PODCAST

Animal Rights: the Debate

Martyn Ford & David Thomas

Animal Rights: the Debate explores the issues around around our relationship with animals.

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

40:19

Religion and Animals

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/10/16

What have the two largest world religions got to say about how we should treat animals? David and Martyn speak to Joyce D'Silva, the author of Animal Welfare in World Religion: Teaching and Practice, about the good and bad aspects of Christianity and Islam in relation to our relationship with animals. Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LTGteTLZkwI9XUtB1Xxfen Find out more: https://linktr.ee/animalrightsdebate

35:22

Animals In the News

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/10/02

The world seen through the eyes of cats and dogs, cultivated meat, and the campaign against factory farming, are the focus of our discussion today. Join David and Martyn for a look at what's happening in the UK and elsewhere. Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LTGteTLZkwI9XUtB1Xxfen Find out more: https://linktr.ee/animalrightsdebate

40:20

Law Essentials

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/09/18

Although the legal safeguards for animals are inadequate, things are changing. Throughout much of the world, judges are establishing that animals are entitled to moral consideration and that their interests should be taken into account. Ankita Shanker has a PhD in law and a distinguished academic record, with wide-ranging interests in the field of animal and human rights. Join us as she gives us an overview of legal developments on the international scene. Donate here:

40:02

Legal Protection for Animals

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/09/04

Kimberly Moore, a tax lawyer with an international law firm in Washington DC, Director of Public Relations at the FUR FREE SOCIETY, and a member of the Animal Law Committee of the American Bar Association, talks to us about her recent book The Case for the Legal Protection of Animals: Humanity’s Shared Destiny with the Animal Kingdom, and the broad issues it raises. Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LTGteTLZkwI9XUtB1Xxfen Find

42:53

Born Free

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/08/21

Freedom is denied to large numbers of animals who are held in captivity or exploited, and Born Free is at the forefront of the campaign to protect such animals. But is there a conflict between the interests of animals as individuals, and protecting a species? For whose benefit is the principle of conservation? Join us for a wide-ranging discussion with Mark Jones, Head of Policy at Born Free. Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community:

40:13

In the Beginning .....

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/08/07

In the Bible we are given a vision of a vegan world: 'God said: 'See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food’ [Genesis 1:29]. And elsewhere in the Bible there are positive statements about, and positive images of, our relationship with animals that encourage compassion towards them. Jesus is, after all, born in a cowshed surrounded by animals. So why are the Jewish and Christian

20:15

How to Resolve a Moral Issue

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/07/17

Our treatment of animals raises profound - and controversial - issues. How can we resolve the moral questions? In an age where we seem to have lost the capacity to engage in constructive discussion, perhaps a Greek philosopher who lived two and half thousand years ago can show us the way forward. Socrates provides us with a form of dialogue that can reveal inconsistencies and errors, and lead us to a reasoned and valid conclusion. David and Martyn apply his method to animal experimentation. Donate

44:11

League Against Cruel Sports

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/07/03

In this episode, Emma Slawinski, newly appointed CEO of the League Against Cruel Sports in the UK, discusses the ways in which the landmark ban on the hunting of wild mammals with dogs needs to be tightened, in particular to outlaw so-called trail hunting (which is foxhunting by any other name). She explains how her upbringing led her to value animals as individuals and why the organised shooting of animals causes so much harm, not just to the shot animals. An optimist by nature, she believes in the

38:25

Positive News ... And Some Not So Good

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/06/19

Parliament debates animal experiments (again), a new campaign against factory farming is launched, and the High Court confirms that animal welfare can be a material consideration when a planning authority considers an application for a factory farm. These are just some of the major issues discussed in our latest news round up. Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LTGteTLZkwI9XUtB1Xxfen Find out more:

34:33

The Alternatives to Animal Research

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/06/05

In the second of our two-part discussion about experiments on animals, we talk to Pandora Pound and Rachel Smith about the reliability or otherwise of scientific research using animals, much of which causes profound suffering. They discuss examples of where animal experiments have failed to predict serious adverse effects in people and the huge potential of various non-animal approaches. They also focus on the ethical imperative of using methods which give the best chance of cures for serious

29:57

A Cruel Deception?

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/05/15

In this episode, we talk to Pandora Pound of Safer Medicine (UK) and Rachel Smith of Animal Free Research Advocacy (Australia), about the reliability (or otherwise) of research using animals and how researchers got hooked on using animals despite highly questionable results. What are the economic and other pressures? Do animal models, artificially creating human diseases in (non-human) animals, actually work? In contentious areas, how should one guard against confirmation bias – the temptation to

40:44

Animals, Morality, and the Ethics of Care

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/05/01

Our knowledge of [other] animals has increased hugely over the last few decades, and so it has become more difficult to deny them the same sort of moral consideration we grant our own species. Professor Grace Clement of Salisbury University in the USA specialises in animal ethics. We talk to her about the moral status of animals, the nature of morality, and the feminist ethic of care. Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community:

37:33

Disease, diet, and dogs

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/04/24

Join us for a round up of recent developments in relation to animal issues, from the way bird flu is spreading to humans, the effect net zero could have on meat consumption, to the controversial subject of animal experiments. Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LTGteTLZkwI9XUtB1Xxfen Find out more: https://linktr.ee/animalrightsdebate

36:59

Cultivated Meat - the Future?

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/04/03

Cultivated meat offers the prospect of a world without the horrors of livestock farming, with the added benefit of protecting the environment, mitigating climate change, and improving human health. Philip Lymbery, the CEO of Compassion in World Farming, who has co-authored the book Cultivated Meat: To Secure Our Future, joins us for a discussion on this ground-breaking development. Donate here: https://ko-fi.com/animalrightsdebate Join the WhatsApp community:

47:38

Heart of Darkness

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/03/13

When future generations look back at our appalling treatment of other animals, Camp Beagle in Cambridgeshire will symbolise the extraordinary commitment of the few who refused to allow the atrocities of scientific research on animals to go unchallenged. In this episode, Sole Iriart, a spokesperson for Britain's longest - running protest of its kind, talks about the campaign to shut down the breeding facility where thousands of beagles are bred for use in chemical and other experiments. Donate here:

39:04

Animal Welfare - a colossal waste of time?

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/02/20

We continue our discussion with leading advocate for animal rights, Professor Gary Francione. In this second part, we consider whether the characteristics of consciousness, rationality and awareness in animals is what gives them a right to life, or whether sentiency alone is sufficient. We also discuss if promoting animal welfare is a waste of time and resources, and if the 'rights' approach is more coherent and likely to produce results. Finally, lab grown meat is the last item on the menu in this

26:24

Welfare or Rights?

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/02/13

How should we approach our relationship with animals? By treating them well whilst they are alive, but using them for our own purposes? Or by giving them the same sort of moral consideration that we give to humans? Professor Gary Francione is a distinguished philosopher, and advocate for granting animals similar rights to humans, and he believes that the welfare approach has been a failure, as well as a damaging distraction from promoting a plant-based diet. Join us for this important discussion

30:07

Some Good, Some Bad

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/01/30

It's been a mixed few months, with the current British Government the first ever in the U.K. to water down animal protection legislation, but with Mexico passing a law to improve the lot of animals. David and Martyn take a look at national and international developments. We receive no grants or funding from any organisations or charities, so we urge you to help us continue in our efforts to encourage informed discussion about this most important of moral issues. Donate here:

48:03

Reaching Out

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2025/01/02

Animals, humans, and the planet are in deep trouble. All across the globe, people are waking up to the undeniable connections between every living being―and noticing how out of balance our world has become. Yet, awareness is not enough. The Compassion Consortium aims to provide spiritual comfort, fellowship, and reflection, for those practising or exploring a plant-based lifestyle. We talk to Rev Sarah Bowen, Executive Director of its Training Programs about the support for those who reject violence

32:45

A Year In View

Animal Rights: the Debate ·

2024/12/20

We take a look back over a year of legal proceedings to protect the interests of animals, further evidence that livestock farming is unavoidably cruel, and some opposition in the Roman Catholic Church to the way we treat other animals. Join David and Martyn for a review of some positive news and the challenges ahead.

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Animal Rights: the Debate

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