrifying, all the more so because polar bears are listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Adam Cruise:
The film uses stark and arresting visuals, such as close-ups of polar bears and auction footage, along with a powerful score, to highlight the tragic contrast between the bears' wild beauty and their exploitation as a commodity. Reviewers so far have describe the film as moving and emotional.
Our documentary is notable for an organic plot twist that uncovers how some of the very organisations and governments entrusted with protecting the species are entangled in its continued commercialisation. This revelation will come as a genuine shock to many viewers.
Critics and audiences agree that Trade Secret is an important and essential film that needs to be seen by a wide audience. It raises critical questions about the nature of conservation and motivates viewers to reconsider how they view the world of wildlife protection.
We won the overall award at the festival for best documentary as well as the Audience Choice Award.
Animal Voice:
Wow! Congratulations! When can we see it?
Adam Cruise:
We are hoping to have this film picked up by the big streamers such as Netflix. We are also thinking of doing an African premiere of the film in Cape Town in November. For now, the trailer can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd1uLSEqgCs
Animal Voice:
In your doctoral thesis, you argue that humanity must breach the “insuperable line” (as coined by the 18th Century philosopher and jurist Jeremy Bentham) that we have drawn to separate ourselves from other animals.
Adam Cruise:
Yes, we must dismantle this yawning chasm – this abyss between ourselves and all other living beings. We must shift away from our parasitic exploitation of animals. This begins by taking a sober look at ourselves. We don’t have the memory of an elephant, the scenting abilities of a dog, or the navigational genius of birds. These are forms of intelligence beyond our own. Humans do indeed have extraordinary capabilities – but uniquely among species, we also have the power to destroy and desecrate.
Animal Voice:
Would you say the “insuperable line” not only separates us from all other animals, but also fundamentally separates those of us who believe animals have intrinsic value and deserve to live free from human harm, and those of us who view animals merely as commodities for exploitation – or as vermin, if deemed useless?
Adam Cruise:
It sure does. Non-human animals should not be valued solely for their benefit to humans or ecosystems but should be acknowledged as beings with their own interests, lives, and capacity for flourishing. Conservation that focuses only on “sustainable use” or “population management” reduces other animals to numbers, disregarding individual welfare. Recognising intrinsic value hifts the ethic to one that respects other animals as ends in themselves. Approaches that justify killing elephants, lions, or rhinos for economic gain (e.g., trophy hunting, ivory trade, culling) fail ethically because they overlook the intrinsic worth of each individual animal. Policies that take intrinsic value seriously would prohibit exploitative practices. Instead policies would favour co-existence, non-lethal management, and respect for animal autonomy.
Animal Voice:
A case in point is the ongoing conflict between baboons and several communities in South Africa’s Western Cape. According to baboon antagonists, the baboons are the intruders and aggressors.
Driven from her habitat
Struck on the face by a paintball
Tormented by an outrageously big collar
Adam Cruise:
The truth is quite the opposite. We have driven baboons from their natural homes and food sources – the equivalent of forced removals, to borrow the language of apartheid.
Even the language we use against non-humans reflects dominance and subjugation.
Think about it…
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“Stock” or “livestock” – Reduces sentient beings to economic units, implying they exist primarily for human profit.
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“Game” – Frames wild animals as targets for sport rather than as autonomous creatures.
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“Pest” – Justifies lethal control of animals deemed inconvenient, erasing moral consideration.
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“Harvest” – Often used in hunting or culling contexts, implying animals are crops rather than lives.
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“Problem animal” – Labels creatures in conflict situations (like elephants near farms) as obstacles rather than sentient beings.
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“Resource” – Positions wildlife as commodities for human use, whether in tourism, meat, or trophies.
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“Population” (in ecological management) – Focuses on numbers instead of individual welfare, enabling mass culling or sterilisation.
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“Vermin” – Dehumanises or delegitimises existence, historically used to justify extermination.
These terms shape perception and policy, making ethical transgressions against animals seem normal or necessary. By changing language to emphasize individuality and sentience, humans can cultivate a conservation ethic that respects animals’ intrinsic value.
We are the ones who created this antagonism because we want to take more and more – and more – of the environment for ourselves.
Animal Voice:
In her compelling book The Lion’s Historian, Stellenbosch University historian Professor Sandra Swart argues that human history is incomplete without acknowledging the role of non-humans. She reminds us that our shared history with baboons includes eons of good neighbourliness. For example, they guided us to edible roots and tubers; they were our sentinels. Only with the advent of farming, and the easy pickings it provided, did this neighbourliness sour. She suggests our prevailing attitudes toward baboons would likely shift overnight if they were suddenly discovered to hold a secret vital to human survival.
What are your thoughts?
Adam Cruise:
As Professor Swart notes, if we are ever to bridge this “insuperable line,” we must “fathom the dark ecology of the human heart” and recognise that animals are profoundly sentient beings with cultures of their own, just like ourselves.
Animal Voice:
At the Climate Film Festival, was there any sense of progress – any softening of the “dark ecology of the human heart” toward the wild non-humans who share this journey of life with us?
Adam Cruise:
Almost every film and every person there believes in recognising the intrinsic values of non-human animals, and champions their full protection amid this burning planet of ours.
Animal Voice:
So do you believe there is hope?
Adam Cruise:
Yes, I do. Consider the global ban on the ivory trade…
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In recent years, I was part of several groups and individuals that successfully lobbied several countries to strengthen domestic ivory bans to curb poaching and illegal trade. The UK’s Ivory Act 2018 (enforced in 2022) prohibits almost all ivory sales, while China ended its domestic ivory market in 2017. Hong Kong followed in 2022, banning commercial trade including pre-1990 ivory. In the US, federal law restricts ivory sales, though some state-level measures, such as New York’s stricter ban, have faced legal challenges. These measures collectively reduced demand and protect elephant populations globally.
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By documenting the capture methods of baby elephants for export to China, publicising the welfare abuses, and lobbying international regulators, my evidence and articles in National Geographic and The Guardian – of calves being forcibly separated from their mothers and the high mortality rates that followed – l helped galvanise public and political pressure. Ultimately all of the above contributed to CITES restrictions and Zimbabwe’s suspension of live elephant exports, effectively halting the trade.
These victories prove that sustained pressure works. Momentum is building, and the pressure must continue.
Animal Voice:
We thank you.
WCS Applauds Historic, Groundbreaking US Ivory Ban
Cristian Samper with poached elephant - credit A Nelson
Trophy Hunting in the Cross Hairs
In 2023, the United Nations elevated animal rights into the human rights domain for the first time in history.
General Comment No. 26: Article 35 provides authoritative guidance whereby all 196 member states must align their laws, policies, and practices with the legally binding UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Included in the Rights of the Child is the explicit obligation to protect children from all forms of physical and psychological violence – including exposure to domestic violence and cruelty to animals. Practices such as trophy hunting are now under direct scrutiny.
This landmark decision ensures that countless children will no longer be socialised into believing violence is “normal,” and instead will grow up learning that compassion and empathy for all living beings must be preserved.
Video link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2pdSKv8k8k
NB: Animal Voice has drawn Minister of the Environment Dr Dion George’s attention to GC26:35.
Here, Dr Adam Cruise gives his eyewitness account of a trophy hunt in Northern KwaZulu Natal:
“A child was present – about 16 years old. His father proudly explained that his son had been shooting animals since he was three.
This is how it unfolded… It wasn’t about tracking or stalking. Instead, the Austrian tourist and his son booked into a 5-star lodge overnight. The next morning, after breakfast, dressed in safari gear (and ironically wearing Crocs), they joined others on a safari vehicle, guns fitted with silencers and telescopes.
“Suddenly, the tourist spotted his prize: a magnificent antelope with massive horns, browsing peacefully. He signalled for the vehicle to stop. He stubbed out his cigarette, took aim, and fired. The shot wasn’t clean. The buck fled, leaving a trail of blood.
“Trackers followed and returned 20 minutes later, dragging the dead animal back, blood seeping out from its mouth and nose. They wiped the blood off its face, then propped its head on a mound of sand, and staged photographs. For me, it was a grotesque celebration of murder.”
“GC26:35 is a monumental step forward in the UN’s Child Rights framework. Recreational hunters are now firmly in the spotlight for a complete ban.”
Footnote
Adam Cruise’s doctoral thesis, “Delinearizing the insuperable line: deconstruction as an animal ethic”, calls for a fundamental transformation in how humans perceive and relate to the natural world – shifting from parasitic exploitation to genuine symbiosis.
Note from Editor
Does this man misguide his 12-year-old daughter in her celebration of trophy hunting? You decide…
In a ‘first’ for the African continent, students at the University of the Western Cape now have the opportunity to study animal rights at LLM (Master’s) level, in a milestone achievement towards justice for animals. Soon, there will also be a dedicated (peer-reviewed) Animal Law and Welfare book – a first for the African continent.
Developer and lecturer of the course, attorney Amy P Wilson, made history in 2018 when she became the first South African to graduate with a Master’s degree in Animal Law from the prestigious Lewis and Clark Law School in the USA. Today, as the executive director of the NGO Animal Law Reform South Africa, her influence for reinforced legal protection for animals is making waves – most recently for penguins.
Here Amy talks to Animal Voice about gaining some sort of justice for Africa’s animal kingdom.
Animal Voice:
Would you agree that in terms of the law, we need to remove the legal status of animals as our ‘property’ (which makes them vulnerable to wide-scale abuse, exploitation and harm) and give them legal recognition as beings with intrinsic value in their own right, deserving of a respectful and dignified association with us, as humans?
Animal Voice:
The world has come a long way since the time of Henry Salt, the British social reformer who is credited with having written the first book in this field, titled Animals’ Rights, back in 1892. Yet, when I consider that HET has fought vigorously against one of the epitomes of animal abuse – namely battery cages for laying hens – for all of 35 years, and yet more than 25 million laying hens are still incarcerated in South Africa in the most horrendous misery, one can’t help but feel stymied, to say the least!
Amy P Wilson:
I think the issue of ‘animal rights’, is one that many people are confused about. Our legal system is structured in such a way that one is either a legal subject (or rights holder), or a legal object (or a thing or property). As long as animals and Nature fall into the category of the latter, they will always receive less legal recognition and protection and be exploited. In my view, in order to align with what many of us already know and understand – namely that animals are sentient beings with intrinsic value – they need to receive legal recognition as rights holders. Of course, this comes with many nuances, and considerations, but until such fundamental status changes, it will be very difficult to give animals the protections they need and deserve.
Another important recognition is that human rights and animal rights are fundamentally and inextricably interconnected and intertwined and there are many opportunities to build on these synergies to ensure flourishing for all.
Amy P Wilson:
I am sure that it can feel that way after working on these issues for so long, and seeing what feels like such little progress. But what we are trying to do in some cases is completely overhaul the foundations of our society – which takes time.
In the span of only 10 years, we have seen the highest court in the country acknowledge that animals are sentient beings with intrinsic value, we have seen several courts recognise that human rights and animal protection are fundamentally linked, we have had animal law introduced into two different universities in the country, including at a master’s level for the first time ever. This doesn’t even include all the exciting things that have happened internationally – in the animal rights or rights of Nature movement. As Nelson Mandela said: “[t]here is no easy walk to freedom” and while it may be long and difficult, we must take it step by step.
Animal Voice:
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has recognized the harmful and lifelong impact on young lives of witnessing violence. In 2023, the CRC decreed that no child may be exposed to violence, including violence against an animal (GC26: See Section G paragraph 35). Please give us your thoughts on this historic development.
Amy P Wilson:
Violence – whether it is against animals or humans, is an atrocity that must be eliminated from our society. South Africa is one of the most violent countries in the world, yet our own Constitution recognises a specific right to be free from violence. This international development is critical because it reaffirms that we need to take every possible measure to move towards non-violence and that the protection of human (children) and animal interests (both vulnerable groups) are interlinked.
Animal Voice:
In support of GC26:35, The Humane Education Trust has developed a module for South Africa’s senior phase learners that is somewhat different from our modules for younger learners. It focuses rather on the psychological and lifelong harm done to ourselves, as humans, when we experience or participate in abuse and violence, including violence against animals. The module is designed so that learners understand why GC26:35 squarely places animal welfare into the domain of child rights. HET feels very privileged indeed that South Africa’s Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Stellenbosch, Professor Jonathan Jansen, deems our module to be worthy of development, and is dedicating time to assisting us achieve this.
Amy P Wilson:
Congratulations on this very exciting development! It is important work to link the protection of animals and children, including situating it within children’s rights, as well as to bring these issues into education early on. More work needs to be done in South Africa to understand the links between violence against animals and other vulnerable groups, as well as using existing human rights to advocate for animal protection. There is some important research investigating this relating to slaughterhouse workers in the country, as well as in the home through situations of domestic violence. When we understand these links more clearly, we can advocate in a more holistic way so that the rights of all are ensured.
Animal Voice:
In terms of GC26:35, one of the concluding observations of the UNCRC was a call for a ban on persons under the age of 18 participating in trophy hunting. Is this something Animal Law Reform South Africa will take up?
Amy P Wilson:
ALRSA has done significant work relating to trophy hunting, including advocating for certain bans and stronger regulations, but we haven’t yet focused on these issues in the context of children specifically. While we have also referenced the resolution in submissions made to government to highlight the links, I think there is a strong argument that could be made in favour of advocating for a ban on minors participating particularly because of our own Constitution’s commitment to freedom from violence.
And as for the hens – we absolutely need to work towards a legislative ban on battery cages, something we are actively working on. In the meantime, we have been working with corporations to go cage free (specifically free-range), and have had seven commitments in the last few months alone. While these are incremental steps, they all get us closer to the end goal – freedom, justice and flourishing for ALL!
Animal Voice:
South Africa is planning a significant move towards fish farming. This coincides with a study just released by the Welfare Footprint Institute that rainbow trout, for example, endure an average of 10 minutes of intense and excruciating pain during air asphyxia. https://www.earth.com/news/fish-like-rainbow-trout-suffer-extreme-pain-when-killed-by-air/
Because fishes do not have facial expressions or make sounds that we recognise as evidencing emotion of any kind, they need legal protection desperately. Please give us your thoughts on the way forward, in legal terms, for fishes.
Amy P Wilson:
I absolutely agree that fishes and aquatic beings receive less attention and protection than other animals, as I have written before, and even more recently and also why I thought to create World Aquatic Animal Day (now a global movement) together with Dean Kathy Hessler). I have recently been appointed as the chairperson of the Task Team on Aquaculture and Fisheries as part of the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment’s Wildlife Wellbeing Forum. In that role, I intend to do my utmost best to ensure that the wellbeing and welfare of these animals is included and promoted in law and policy. I am also trying to raise awareness on the harms of fishing and aquaculture in the courses I teach and the books I am working on. We need to actively work on breaking down our own biases and misconceptions about these animals and ensure they receive the protection they deserve.
Animal Voice:
Animal Voice thanks you for the insights you give us, the hope you generate, and for the immense endeavour you are putting into the creation of a better, kinder world.
SOME OF AMY P. WILSON'S RECENT WORK
To follow her latest work, check out Amy’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/amypwilson/
Below are some selected recent efforts with links:
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Harvard Animal Law Program admitted as amicus in ALRSA’s and others current litigation to free the elephants from the Johannesburg Zoo (September 2025) [https://iol.co.za/news/crime-and-courts/2025-09-07-harvard-academics-join-call-for-the-release-of-elephants-from-johannesburg-zoo/]
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Presentations at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Summer School on Aquaculture as part of the cohort from the George Washington University (August 2025) [https://www.law.gwu.edu/gws-animal-law-program-presents-oxford-centre-animal-ethics] and [https://mediarelations.gwu.edu/transatlantic-partnership-boost-gw-law-and-oxford-summer-school-animal-ethics]
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ALRSA’s Submission on the Draft Regulations for the Exportation of Animals by Sea (August 2025) [https://www.animallawreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/ALRSA-Submission-Draft-Live-Export-Regulations-25-August-2025.pdf]
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Author of Op-ed on Aquaculture (July 2025) [https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/opinion/wl-op-ed-hook-line-sinker-the-real-truth-about-farmed-fish/]
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Author of two chapters in recently published Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Animal Law (July 2025) [https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/elgar-concise-encyclopedia-of-animal-law-9781803923666.html]
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Member of Organising committee and presentation at recent AVA Africa Summit in Nairobi Kenya (July 2025) [https://www.avasummit.com/africa2025]
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Animal Law Project’s Submission on Constitutional Amendment Proposal (May 2025) [https://www.animallawreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ALP-Joint-Constitutional-Review-Committee-Constitutional-Submission-30-May-2025.pdf]
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Organiser and presenter at the Animal Law Project’s Colloquium (May 2025)
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Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1705574686704915/
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Colloquium Documents [https://drive.google.com/drive/u/3/folders/1qCJp-_0yy5k8f477-ioFOuMMbwnP-BrS]
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Colloquium Videos [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL4s01D2nmxLeR5BjOPAAAQ/featured]
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Co-author of Op-Ed on Egg Industry: relating to caged hens (May 2025) [https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-05-22-rising-concern-over-cruelty-in-sa-food-production/]
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Developer and Lecturer of the First Animal Law & Rights Course at Master’s Level in Africa at UWC (July 2025 – December 2025) [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/global-environmental-law-centre-gelc_gelc-llm-in-animal-rights-activity-7338918706598617092-QJK3/]
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Co-developer and Co-lecturer Foundations of Animal Law Course 2025 at the University of Johannesburg (recently completed, May – September 2025): https://www.uj.ac.za/university-courses/short-learning-programme-in-animal-law/
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ALRSA’s Penguin Statement – intervention as an amicus (March 2025) [https://www.animallawreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ALRSA-Penguin-Case-Statement.pdf]
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Appointment as Chairperson of two task teams of the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries & Environments’ Wildlife Wellbeing Forum:
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Aquaculture & Fisheries
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Policies & Legislation
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ALRSA’s Submission on Rabbit Meat Regulations (May 2025) [https://www.animallawreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ALRSA-Submission-Draft-Rabbit-Meat-Regulations.pdf]
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ALRSA’s Submission on the Draft National Coastal Management Programme (May 2025) [https://www.animallawreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ALRSA-Submission-Draft-National-Coastal-Management-Programme-2025.pdf]
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ALRSA’s Submission on Proposals For Consideration During the 20th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade In Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) (March 2025) [https://www.animallawreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ALRSA-Submission-CITES-Consultation.pdf]
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ALRSA’s Submission on the Draft National Elephant Heritage Strategy 2024-2034 (March 2025) [https://www.animallawreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ALRSA-Submission-Draft-National-Elephant-Heritage-Strategy.pdf]
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ALRSA’s Submission on the Draft Regulations Relating to Meat Analogues Intended for Sale in the Republic of South Africa Made by the Minister for Agriculture in terms of Section 15 of the Agricultural Product Standards Act 119 of 1990 (February 2025) [https://www.animallawreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ALRSA-Submission-Draft-Regulation-for-Meat-Analogues.pdf]
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ALRSA’s Submission on the Consultation on the Intention to Set and Allocate Annual Export Quotas for Elephant, Black Rhinoceros and Leopard Hunting Trophies for the 2024 and 2025 Calendar Years (5 February 2025) [https://www.animallawreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ALRSA-Submission-Export-Quotas-on-Elephant-Black-Rhino-and-Leopard-for-2024-and-2025.pdf]
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Eggsposure Campaign (February 2025) [https://www.eggsposure.org/]
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Co-editing, and authoring first peer-reviewed Animal Law book in Africa (Animal Law and Welfare and South Africa) to be published by Taylor & Francis/CRC Press in 2026
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Co-author of first book on Aquatic Animal Law, Science & Policy Book to be published by Carolina Academic Press in 2027
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Upcoming Course on Constitutional Law and Nature at UWC: [https://law.uwc.ac.za/programme/constitutional-law-and-nature/]
Animal Voice alerts South Africa’s Minister of Environment, Dr Dion George, to the international call for UNICEF to protect children from the harmful psychological effects of violence against animals.
Trophy hunting, bull-fighting, and the shooting of homeless dogs as a method of stray control, are among the global issues under the spotlight to which children may not be exposed.
Children’s exposure to violence inflicted on animals takes place in many forms. The United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) which is mandated by the UN General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's rights, is being called upon to be part of an international call to stop the violence. This follows exhaustive scientific evidence of the harmful impact of violence, including violence against animals, on the psychological development of children. See GC26
Now, Malcolm Plant, CEO of the international NGO European Link Coalition, has published an Open Letter to UNICEF Headquarters calling for official recognition of its obligation to safeguard children from exposure to violence against animals. UNICEF has branches in 193 countries globally.
See CEO Malcolm Plant’s Open Letter HERE See Teesside University RESEARCH
The Three R’s of Farming
Words to live by…
While the proverbial 3 R’s of Education – Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic – may be old-fashioned in today’s high-tech, texting world, when it comes to farming and animal welfare, the 3 R’s have recently taken on a whole new meaning. According to American farmer Mollie Engelhart in her Opinion piece for The Epoch Times on 3rd September 2025, the 3R’s, today, stand for the very fundamentals of farming – Reciprocity, Reverence, and Regeneration.
Formerly a vegan chef in Loss Angeles before turning to laying hen and pig farming, Mollie Engelhart tells us: “I believed back then that animal welfare was the hill to die on”.
“But,” she goes on, “Today I know: it’s not the only issue. What really matters is aligning
with natural law – what I call God’s design.” And what gets us closer to getting there, she
says, “is a system rooted in Reciprocity, Reverence, and Regeneration.”
Engelhart was prompted to write the opinion piece as commentary on the current dispute in which the US Department of Justice is suing the state of California over its animal welfare regulations which disallow battery cages for laying hens. She says that legal quibbling over cage sizes and space allowances for hens should give way to “what really matters!”
Egg prices are up, she says, not because of animal welfare regulations (as argued by the egg industry) but because just a handful of companies control roughly half of US egg production. “Centralisation and corporate greed are the real culprits.”
“I also believe in treating animals with respect. They are sentient beings. If we’re going to
raise them for food – eggs, meat, or otherwise – we carry the responsibility to do so with
care. I used to think animal welfare was the only thing that mattered. But now I see it’s just one part of a bigger system – a living, breathing network of human life, animal life, soil life, and ecological life. That’s the balance we should be aiming for – not arbitrary cage sizes or corporate loopholes.”
Engelhart urges consumers to support farms that prioritise animal welfare, land health, and food integrity. “We each have to ask: Is the way I grocery shop creating the food system I want to see... because every food purchase we make is either investing in the future of farming – or reinforcing the system we claim to oppose.”
Read the full article here: https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/the-epa-versus-california-dont-cage-the-chickens-or-the-farmers-5909211?utm_source=ref_share&src_src=ref_share&utm_campaign=op-cc&src_cmp=op-cc
Note from Editor
Some 26 million laying hens are confined in battery cages in South Africa. Please look down at your feet… this is the space allowance of a laying hen – for her life on this earth. Your buying power can change this. Buy cage-free!
A Global Shift in Child Protection
We all know that domestic violence remains a grave and persistent issue in South Africa, and with the annual Sixteen Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children approaching, public awareness will once again shine a spotlight on this scourge.
But domestic violence is an international issue and compelling research from Teesside University in the United Kingdom suggests that without recognising animal welfare as part of the solution, efforts to curb domestic violence will likely continue to fall short.
In this edition of Voices of Animals series, we’re privileged to speak to Malcolm Plant, who conducted the research at Teesside University and led the project Making the Link.
He is also founder and director of the European Link Coalition and the World Link Coalition.
Malcolm and his team’s ground-breaking research at Teesside University led to an historical ‘first’ whereby the
United Nations now includes animal welfare in the Child Rights domain.
Animal Voice:
Malcolm, do you think the concept of The Link has been too limited? Many people, if not most, interpret The Link simply to mean that people who abuse animals will likely go on to abuse women and children, or that harming a pet is a red flag signalling danger for others in the household. While this holds absolutely true, it is perhaps an over-simplification. The roots of the The Link are more entangled, and run far deeper than has been previously understood.
Malcolm Plant:
For many decades there has been significant & resilient research showing not only how exposure to violence against animals can negatively affect the psychopathology of a child, but also that one of the possible effects, a normalisation of violence, can be applied against other sentient beings including humans.
Serial murderers for example often present a history of animal abuse. Almost without exception this research had been conducted in western societies & almost exclusively in the USA. We simply re-dimensionalised this onto a global scale.
Thus, domestic violence does not exist in isolation and is not separate from other forms of violence. Our research at Teesside University showed that exposure of young minds to violence of any kind, alters the brain’s development with consequential life-long implications for mental health issues. In other words, animal abuse harms the psychological development of the child.
Animal Voice:
Internationally, we do seem to have a plethora of anxiety-related mental-health issues in young people today. Do you think we can trace some of it back to exposure to violence in early life?
Malcolm Plant:
Definitely. Children are born with empathy. However, repeated exposure of the young brain to violence, whether domestic, societal or against an animal, changes the development of that young brain. Take the trauma-bond for instance. Say a man is abusing a dog. A child experiences fear, trauma, then relief (when the violence stops), and often gratitude towards the person who stops the violence (ever if this is the same person who initiated the violence in the first place), when he later pays attention or gives affection to the child.
Animal Voice:
Please give us your thoughts on empathy in childhood development.
Malcolm Plant:
Because our pets are generally regarded as property with no intrinsic value of their own, they are easy to abuse with impunity, and very often are the first to bear the brunt of our anger and frustration. And this, in itself, causes a disruption to the psychological development of children.
Science confirms that children are born with empathy and, if given the chance, they are fascinated by, and feel a kinship with all other sentient animals.
However, elements of this innate empathy can gradually erode when children witness abuse. A process of desensitisation and habituation takes place. Affective empathy erodes. Violence becomes normalised and accepted as a part of life, and ultimately, participation in violence follows. It is perhaps no coincidence that in nations where significant societal violence against animals can be identified, levels of domestic violence are also high.
Our research at Teesside University focused on Eastern Europe. We found, for example, that a staggering 86.3 percent of teenagers in Romania, thought it was ‘normal’ to see homeless animals being abused or killed. On completion of our research we took our findings to the UN and, as you know, the Committee on the Rights of the Child took them very seriously.
Social science tells us that mental health issues in adulthood often begin here...
Animal Voice:
Yes indeed, your Teesside data convinced the UN to decree that no child may be exposed to violence, be it domestic, societal or against an animal.
We dread to think what the shooting of stray dogs in the streets of Morocco and Tunisia at night has done to the psychological well-being of the children in these countries; or the mass ritual killing of buffalo in Nepal; or the mass ritual slaughter of dolphins in the Faroe Islands.
In South Africa the UN Committee is concerned about children being taken trophy hunting, thus conditioning a child to accept the killing of a fellow sentient being as normal.
Malcolm Plant:
Yes, as explained earlier, this can impact on a child’s affective empathy and introduce a normalisation of violence. The World Link Coalition is fighting tooth and nail against atrocities like these, as much for the sake of the child as for the animal.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has also identified the negative impact of exposing children to bull-fighting, trophy hunting, and a host of other atrocities against animals to which children are exposed.
Animal Voice:
UNICEF in South Africa has its own website devoted to violence against children.
The role of animal welfare in the Rights of the Child needs to be included.
Malcolm Plant:
Very much so. The psychological harm to children that we are talking about, is at a fundamental level of child development and is potentially irreversible. The UN has quite literally elevated animal well-being into the human rights domain for the first time in history, placing an obligation on every member nation to bring an end to violence in all its manifestations. UNICEF is mandated to support the ‘legally binding’ UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which now has Article 19 specifically defined in General Comment 26 to include ‘protection of children from experiencing violence inflicted on animals’.
We need to elevate awareness of The Link to a national and cultural concern everywhere.
Animal Voice:
Thank you for your steadfast and ground-breaking role in steering the world to include animal welfare in our understanding of human ethics, and what we owe our children.
NOTES
For research on the psychological damage done to children through exposure to violence, see:
Traumatized Witnesses: Review of Childhood Exposure to Animal Cruelty
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886260516659655?rss=1
On the savannas of Africa’s vanishing wilderness, the world’s tallest mammal is being quietly driven towards extinction – not by habitat loss alone, but by the insatiable appetite for trophies that turn gentle giants into rugs and flywhisks — by Don Pinnock.
Animal abuse robs our children of their psychological well-being, and their heritage too. The article below appeared in the Daily Maverick in July 2025.
Today’s Millennials, Gen Zs, and Generation Alphas may not fully appreciate just how compelling the name Chickens’ Lib once was.
Back in the late 1980s and 1990s, Women’s Lib still felt current — it hadn’t yet faded into history as it seems to have now.
The world has moved on in a multitude of ways… but not for farmed animals.
Their liberation remains elusive, perhaps awaiting the momentum of Generation Vegan.
Animal Voice spoke to Clare Druce, who was among the first in the United Kingdom to expose the intolerably cruel conditions imposed on laying hens on factory farms. Back in the 1980’s, her voice was heard worldwide and was an inspiration to Louise van der Merwe who had started a protest group named Humanity for Hens (later to become Animal Voice), calling for justice for hens in battery cages in South Africa. At the time, there was not a single free-range egg on the market anywhere.
Now, three decades later, we have reached out to Clare and invited her to reflect on the early days; on the little hen she named Felicity; on how Chickens’ Lib played a pivotal role in achieving the 2012 ban on traditional battery cages in the UK; on what she thinks about the so-called ‘furnished’ or ‘enriched’ battery cages that are now used in the UK.
This article is written in honour of Felicity — and all her kind.
Animal Voice:
In South Africa, despite immense efforts, we have failed, so far, to secure a phase-out of battery cages for laying hens. The poultry industry in South Africa is determined to hold on to battery cages until 2039 or beyond. What, in your view, ultimately helped bring about the ban on conventional battery cages in the UK?
Clare Druce:
I've no doubt that the ban in the United Kingdom came about because of increasing disgust about the cruelty of the highly restrictive 'traditional' cages for laying hens, such as continue to be legal in South Africa and in many other countries worldwide. It's no exaggeration to describe the birds as being crammed into these cages. Sadly, however, the UK’s 2012 law, while placing a ban on traditional battery cages, nevertheless permits the ‘enriched cage.’
Animal Voice:
Please explain what an enriched cage entails.
Clare Druce:
Enriched cages can hold any number of hens as long as each bird is given extra cage space, roughly the size of a postcard, in addition to the pitiful space previously allowed per battery hen.
The 'enrichment' consists of a perch, an absurdly inadequate scratching area, and rows of plastic curtains behind which the hens may choose to lay their eggs. So laying hens in the UK still live lives of total deprivation, never to know surroundings where they can exhibit any of their natural behavioural patterns. I have been shown round a huge shed of these 'enriched' cages and for a moment I thought I was in a 'traditional' battery hen shed.
I have no doubt that unrelenting pressure must be brought on Governments worldwide, but we must beware of dangerous loopholes. The enriched cage in the UK has prolonged the agony of millions of laying hens.
Animal Voice:
In your compelling book Chickens’ Lib, you mention that when battery cages were first proposed as part of post-war ‘progress’, the UK Farmers Weekly ran an article on 2 April 1948 titled ‘Science Gone Mad’.
Clare Druce:
Yes, and in many ways madness still prevails, and it's global. But, thank goodness awareness, especially among the young, is far more widespread. Quite apart from the shocking cruelty which goes hand in hand with factory farming, there are serious dangers to human health involved. The reckless use of antibiotics on factory farms, often involving drugs vital in human health, is very disturbing, and must be opposed.
Clare Druce’s book Chickens’ Lib is a fascinating historical and photographic account of activism for hens, in an era gone by.
Animal Voice:
Your book offers an extraordinary look into the sheer dedication behind your campaign. You and your team staged demonstrations inside the Ministry of Agriculture, put people in cages in Parliament Square, were thrown out of Wakefield Cathedral by the Provost, and were even visited several times by the police. You rescued and re-homed dozens of hens, including one special hen: Felicity. She achieved international attention.
Clare Druce:
Yes. Just six months after arriving at our home, terrified and almost featherless, Felicity was on her way to stardom! We had taken a photo of her upon arrival — she looked pitiful, denuded, and deeply traumatised.
Six months later, we took another photo: this time, Felicity was striding confidently across the lawn, fully feathered and utterly transformed.
We used those images to create what I still believe is one of the most powerful posters ever made against battery cages.
It was titled: “This is the same hen – True or False?”
The answer: “TRUE!”
This poster is used with the permission of University of Huddersfield
Animal Voice:
Tragically, South Africa’s more than 25 million laying hens are still locked in conventional battery cages even though Animal Voice has campaigned for some sort of justice for hens for three decades. We do, however, have some wonderful free-range farms and cage-free eggs are readily available in most supermarkets. Woolworths’ eggs are totally cage-free. There seems to be no excuse for the poultry industry’s continued support of battery cages.
In-Store Poster 2004
Farmer Angus McIntosh and his free-range hens
Clare Druce:
I think a multi-faceted approach should be followed including possible legal action. Back in the mid-1990s when members of Greenpeace (London) were prosecuted for allegedly libelling McDonalds regarding cruelty to battery hens, the High Court judge in the case, Mr Justice Bell, ruled that the traditional battery cage “...is cruel in respect of the almost total restraint of the birds and the incidence of broken bones when they are taken for slaughter.”
Sadly, this finding failed to improve the birds' lives, but I like to think that in my capacity as an expert witness for the defence, my description of the cage system played its part in the build-up of disgust at the terrible cruelty involved in the system.
Now, many activists are targeting large companies that have connections with the poultry industry. Undercover visits to farms resulting in filming of the hidden misery within intensive farms are helpful to the cause but could result in prison sentences. We must also consider the risk to human health. Eminent doctors and scientists are seriously concerned that antibiotic resistance is on the increase and they have no doubt that factory farming is largely to blame. Fortunately, veganism has become mainstream.
Postscript
South African prosecutor Billy Downer, now retired, became a household name for leading the corruption case against former president Jacob Zuma. But Animal Voice editor Louise van der Merwe came to know him long before that. In 1993, as a young prosecutor, he was assigned to our complaint that battery farming violated the South African Animals Protection Act.
Humanity for Hens Newsletter, July 1993, page 1.
Regrettably, Billy Downer’s office declined to prosecute on the grounds there was no chance of success. But the world has moved on — and maybe it’s time to try again.
Note from Editor
As you finish this article, please look down at your feet to see the space allowance afforded to a hen — for life — in a battery cage.
Noël Sweeney is a British lawyer who specialises in human rights and animal law.
His powerful poetry gives voice to those who ‘are hamstrung by being born without a human tongue’.
Here Noël gives us insight into why the words of Henry Salt, pioneer of animal rights a century ago, have travelled through time to guide, encourage and inspire him to this very day.
Animal Voice:
Noël, you pay a very moving tribute to Henry Salt in your article ‘Rights run with Life’. Salt was a pioneer of social reform at a time when women could not vote, and small children were put to work in coal mines. Yet Salt is believed to have been the first person to have explicitly suggested the inclusion of animal rights as an integral part of social reform in Britain.
Noël Sweeney:
Yes, and the wisdom of his words has travelled through time. Indeed, although I never knew him and he never knew me, I owe a debt to this man that can never be repaid. Henry Salt was far ahead of his time.
His creed extended to all inhabitants of the earth.
In his book Company I Have Kept (published in 1930) he describes his “cousins” not as the “sons or daughters of an uncle or an aunt” but “as certain non-human friends of mine whom I like to think and speak of as ‘cousins’.”
Henry Salt
Animal Voice:
Salt was a teacher, a writer, a social reformer, and a pioneering spirit who lived frugally without seeking personal recognition.
Noël Sweeney:
Yes indeed, and he understood that the divide between humans and animals, on matters that matter, is wafer-thin. In his work titled Towards Democracy in 1883, he wrote: “I saw deep in the eyes of the animals the human soul look out upon me.”
In 1892, he published his classic work Animals’ Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress.
His guiding principles were stated quite simply:
-
We have to decide not whether the practice of fox-hunting, for example, is more, or less cruel than vivisection, but whether all practices which inflict unnecessary pain on sentient beings are not incompatible with the higher instincts of humanity.
-
That man, to be truly man, must understand his common fellowship with all living nature, and that the coming realisation of human rights will inevitably bring after it the realisation of the rights of other species.
Animal Voice:
You mention that Henry Salt’s work at the time coincided with the movement for women’s rights?
Noël Sweeney:
Yes, for example, Edith Ward who fought for the right of women to vote, noted in an article in Shafts Magazine (1892), the connection between violence against women by men, and the abuse of animals by all humans. In the article Edith Ward wrote: 'The case for the animal is the case for the woman. What is more likely to impress mankind with the necessity of justice for women, than the awakening of the idea that justice is the right of even an ox or a sheep?'
Animal Voice:
Salt became a vegetarian at a time when the concept had hardly come into being.
Noël Sweeney:
And he was often ridiculed for it! But he remained steadfast. He had a sardonic humour and In his autobiography, he asked: ‘What appeal can be made to people whose first instinct, on seeing a beautiful animal, full of joyousness and vitality, is to hunt or eat it?”
Salt pointed out that like racism and sexism, we humans discriminate against animals by assuming a superiority much like a controlling husband assumes his wife is his ‘property’.
Animal Voice:
Salt would be happy that civilization has indeed made some progress for humans as well as animals in the last 50-odd years.
Noël Sweeney:
Yes he would, although it’s not enough by far, by far. The crucial contemporary change for animals, came in 1975 when Peter Singer, the Australian moral philosopher, published Animal Liberation which has become the ‘Bible’ of the animal rights movement. In the preface of the 1980 re-published edition, Singer paid tribute to Salt as the incredible pioneering spirit he was.
Animal Voice:
And in your powerful poetry, you are doing the same. We thank you.
Noël Sweeney draws attention to South Africa’s own revered social pioneer who was influenced by the philosophy of Henry Salt… none other than the late Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
Courtesy: Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics
The Humane Education Trust's March 2014 issue of Animal Voice, page 4, features Tutu's historical quote:
“I have seen first-hand how injustice gets overlooked when the victims are powerless or vulnerable… Animals are in precisely that position. Unless we are mindful of their interests and speak out loudly on their behalf, abuse and cruelty goes unchallenged.”
A landmark legal bid to free three elephants from captivity in the Johannesburg Zoo has gained international traction, with heavyweight legal scholars from Harvard Law School stepping forward in support of the case.
The application – brought by Animal Law Reform South Africa, the EMS Foundation and Chief Stephen Fritz – is currently before the High Court in Pretoria.
Courtesy Daily Maverick
Is an app that exposes the lived experience of the animal from whom the food is derived, about to join our tech entourage?
If the success of an app that supports Make-America-Healthy-Again is anything to go by, the answer has to be a resounding ‘yes’.
Yuka is a mobile app that American shoppers are using en masse nowadays to identify the health-generating status of the food about to be bought… or not!
By scanning the product’s bar code, the app generates a score from 1 – 100 based on nutritional quality, additives and whether it is organic.
According to 4th May 2025 issue of The Wall Street Journal, the app “is driving food companies crazy.”
The article states: “As consumers increasingly scroll their phones to decide what to eat, such apps are one way to render immediate judgment on a product… Already manufacturers are reformulating their products to boost scores.”
So how soon will it be before we have an app that identifies the lived experience of the animal from whom the product is derived? Hopefully, not long.
See the Wall Street Journal article here:
10 April 2025
Hope for the beginning of an end to the misery of sheep who desperately try to find shade in the shadows of each other in 45°C heat.
We wrote to Woolworths about this, and received an encouraging reply...
16 April 2025
Hope for the beginning of an end to the misery experienced by a hen when she comes to the end of her lay.
We wrote to the South African Poultry Association about this, and received an encouraging reply...
FOLLOW-UP!
Shade for Sheep is still a possibility. We thank Woolworths Food for its prompt and detailed response to our request, and appreciate its review of the possible inclusion of shade as a supplier recommendation.
Professor Ann Skelton, South Africa’s leading legal voice on child rights, speaks out
on a new global understanding of our relationship with one another and with animals
The United Nations has decreed that children must be protected from exposure to violence, including violence against animals. A leading proponent of this seismic development in world ethics, is South Africa’s own Professor at Law Ann Skelton.
Until a month ago, Professor Skelton was the chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Committee has played a pivotal role in raising awareness on why and how exposure to violence can impact a child’s emotional and psychological health, for life.
Here Professor Skelton kindly agrees to give us further insight. Nature-based Education is privileged to share Professor Skelton’s voice with our teachers and learners.
Professor Ann Skelton has recently ended her term as the Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, an international body of which she was a member for 8 years. She is a Law Professor and holds the UNESCO Chair in Education Law at the University of Pretoria, and the Chair in Children’s Rights in a Sustainable World at the University of Leiden. She worked as a children’s rights lawyer in South Africa for 30 years where she played a leading role in child law reform.
Professor Skelton pioneered strategic litigation on children’s rights from the Centre for
Child Law (where she was Director from 2008 to 2018) and appeared as counsel in many landmark cases in the South African courts, including cases enforcing the right to education.
READ THE INTERVIEW BELOW
Nature-based Education:
Professor Skelton, on 18th September 2023, a major shift took place in the realm of world ethics when the UNCRC issued its General Comment on Children’s Rights and the Environment. For the first time in history, as part of their right to environmental health, the UNCRC decreed that children are to be protected from all forms of physical and psychological violence whether in their home or in society, and from exposure to violence, such as domestic violence or violence inflicted on animals (see HERE).
This is an acknowledgement at the highest international level that how we treat animals matters – for ourselves, as much as for them. Could you give us insight into the build-up of information that culminated in this majorly progressive global step?
Professor Skelton:
Let me first explain that the main task of the CRC Committee is to monitor how states are doing on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee has previously asked States, for example, Spain, about the effects on children of witnessing bullfighting. This General Comment that you are referring to was issued by the Committee, and is an authoritative document that indicates the Committee’s interpretation of the rights in the Convention. We were considering the environment, and we wanted to stress the importance of educating children about the natural environment, and stressing their close connection to that environment, including to animals.
Nature-based Education:
The South American country of Colombia was one of the first UN member states to respond. In July 2024, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced a ban on bull-fighting, calling it a victory for both children and animals. Do you think the world is undergoing a cultural transformation in regard to animals?
Professor Skelton:
Well as I specialize in children’s rights I am not sure about transformations with regard to animals. But I do think that there is a growing understanding of the importance of animals to children, and that children’s empathy and development are linked to their relationships with others, and with animals.
Nature-based Education:
In February 2024 at the UNs’ 95th Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Committee Vice-Chair Dr Rinchen Chophel urged the South African delegation to criminalise the practice of allowing children to participate in trophy hunting. The industry behind this hugely lucrative sport seems to be keeping mum on the issue. Could you comment please?
Professor Skelton:
As I am a South African, I actually did not participate in the South African dialogue, but I sat in the room and listened to it. So yes, I hear my colleague asking this question. Dr Chophel is from Bhutan which is a Buddhist country that prides itself on promoting happiness – and he frequently speaks up about the connections between children’s rights and animal welfare.
Nature-based Education:
It seems we have a very long way to go. For example, the Gadhimai Festival in India exposes children to a two-day sacrifice of millions of animals. We have thousands of homeless dogs being shot in the streets of Morocco. How much time do you think this transition in world ethics will take?
Professor Skelton:
What I can tell you is that all the States that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child must come to report to the Committee every 5 years — and we provide them with recommendations that include the kinds of recommendations you have been pointing to — to stop exposure of children to hunting, or to bullfighting, or to culling done in a brutal way.
Nature-based Education:
We have reached out to UNICEF (Africa) on several occasions for comment and a show of support for GC26 Article 35, but have received no response at all. Other countries have had a similar experience in their efforts to engage UNICEF. We wonder why the most powerful agency for the protection of children seems lackluster in regard to this particular mandate of the CRC.
Professor Skelton:
UNICEF is a very important player in Children’s Rights – they probably have their hands full with all of the crises affecting children in the world today. I did read an interesting article about work being done in Ukraine by UNICEF, together with children, to provide safety for animals displaced by the war. Going beyond UNICEF: There is also a recognition in the children’s rights world of the therapeutic effect of animals for children who are ill or who are traumatized.
Nature-based Education:
We recently celebrated the UNs’ International Day of Education on 24th January 2025. Please could you give us a message for the teachers who visit and make use of our nature-based education platform which is underpinned by the Five Freedoms for Animals, as endorsed by the World Organisation for Animal Health.
Professor Skelton:
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is a binding instrument that creates obligations for states, says that children must be educated to have respect for the natural environment. So engaging in nature-based education is not just a nice to have — it is a right!
The Committee’s General Comment on the Environment, that we spoke about earlier, is also available in a child friendly version, so teachers can use it in their work.
See HERE
Nature-based Education:
We thank you.
Children’s empathy and development are linked to their relationships with others, and with animals.
Engaging in nature-based education is not just a nice to have – it is a right!
Dr Rinchen Chophel, Vice Chair and Rapporteur of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Please see Dr Chophel speaking at the United Nation here...
Published 03 February 2025
A global icon for justice takes the lead, and speaks out against humanity’s brutality to animals
Published 27 October 2024
The movement for justice for animals has conceptualized a new vocabulary including:
shadow colonialism * reclaiming human-animal relations * collective liberation
post humanism * shared existence * Black veganism
ONLINE Q & A 23 OCTOBER 4-5PM SAST - SIGN UP HERE
Facilitated by Dr Sharyn Spicer and the Department of Sociology, the Human Animal Project drew student enthusiasts striving for a world where animals can claim society’s respect, consideration and humanity. Published 10 October 2024
Guest speaker, American social justice advocate Yvette Baker, said her mother had been a catalyst in her activism.
Her mother had once told her:
“I know what it is like to be overlooked, and that my life doesn’t matter, and I would never want to inflict that pain on anyone else.”
Drawing an analogy between ‘white supremacy’, the ‘Me too Movement’, and factory farming, Baker said the commodification of animals reflected the ‘blueprint of colonial control’.
The branding, abuse and whip-cracking that had underpinned the slave trade, was perpetuated today in the form of factory farming.
Christopher Eubanks, founder and director of the animal rights organization, APEX Advocacy, said he had been jarred into grass-roots animal advocacy when he saw footage of animals being killed in an abattoir. The brutality reminded him of the footage he had seen as a 9-year-old, of Rodney King being assaulted, almost to death, by police officers who had wanted to subdue him. Eubanks told the audience:
“I realized then, that animal suffering is something I pay for. Each animal product purchased, supported and paid towards the infliction of horrendous pain and suffering."
Eubanks said that the abuse of women extended to factory farmed animals where through taxes and purchasing power, ordinary people paid for cows, for example, to be artificially inseminated, and for their off-spring to be snatched from them, so that we benefit from their milk.
He added that people of colour were disproportionately impacted by factory farming and slaughter-houses, both of which were manned by disadvantaged people on the margins of society.
Guest speaker at the Human Animal Project, Chris Eubanks said:
I don’t eat animals,
I don’t wear animals,
I don’t use products tested on animals; animals are not ours to use.
New report predicts the closure of thousands of abattoirs around the world within 10 years
According to a new report just released, most people will likely be eating plant-based food instead of meat within the next decade.
Titled Grains of Truth, the report is authored by GlobeScan, a global insights and advisory consultancy, and EAT, a science-based non-profit for global food system transformation. It states that one in five people globally (22%) are now eating plant-based/ vegan food, a leap up from 17% in 2019.
Said Chris Coulter, CEO of GlobeScan: “Plant-based diets are on the rise in all regions of the world, and consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the link between climate change and food choices.”
If the roots of violence are deeply embedded in our treatment of non-humans, then there is no better place to start, in remedying the scourge.
Many students at the University of the Western Cape were in agreement today when Louise van der Merwe gave a presentation to commemorate the United Nations International Day of non-Violence.
Published 02 October 2024
Louise and Dr Sharyn Spicer, Department of Sociology at the University of the Western Cape.
Keanu Parkins, an Honours student in Sociology, is focusing on Animals, Society and Environment. He said: “The fact is that animals play a vital part in our lives and they deserve better from us.”
Achieving a kinder world with the support of students at the University of the Western Cape
LATEST PRESS RELEASES
Dear Friends,
I’m glad to let you know that the 88th issue of Animal Voice is published today, and truly, what a long way our society has come since the magazine first came out 34 years ago.
Amidst all the turmoil and angst in the world, this issue focuses on the good that is happening, as much for the animals as ourselves.
From the inclusion of animal rights in the UNs’ human rights domain (today, 18 September, marks the first anniversary of this hugely momentous development), to football teams joining the effort for a kinder world and FIFA amending its code of ethics in order to be UN compliant), you won’t put this issue down without being uplifted.
Thank you to everyone for your deeply valued support.
Best regards,
Louise
Published 18 September 2024
Please read the latest article on Philip Lymbery featured in the Daily Maverick
Published 31 May 2024
Animal Voice engages
Dr Mphane Molefe
Director: Veterinary Public Health Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
on the question of long distance transport to slaughter
Published 21 May 2024
Dr Molefe's reply
23 May 2024
Animal Voice's reply
23 May 2024
Dr Molefe's reply
24 May 2024
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