Latest / UNCHAINEDTV'S Truth Files with Jane Velez-Mitchell / UnchainedTV: Why Animal Rising Is Making Global Headlines!

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UnchainedTV: Why Animal Rising Is Making Global Headlines! · UNCHAINEDTV'S Truth Files with Jane Velez-Mitchell

0:00
Jane Velez Mitchell.
0:02
We've got breaking news to bring you.
0:05
You are looking at and hearing headlines that
0:08
are all across the United States today.
0:10
You've got the largest US egg producer in
0:15
the United States, okay, with bird flu.
0:19
Bird flu at a Texas plant.
0:21
The largest US egg producer detects bird flu.
0:25
Bird flu has been detected at the largest
0:27
chicken egg manufacturer in the United States.
0:31
And then you have another headline, dairy cattle
0:34
in Texas and Kansas test positive for bird
0:38
flu.
0:38
And if that were not shocking and upsetting
0:42
enough, check out this news release from the
0:46
Centres for Disease Control.
0:48
That's right, our US government, highly pathogenic avian
0:53
influenza A, H5N1 virus.
0:56
Infection reported in a person in the United
1:00
States.
1:00
Adding CDC's risk assessment for the general public
1:04
remains low.
1:05
That is breaking news to bring you.
1:09
And I can tell you right now that
1:11
there is an organisation called Animal Rising that
1:16
is taking to the streets to try to
1:18
wake people up.
1:20
Hey, we're in a crisis.
1:22
We're in an environmental crisis.
1:23
We're in health crisis.
1:24
We've got the avian flu.
1:26
We just got through COVID.
1:28
We need to change our relationship with animals.
1:33
And so you'd think the public would say,
1:35
yay, wow, what a great idea because we're
1:37
in crisis.
1:38
But no, what happens is there is really
1:42
an effort to suppress the message.
1:45
And also, even as the US government itself
1:49
says that this is a very serious issue,
1:53
actually arrest, arrest the people who are spreading
1:58
this message.
1:59
I wanna bring in some incredible activists.
2:03
Wow, Rose, let me start with you.
2:06
Tell us what your message is, not just
2:09
to the people of England, but also to
2:11
the people of the United States and your
2:13
global message.
2:15
Yeah, hey, Jane, thanks for having us on
2:18
here, by the way.
2:18
And I guess it's Animal Rising, or it
2:21
originally formed as Animal Rebellion four years ago.
2:24
And I guess our message is that we
2:26
need to transition to a plant-based food
2:28
system and have a mass rewilding programme to
2:31
end the animal and climate emergency.
2:34
And so, yeah, we do this through a
2:36
variety of ways.
2:37
We use, I mean, we're best known for
2:39
our direct action, which you had a lot
2:40
of images there of the direct action campaigns
2:42
that we do.
2:44
And we also have other campaigns targeted at
2:47
many transition or institutional change, like the Plant
2:50
-Based Universities Campaign, Plant-Based Councils.
2:53
And we're also trying to build bridges and
2:55
start dialogue with farmers as well.
2:57
So we also have a Vegan Support the
2:58
Farmers Campaign too.
3:00
You're doing so much.
3:02
And I have to say, you guys have
3:06
guts because a lot of what you do,
3:10
it scares me.
3:11
Like, would I be willing to glue my
3:13
hands to a fence?
3:15
Would I be willing to climb over a
3:17
fence?
3:18
And one of your most famous campaigns that
3:23
got global media attention, wow.
3:27
Let's play it and talk with Ben on
3:29
the other side because this disruption of England's
3:33
arguably most famous horse race made global news.
3:38
We made front page news 12 times in
3:40
2023.
3:41
Are you going to try and stop the
3:42
most famous race in the world?
3:44
Is that your plan?
3:44
We were on the front page of the
3:46
Daily Mail with our plans to target the
3:48
Grand National before we even publicly launched the
3:50
new Animal Rising.
3:51
A vegan mob is plotting to sabotage the
3:54
Grand National.
3:55
It set the stage for a battle against
3:57
the multi-billion pound industry.
3:59
We're trying to protect those horses.
4:00
I believe that the reason why we're doing
4:02
it is what's most important.
4:03
And the plan was simple.
4:04
Ordinary people putting their bodies on the line
4:06
to try and save the lives of animals
4:08
dying on racetracks across the UK.
4:10
So what the hell happened to the animals
4:13
in our country?
4:15
This day, I think, is going to be
4:17
overshadowed by the protests.
4:19
But it was bigger than that.
4:20
This was not just about horses and dogs
4:22
suffering and dying in the racing industry.
4:24
This was about repairing our relationship with all
4:26
animals.
4:27
It raises a big question about not only
4:29
how we treat horses, but how we treat
4:30
animals in general.
4:31
We're not asking for smaller jumps on racetracks
4:34
or bigger cages for farmed animals.
4:38
We need to repair our relationship to animals.
4:40
From one of use and abuse to one
4:42
where we prioritise their freedom and well-being.
4:44
As Sir David Attenborough acknowledged just this month,
4:47
we urgently need to transition to an animal
4:49
-free, plant-based food system.
4:51
For them and for the sake of all
4:52
life on this planet.
4:55
Ben Newman, couldn't have said it better myself.
4:58
Wow, we need to transition to a new
5:01
relationship with animals.
5:03
Tell us how Animal Rising is doing that
5:05
and where did you come from?
5:07
Like you have just burst on the scene.
5:10
Yeah, so we renamed from Animal Rebellion to
5:14
Animal Rising last year with the launch of
5:17
the Grand National.
5:18
And one of the things we're doing, what
5:22
we're doing to get the job done is
5:25
these massive press-grabbing campaigns like the Grand
5:30
National.
5:31
And that really was, I was watching that
5:33
video.
5:34
It's reminding me what a crazy, crazy day
5:35
that was.
5:37
But yeah, that was the number one news
5:39
story in the UK for 36 hours.
5:41
We had 60 live interviews in like two
5:43
or three days.
5:44
Basically had a team of people doing interviews.
5:48
Yeah, a thousand print press.
5:50
And yeah, we ended up with the Grand
5:52
National.
5:53
Although horse racing isn't our focus, we were,
5:55
I suppose, using the platform to talk about
5:58
all animals.
6:00
The Grand National ended up changing the rules
6:02
for the following year.
6:05
And yeah, and I guess there was 118
6:08
arrests at the Grand National.
6:09
It was pretty wild.
6:12
And we were on the front page.
6:13
Two weeks before it started, we had a
6:15
Daily Mail journalist.
6:16
So the Daily Mail was one of the
6:17
main, I suppose, right-wing papers in the
6:19
UK come to one of our trainings.
6:22
It infiltrated it.
6:23
It was on the front page of the
6:24
Mail on Sunday, the UK's biggest newspaper, two
6:27
weeks before it happened.
6:28
And then somehow, well, through a lot of
6:30
hard work, we still ended up doing it.
6:33
Well, that's amazing.
6:34
And you mentioned a lot of arrests.
6:36
There was also accusations of excessive force by
6:39
the police.
6:40
Let's listen and discuss on the other side.
6:42
There seemed to be a general lack of
6:43
care across the entire police force.
6:45
He just poleaxed me, flattened me to the
6:47
ground, hit me on this side, and that
6:50
fractured my collarbone.
6:52
There was no warning given at all by
6:54
the police officer.
6:54
They didn't care.
6:55
They didn't care what my condition was.
6:57
I was grabbed from behind by a security
6:59
guard who put their arm around my neck
7:01
and choked me unconscious.
7:02
I was screaming in pain and telling them
7:06
that my hands were glued together and to
7:07
the jump.
7:08
But one officer was just encouraging the others
7:11
to keep on pulling.
7:12
I was sprayed by an officer in the
7:14
eyes with pepper spray.
7:15
The police officer covered me so tight that
7:17
I couldn't feel my arms or my hands.
7:19
And I told him that I felt like
7:20
he was breaking my wrists.
7:21
He called me a little prick and told
7:22
me that it was my fault and I
7:24
deserved this pain.
7:25
I was tackled by a police officer and
7:27
another individual and another police officer in front
7:29
of the fence struck my hands.
7:31
One police officer was pulling me by my
7:34
hair and shouting that I was a prick
7:36
and that I needed to walk.
7:38
I'd only just regained consciousness.
7:40
One of my teammates on the other side
7:42
was being viciously attacked by a security dog.
7:44
He desperately asked the security guard to remove
7:47
the dog.
7:47
He watched the dog viciously attack my friend
7:49
and take a chunk out of his leg.
7:54
Wow, brave people.
7:56
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, approximately 300
7:59
people jumped over fences or attempted to scale
8:03
the walls and the fences and the barricades
8:06
to get to the horse racetrack.
8:09
And then about 118 people were arrested.
8:13
You just saw some of them.
8:15
Were either of you there and what was
8:18
your experience like trying to wake the world
8:21
up?
8:21
I mean, PETA points out that, you know,
8:24
thousands, tens of thousands of horses that are
8:28
deemed, you know, not quite ready for the
8:30
track or sent to slaughter.
8:32
Here in the United States, they get sent
8:33
to Canada and Mexico.
8:36
Thoroughbreds who have served us and won races
8:38
end up getting sent to slaughter in Japan.
8:43
It's not just the horses who die right
8:45
on the track.
8:46
It's the entire system that breeding for perfection
8:50
leads these discards to hideous lives at best
8:54
and terrible deaths.
8:57
What was your experience there trying to wake
8:59
people up, Rose, if indeed you were there?
9:03
Yeah, so, well, yeah, just to clarify, it
9:06
was about 118 people attempting to get onto
9:09
the track.
9:09
So everyone was arrested that attempted to get
9:11
on.
9:12
It wasn't quite 300.
9:13
It would have been nice to have that
9:14
many people.
9:15
And actually on the day, the story was
9:18
a little bit different for me.
9:19
And as you saw from the footage, how
9:22
seriously the police took this action, it was
9:24
actually shocking how far they went to protect
9:27
the event.
9:29
And yeah, they were using helicopters, drones, quad
9:32
bikes.
9:33
They were like, I'm not sure how many.
9:35
I know there were definitely hundreds of police.
9:36
I'm not sure exactly how many.
9:38
But yeah, it was definitely overreaching from the
9:40
police.
9:40
And the way they treated individuals was horrific.
9:42
But actually that morning, I was on my
9:44
way to my friend's wedding on a train.
9:47
I'd been near the area the day before
9:49
and was getting a train from the North
9:51
of UK to the South basically.
9:53
And police actually caught me on the train.
9:56
They tracked me down to try to prevent
9:58
the protest from going ahead as they knew
10:00
that I was involved in organising of it.
10:03
And, or they thought so anyway.
10:05
And yeah, so they actually arrested me on
10:08
a train whilst I was on my way
10:09
to my friend's wedding, unfortunately.
10:11
So I missed the wedding and the action
10:13
still went ahead.
10:15
Yeah, even though I was arrested.
10:17
And then you were there, right?
10:18
And you were arrested and you actually ended
10:21
up being convicted, but you got a suspended
10:25
sentence, right?
10:26
Yeah, well, this was, well, actually on the
10:28
Grand National.
10:29
So I got a suspended sentence later for
10:32
running on Epsom Racecourse.
10:33
But on the Grand National, I was one
10:35
of the people who made it onto the
10:36
track.
10:37
Yeah, and I was quite an experience running
10:40
down the middle of the Grand National at
10:41
exactly five o'clock when it was supposed
10:42
to have started.
10:45
But I'll just add on the response.
10:47
They actually used facial recognition.
10:48
I think for the first time that they'd
10:50
rolled it out en masse to protesters around
10:52
the country.
10:53
So they'd been tracking various people from Animal
10:55
Rising facial recognition around the UK.
10:58
So, or at least that's what we think.
11:00
And so that's like an ongoing thing.
11:03
So it was quite dystopian.
11:05
I wanna jump in because we've got a
11:07
bunch of callers and say, people, we're so
11:11
thrilled that Animal Rising now has a channel
11:13
on Unchained TV.
11:15
There is Unchained TV right behind me.
11:17
It's a couple of seconds delay.
11:19
You can download Unchained TV on any phone
11:23
anywhere in the world, except China and North
11:25
Korea is my understanding.
11:27
And you can also watch it on any
11:29
Samsung TV.
11:30
That's a Samsung TV I have there.
11:32
As well as any TV using an Amazon
11:34
Fire Stick, a Roku device or an Apple
11:36
TV device.
11:37
So we're excited that all the exciting videos
11:40
that Animal Rising has put together are quite
11:44
a few of them are streaming on Unchained
11:45
TV.
11:46
You can watch and absorb.
11:47
These people are risking their lives to get
11:49
these videos together.
11:50
So download, please download the app.
11:53
We're gonna go to the phone lines now.
11:55
Wow, we're lining up.
11:57
Michael in Los Angeles, your question or thought
11:59
for Animal Rising.
12:02
Oh, thanks for taking my call.
12:04
I really love your bold actions.
12:06
And I thank you for that.
12:08
My question is of all the different campaigns
12:11
that you guys have been involved with, what
12:13
would you say is the greatest victory as
12:15
a result of your actions so far?
12:17
Thank you.
12:18
Keep up the good work.
12:19
Thank you.
12:20
Rose.
12:22
Yeah, that's a really difficult question.
12:24
I think in terms of, I mean, yeah,
12:26
one of our main objective is to reach
12:29
the public and to start this like national
12:31
conversation about the way we're treating animals.
12:33
And I think the Grand National Action was
12:35
the one that, yeah, achieved that basically.
12:38
We reached, I think it was 50%
12:41
of the British public saw the action, correct
12:43
me if I'm wrong, Ben.
12:44
But yeah, it was like a huge percentage
12:46
of the British public saw that action that
12:48
day, which is amazing.
12:50
And yeah, we spoke about how much press
12:53
we got in 12 front pages last year
12:55
as well, mostly because of that action.
12:57
So yeah, in my opinion, I think that
13:00
one in terms of reaching people, I think
13:02
that was the most successful.
13:04
And congrats to you.
13:05
It's a shame that people have to risk
13:08
injury, death and arrest in order to get
13:11
mainstream media coverage, which is why we started
13:13
Unshamed TV after 38 years in the mainstream
13:17
media business.
13:18
I can tell you, I've been behind the
13:19
curtain and you know who runs media?
13:22
The advertisers, fast food and pharmaceuticals.
13:25
So no wonder they're not covering this or
13:28
not covering it fairly.
13:29
Nilo Farr in Dallas, Texas, your question or
13:31
thought for Animal Rising.
13:35
Hi, watching the few moments of police brutality
13:41
was just stunning to me.
13:42
And I'm thinking, is this the United Kingdom?
13:46
I honestly couldn't fathom it.
13:50
My question is, yeah, so this was a
13:53
direct action event at the horse racing and
13:57
118 arrests.
13:59
We saw the police brutality.
14:02
What are the conditions in the UK prisons
14:05
for animal activists?
14:07
In the US, it is absolutely degrading, unhealthy
14:11
and unsafe as documented by Wayne Chung recently.
14:16
And there you see Wayne Chung.
14:18
Thank you for that great question on the
14:20
screen.
14:21
And he is the leader of the Open
14:24
Rescue Movement.
14:25
We're gonna talk about him in just a
14:26
second.
14:27
But Ben, what's it like?
14:29
Is it tea and crumpets or is it
14:31
pretty brutal?
14:33
So I was in prison for a month
14:35
last year.
14:37
So both Rose and I have been arrested
14:39
probably about 20 times.
14:40
And so that's when you go to a
14:41
police cell, which it's all right.
14:44
It's sort of like going to a really
14:46
boring, really shit hotel generally.
14:49
Wait, most of the time that's it for
14:53
protesters at least.
14:54
Prison, you know, you are in, I was
14:58
in Wandsworth Prison, which is a big old
15:00
Victorian prison.
15:01
You don't get out yourself.
15:02
You only get out sometimes not at all.
15:04
Sometimes for an hour.
15:05
Sometimes if you're lucky for two, there is,
15:08
you can eat vegan food.
15:10
You choose your food, but you have to,
15:12
sometimes it ends up being baked beans, rice
15:13
and pasta.
15:15
So it was all right.
15:18
My temperament, I think, is okay for prison.
15:22
I just did lots of press-ups, wrote
15:24
journal and read books.
15:26
But yeah, it's not tea and crumpets, no.
15:31
Well, yeah, it's brutal.
15:33
And having been a reporter who's gone into
15:35
prisons numerous times to interview people, and also
15:38
they made me do a series where I
15:40
was arrested as a prisoner and put through
15:42
the whole system and thrown in a jail
15:45
cell.
15:46
It's horrible.
15:47
It's horrible.
15:48
And that's what these folks are putting themselves
15:51
through.
15:52
To send a message to people that is
15:55
an alarm bell about what's going on with
15:57
our planet as a result of animal agriculture.
16:00
And instead of getting applauded, they get a
16:01
slap in the face.
16:03
It's beyond comprehension to me.
16:05
We've got to wake up people.
16:07
It's like our house is on fire, as
16:10
Greta Thunberg said.
16:12
Tiffany in Los Angeles, your question or thought
16:14
for Animal Rising.
16:17
Yes, thank you, Jane.
16:20
And thank you both for risking your personal
16:22
freedom and physical injuries.
16:25
I don't know anything about the group and
16:28
a friend described it as a cross between
16:30
ALF and EXE.
16:32
Can you tell me a little bit about
16:33
your mission?
16:35
Great question.
16:37
You know, you guys are coming onto the
16:41
US world stage, but you're obviously very famous
16:44
in England.
16:44
And there is a backstory there about, well,
16:50
animal rebellion, extinction rebellion.
16:53
What can you tell us?
16:55
Yeah, so we formed in 2019.
16:59
Yeah, as we said, we were called Animal
17:00
Rebellion and we're kind of like a sister
17:02
organisation to Extinction Rebellion, who are obviously very
17:05
climate focused.
17:06
And the original reason for Animal Rebellion to
17:10
form was, it was actually supposed to be
17:11
just a short term campaign to inject the
17:15
need for like a plant-based food system
17:18
into the climate messaging, because no one was
17:20
talking about animal agriculture and its effect on
17:23
climate change.
17:24
So yeah, I was really excited when Extinction
17:26
Rebellion started doing actions.
17:29
But yeah, just really disappointed that they weren't
17:31
talking about animal agriculture.
17:33
Yeah, that's when Dan Kidby, who's still with
17:36
us, one of the co-founders plus other
17:38
people, formed Animal Rebellion.
17:41
And so yeah, we were very climate focused
17:43
as well as bringing in the animal message.
17:44
But at the beginning, it was very much
17:45
climate focused.
17:47
And over the first couple of years, we
17:50
actually started seeing progress within the climate movement,
17:54
more groups including Extinction Rebellion using our messaging
18:00
basically about the need to transition to a
18:03
plant-based food system.
18:04
And so yeah, I feel like we've achieved
18:06
that mission, like that goal.
18:08
Of course, it'd be great to see other
18:10
climate groups doing that even more than they
18:12
are already.
18:13
But yeah, I think we were successful in
18:14
that sense.
18:15
And now we've been bringing the animal message
18:18
in more as well, doing things like rescuing,
18:21
liberating beagles and like the Grand National, but
18:24
using those actions and those events to draw
18:29
attention to the wider issue of the suffering
18:32
of all animals.
18:33
It's about ending the exploitation of all animals.
18:36
Yeah, for both them and the planet.
18:39
Well, speaking of actions, we're gonna get to
18:42
a couple of other really dramatic actions.
18:45
And I think you're showing in this video,
18:50
let's check out the rescue of three lambs
18:54
from the estate of the King of England,
18:58
King Charles.
19:00
Animal rights campaigners have taken three lambs from
19:02
the King Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
19:04
I've been an animal lover my whole life.
19:06
When you see a lamb jumping around a
19:08
field, you can't help but be filled with
19:10
joy, regardless of if you connect with the
19:12
reason why they're there.
19:13
It's not the differences that matter, it's what's
19:15
similar.
19:15
We can all experience fear, we can all
19:17
experience pain, but also experience love and happiness
19:20
and freedom.
19:21
And that's what we want to give to
19:22
these animals.
19:22
If we don't save these sheep, essentially what
19:25
will happen, the lambs will get taken to
19:27
a slaughterhouse.
19:28
Whereas if we go and rescue them, they
19:29
can actually live out their lives in peace
19:31
and never experience the fear of a slaughterhouse.
19:34
We just don't think it needs to be
19:35
like this.
19:36
No animal or anyone should be born into
19:37
a life of exploitation.
19:39
There's no need to be treating them like
19:40
that.
19:41
And by breeding them and farming them, we
19:43
are destroying our native landscape.
19:46
We are causing a biodiversity crisis that is
19:49
speeding us towards climate catastrophe.
19:51
We can't continue like this.
19:53
There are barely any trees, everything's being deforested.
19:55
Animal agriculture is the leading cause of the
19:58
biodiversity crisis.
19:59
It's one of the leading causes of the
20:01
climate crisis.
20:02
It is one of the most harmful industries
20:05
that there is on this planet, but we
20:07
can transition out of this.
20:11
So you were there.
20:12
First of all, tell us what it was
20:13
like going on to the estate of the
20:16
King of England.
20:17
This sounds like something out of Knights of
20:20
the Round Table and taking these lambs, rescuing
20:25
them.
20:26
Yeah, so King Charles owns a lot of
20:30
land in the UK.
20:32
People may not realise, but yeah, you couldn't
20:34
really tell that you were on King Charles'
20:36
land.
20:37
He has massive, massive estates and we located
20:41
a sheep farm on his estate where we
20:44
saw that it was during lambing season.
20:46
And of course, we know what's going to
20:50
happen to those lambs.
20:52
They're either going to go straight to slaughter
20:53
or be used for breeding other lambs who
20:56
will be going to slaughter as well.
21:00
I mean, obviously going to King Charles' estate
21:02
is a way to get media attention.
21:05
If you go to a regular sheep, yeah,
21:08
basically if we'd gone to a regular sheep
21:09
farm, we know we wouldn't have got front
21:11
page news, but because we went to King
21:12
Charles' estate, we made it onto the front
21:15
page of the newspaper the following day.
21:18
And yeah, I would say it was stressful.
21:23
Obviously, yeah, you want to be successful.
21:26
And yeah, just the pressure of getting the
21:30
lambs and taking them and just like knowing
21:33
that you're having to make that choice as
21:35
well of who to take.
21:37
It's just like this horrible feeling of, yeah,
21:39
it's basically a luck of the draw, basically
21:42
for the lambs.
21:42
Obviously, they don't know what's happening, but yeah,
21:44
it just felt really strange having to choose
21:47
who was going.
21:48
And yeah, we took Sunny City and yeah,
21:52
all the way to Sanctuary where they're now
21:53
very safe.
21:55
And yeah, the media were very interested in
21:58
locating the lambs.
22:00
The Daily Mail made it their mission to
22:02
try to locate them.
22:03
And we're going to Sanctuaries and yeah, trying
22:05
to locate them.
22:06
But yeah, they're safe.
22:07
And a few days ago, we released a
22:09
photo of them all grown up now.
22:11
So yeah, it's really nice to see that
22:13
they're living their lives out in peace.
22:16
And yeah, it's unfortunate that the rest of
22:18
the lambs in that field now- I
22:19
have to say Prince Charles, correct me if
22:21
I'm wrong, is some kind of environmental activist,
22:25
environmental advocate.
22:26
Seems like he's always talking about, and that's,
22:28
I'm not knocking him, like better than saying
22:31
it doesn't, climate change doesn't exist.
22:34
However, what do you say, Ben, to his
22:38
obvious inability to connect animal agriculture since he's
22:42
participating in raising these lambs for slaughter?
22:49
Yeah, I mean, Kings of Charles isn't the
22:50
worst.
22:51
We haven't, I suppose, got a problem specifically
22:53
with King Charles.
22:54
He's, as they come, isn't too bad, but
22:57
he's also, so he's a symbol with a
22:59
massive amount of influence.
23:02
But he's, but the big problem is he's
23:05
the, so in the UK, the UK is
23:06
a very strange place and the royal family
23:08
own huge amounts of land.
23:10
And almost all of that is the sheep
23:11
farming.
23:12
And for us, sheep farming is the most
23:15
inefficient.
23:16
The UK, if anyone's been to the UK,
23:18
is nearly 20% of the UK is
23:19
covered in sheep farming.
23:21
And we only get about 1% of
23:22
our calories from it.
23:23
So it's the most ridiculous, ridiculous way to
23:25
use land.
23:27
So yeah, he should stop doing that.
23:30
But I was going to say, I think,
23:33
is King Charles even, as one of the
23:36
witnesses in your case, I can't remember now,
23:39
his name pops up somewhere.
23:42
Oh yeah, he is like, he's confirmed in
23:45
the evidence that he owns the land.
23:48
Obviously we don't agree with owning, but yeah,
23:50
it confirms that King Charles owns the lands.
23:52
But in court, so yeah, we do have
23:54
a trial coming up with a jury at
23:56
the end of this year.
23:57
Although King Charles won't be president as far
23:59
as I know, it will be his, they
24:00
call them like the farmer or like the
24:02
stockman basically.
24:04
So unfortunately Charles isn't going to be president.
24:07
But I mean, isn't there a way to
24:09
capitalise on this?
24:10
People are obsessed with the Royal family and
24:12
frankly I have nothing against them as individuals.
24:14
My heart goes out to King Charles who's
24:16
had a cancer diagnosis as well as other
24:20
members of the Royal family.
24:21
I mean, they're people, but if you are
24:23
saying that you are an environmental activist and
24:26
you want to save the environment and you
24:29
are one of the biggest, if not the
24:31
biggest sheep farmers in the United Kingdom, there's
24:37
a complete hypocrisy there.
24:39
There's a disconnect.
24:41
Is there a way to use this trial
24:45
as a vehicle to get that word out?
24:49
Not in a nasty way, but just in
24:51
a factual way.
24:53
Rose.
24:55
Oh yeah, 100%.
24:56
I think that's something we'll definitely do.
24:59
I think reaching out to King Charles for
25:01
a statement and try and have positive dialogue
25:04
with him.
25:04
We're not targeting him or saying he's doing
25:07
anything wrong.
25:07
We actually said, we genuinely believe if he
25:10
knew the environmental impact of sheep farming, if
25:15
he knew the true cost of sheep farming,
25:18
plus if he'd known exactly what happens to
25:21
lambs when they get slaughtered, he would have
25:22
actually agreed with what we were doing.
25:24
So yeah, I think if anyone had been
25:26
in a lamb slaughterhouse, they would agree to
25:30
saving their lives.
25:31
So yeah, we'll definitely reach out.
25:33
I just want to disagree with you on
25:34
one thing.
25:35
Respectfully, you have to be living with your
25:38
head under a pile of rocks, not to
25:41
have, if you're an environmental expert and you're
25:45
the head of the royal family and you
25:47
have all these experts at your command, not
25:49
to know this.
25:50
I mean, yes, the mainstream media suppresses and
25:53
there's been studies showing the mainstream media, which
25:55
is supported by advertisers, who are the industries
25:58
that are creating the problem, fast food, pharmaceuticals,
26:02
et cetera.
26:03
They're not talking about it, but it's not
26:05
like it's a secret.
26:08
The United Nations, what, back in 2006, had
26:11
a report called Livestock's Long Shadow that showed
26:13
that animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse
26:17
gas emissions than all transportation combined.
26:22
The idea that, oh, I just didn't know,
26:25
we all know and we could think back
26:27
in history of times where that was just
26:31
a cop-out for atrocity.
26:33
I don't buy the, oh, I didn't know
26:36
argument anymore.
26:38
Maybe 20 years ago, but not now, Ben.
26:43
Yeah, well, it sounds like you should give
26:45
King Charles a call and tell him.
26:49
Yeah, yeah.
26:49
Oh yeah, of course, of course.
26:51
But I think that's actually part of the
26:53
defence.
26:53
So I think Rose is referring to, she's
26:55
actually, so the, in the UK, that's a
26:59
defence that you can use.
27:01
Had they known, they would have allowed me
27:03
to do it.
27:04
They would have allowed me to take them.
27:06
So that's actually part of the defence that
27:08
you can argue.
27:09
Had they really known, they would have allowed
27:13
me to do it.
27:13
So you can steal someone's property if you
27:15
were doing it for the right reason, if
27:16
I understand correctly.
27:17
So that's what Rose is referring to.
27:19
But yeah, I do think King Charles probably
27:21
does know.
27:22
Yeah, and I mean, you had mentioned in
27:25
one of your videos, which by the way,
27:28
we're happy to say, once again, are streaming
27:30
on Unchained TV, including this interview, if you
27:32
want to watch it again later.
27:36
And Animal Rising has their own channel now
27:38
on Unchained TV, and I'm so thrilled.
27:42
You know, I'll be honest, I ran into
27:44
them because I had tried to reach out
27:45
to Extinction Rebellion.
27:47
I thought, let's get some of those videos
27:48
on.
27:49
I didn't hear back.
27:49
So then I said, well, there's something called
27:51
Animal Rebellion, and then I got a notice
27:54
about Animal Rising, and I realised it was
27:56
an offshoot of that group.
27:58
But Extinction Rebellion, the offer still stands.
28:03
We'd love to stream your video, and we'd
28:05
love you to talk a little bit more.
28:06
You've begun, but talk even a little bit
28:08
more about the connection between animal agriculture and
28:11
climate change.
28:13
But you know, as you move forward, what
28:17
is your strategy?
28:19
You've proven that you can get headlines.
28:22
What's next, Rose?
28:25
Well, I guess each year we kind of
28:28
restrategize or like evaluate, look at what we're
28:32
doing.
28:32
And I guess the end of last year,
28:34
after all of those very intense actions, highly
28:38
disruptive actions, so we did multiple horse races,
28:41
also a greyhound race.
28:42
We realised it was time to kind of
28:44
calm down a little bit with the high
28:48
stakes actions, because yeah, they are really risky,
28:50
like you said, in terms of people's freedom,
28:53
but also like physically they're risky for people
28:55
too.
28:56
And so over the last six months, we've
28:58
been working on a campaign, which we can't
29:01
actually talk about right now, which is really
29:02
frustrating.
29:03
So we're normally really open about what we're
29:04
doing.
29:06
But yeah, we're going to announce it in
29:08
a couple of weeks, basically, or at least
29:09
part of it.
29:10
So we can't announce everything right now, but
29:12
I'd say, yeah, our strategy has changed in
29:15
the last year or so to, I guess
29:17
we're just reflecting on the fact that direct
29:19
action isn't the only way to make change.
29:22
And for the first few years, that was
29:23
our main focus.
29:24
And it still is a big part of
29:26
what we're doing.
29:26
And it's something we're really good at, but
29:27
we're also acknowledging these other areas that we
29:30
need to work on as well.
29:32
Like I mentioned, institutional change in universities, in
29:36
councils as well.
29:38
And then also starting dialogue with those that
29:40
we don't always have the same or like
29:43
aligned values with like farmers.
29:45
And so, yeah, basically, maybe Ben can talk
29:49
a bit more about the university's campaign.
29:51
But yeah, that's something that we're, yeah, we're
29:53
seeing like massive success with that as well
29:55
as like a student-led campaign.
29:56
But yeah, so I'd say our current strategy
29:58
is to create this like ecosystem of multiple
30:03
campaigns that are all directed towards the same
30:06
goal of a transition to a plant-based
30:08
food system.
30:09
But they're all using like different tactics and
30:12
techniques to do that.
30:13
I agree, we absolutely have to reach universities
30:17
and even high schools.
30:19
I just did a video of the first
30:23
VegFest at UCLA.
30:25
And it was a whole bunch of animal
30:27
groups that got together, no infighting.
30:30
I said, the kids can learn something from
30:31
the adults or the adults can learn something
30:33
from the kids rather.
30:34
And they put this great VegFest on and
30:37
they said, we wanna export this to universities
30:39
and even high schools all around the world
30:42
to have universities and high schools having VegFest.
30:45
So maybe you wanna get in touch with
30:46
them because that would also be an incredible
30:48
way.
30:49
But I think the general idea is that
30:51
we've got to look to the next generation.
30:53
Is there change?
30:54
You know, Ben, the United Kingdom, particularly London,
30:57
which I've been to, we did a whole
30:59
tour of vegan England tour, is one of
31:02
the most vegan places on the planet.
31:05
Do you see, because there's a lot of
31:07
attacking now of the vegan movement.
31:09
Piers Morgan did a whole segment is veganism
31:13
dying.
31:15
He's very nasty and vitriolic about the vegan
31:18
movement.
31:18
I don't know why.
31:19
Maybe he had a bad date with a
31:21
vegan once or something, but it's really gnarly.
31:24
And we had one of our hosts on,
31:26
Jamie Logan, debating with him.
31:28
And she certainly looked healthy enough to put
31:30
it mildly.
31:31
But I mean, he was trying to make
31:32
the case.
31:33
Now, even stocks, even the hottest stocks, they
31:36
don't just go straight up.
31:37
There's always a little bit of, you know,
31:40
so, oh yeah, some vegan restaurants are closing.
31:43
Some new ones are opening.
31:45
Some stock prices are going down.
31:48
But then I was just at the Natural
31:50
Products Expo West in Anaheim, California.
31:53
And it's the largest natural products expo in
31:56
the world.
31:56
And it seemed like every other, or almost
31:58
every booth was a vegan booth or had
32:01
vegan options.
32:02
I don't think it's dying.
32:03
I think it's rippling under the surface, ready
32:06
to explode.
32:07
What do you think out of the United
32:10
Kingdom?
32:11
Well, from the work we're doing, it's going
32:16
quite well.
32:17
So for example, the plant-based universities campaign,
32:19
I'll just explain what it is.
32:20
We're passing motions through student unions for 100
32:23
% plant-based campuses.
32:26
Well, it's first the student unions, which in
32:27
the UK normally control a few restaurants.
32:30
And we've done that in 10 universities in
32:33
the UK.
32:34
And we're doing it now in Europe.
32:36
And we've got one successfully passed.
32:39
And so we've got 60 campaigns in the
32:41
UK, 20 in Europe.
32:43
And we're able to pass motions for 100
32:44
% plant-based campuses with student votes.
32:46
They're democratic.
32:48
And if you tried to do this five
32:49
years ago, six years ago, even for a
32:51
meat-free Monday, it would be more or
32:52
less impossible.
32:53
So younger people, students understand animal farming is,
32:58
younger people who take climate change and the
33:00
destruction of the planet seriously are okay with
33:02
voting for 100% plant-based catering in
33:06
their student unions.
33:07
And then we're progressing to tackle the whole
33:09
universities.
33:10
And we've done the same thing in councils
33:12
where councillors are voting for all their internal
33:14
events to be 100% plant-based.
33:16
So for us, we don't really track, we're
33:18
not involved in the vegan, what we call
33:20
vegan capitalism so much.
33:22
And I know that's been not been going
33:23
so well in some respects, or at least
33:25
that's what some people say.
33:26
But from where we're looking, we're finding it
33:28
fairly easy or a lot easier to get
33:32
what we'd call transformative change than I think
33:34
it would have ever been before.
33:35
And then soon we hope to, and what
33:37
we're doing is we're organising university students, hundreds
33:39
of them.
33:40
So we've got hopefully 200 UK students coming
33:42
to summer camps this summer and 100 going
33:45
to a German summer camp this summer.
33:47
And we hope to then now do the
33:48
same thing with school students as well, where
33:50
we organise school students themselves to run campaigns.
33:53
And that's different to what we do.
33:54
We don't contact universities directly.
33:57
We give people the tools and the training
33:59
to run campaigns and win them themselves.
34:02
So from our perspective, we're doing okay.
34:05
Yeah, but don't give up your direct actions.
34:08
Boy, I do love them.
34:09
I think they're very, very powerful and impactful.
34:13
Easy for me to stay from my armchair,
34:15
right?
34:16
While you guys are going out there and
34:17
taking the risks and getting arrested.
34:20
And every single time you make news, check
34:24
out this video of Animal Rising occupying a
34:29
United Kingdom dairy farm.
34:31
And by the way, for those watching and
34:33
think there's nothing wrong with dairy, just take
34:35
a look.
34:36
Everyone does love animals.
34:37
And it's just the case of really acting
34:39
on that as a society and as a
34:42
planet.
34:42
We're here today at this dairy farm where
34:44
there are thousands of baby calves.
34:47
Rows and rows of little babies trapped.
34:50
They're in these little plastic pens in isolation
34:54
and away from their mothers so that we
34:56
can have their milk.
34:58
We don't need to use animals.
34:59
And if we say we love them, our
35:01
actions need to line up with that.
35:03
And this isn't it.
35:04
This isn't what love looks like.
35:06
It doesn't have to be this way.
35:07
You can tell this isn't right.
35:09
They seek that interaction they should be getting
35:11
from their mothers.
35:12
Over here, they're running around.
35:14
They want to play and they have no
35:16
space.
35:16
This is completely unnatural.
35:18
You've only got to see the heartbreaking situation
35:21
that's here at this moment in time.
35:22
And you can see that our system is
35:24
fundamentally broken.
35:26
We're all trapped in a system which is
35:29
just based on greed and reducing everything to
35:32
numbers.
35:33
And this farm isn't the exception.
35:36
It's the rule.
35:37
These animals are victims in a terrible system.
35:41
It's a monster and it's horrific.
35:43
If we stop using animals and we move
35:45
away from having them in our food system
35:48
and towards a plant-based food system, it's
35:50
not just creating a future for them.
35:52
It's creating a better future for all of
35:53
us.
35:54
We need to stop these industries that harm
35:56
animals completely, whether that be in animal agriculture,
35:59
in horse racing, in animal testing.
36:03
The way we exploit animals is so prevalent
36:04
and so ingrained in our society.
36:06
It's so completely unnecessary.
36:08
And if we claim to be this nation
36:10
of animal lovers that we so often say
36:12
we are, then things need to drastically change.
36:17
Wow, so powerful.
36:18
And again, we started off today with breaking
36:21
news because yes, the animals are suffering, but
36:25
this is also affecting people, consumers.
36:30
The largest U.S. egg producer detects bird
36:32
flu at Texas plant.
36:34
Largest U.S. egg producer detects bird flu.
36:36
These are the headlines all across the United
36:38
States today.
36:40
Bird flu detected at the largest chicken egg
36:43
manufacturer.
36:45
And dairy cattle in Texas and Kansas test
36:48
positive.
36:49
And if you say, well, this isn't going
36:51
to affect me, I don't understand how people
36:53
can sleep at night.
36:55
When, let me just read one article, one
37:00
sentence from the article.
37:02
Bird flu has cost the government roughly $660
37:05
million.
37:07
No, the government is what's keeping all these
37:11
industries alive with their insurance payouts and their
37:16
subsidies.
37:17
But in recent times, this has raised the
37:19
price of eggs and poultry.
37:21
Again, why do we have to look at
37:24
it just in terms of price?
37:27
When frankly, people would be healthier by eliminating
37:32
this food from their diet.
37:34
And then it says at least 58 million
37:38
birds were slaughtered last year to spread, limit
37:42
the spread of the virus.
37:44
At least 58 million birds were slaughtered last
37:48
year to limit the spread of the virus.
37:50
And I think they're talking about just the
37:52
United States.
37:54
Now, anybody who can read that, and this
37:56
is one of the things that I had
37:57
a problem with when I was a mainstream
37:59
media reporter.
38:00
You're not allowed to say, oh, isn't that
38:03
terrible?
38:05
Because you have to disregard that as almost
38:08
just economic news.
38:10
And that's part of the sickness of our
38:12
system.
38:13
And that's why people like Ben and Rose
38:16
have to go out there and get arrested.
38:18
Because if they were simply to say, wow,
38:21
this is not just animal suffering, it's posing
38:25
a risk to us to wit.
38:28
The CDC just issued this, highly pathogenic avian
38:32
influenza A H5N1 virus infection reported in a
38:37
person in the US, still maintaining that the
38:41
risk of the general public is low.
38:42
But that's scary.
38:44
All of us who have lived through the
38:45
pandemic, which again was certainly a zoonotic illness,
38:50
whether it started, which it most likely did
38:52
in the wet market in Wuhan, China, where
38:55
all these animals were being slaughtered and there
38:58
was faeces and blood and pus and wild
39:00
animals mixed with domestic animals, or whether it
39:03
started nearby in the Wuhan lab where bats
39:05
were being tortured.
39:07
It was our abusive animals.
39:08
And we just lived through that pandemic.
39:10
And I just spent three years, I never
39:13
got it, isolating in this place right here
39:17
where I'm sitting.
39:17
And still the general public and the US
39:20
government and governments around the world are not
39:22
connecting the dots.
39:24
Honestly, I'm fed up as a taxpayer and
39:27
a citizen of this world who doesn't wanna
39:29
have to go into hiding again for another
39:32
three years because of another pandemic.
39:35
I mean, what the hell's going on?
39:37
What is it gonna take?
39:38
And I would like to round Robin this.
39:40
What do you think, Rose?
39:41
I mean, yeah, it's such a massive problem,
39:47
I think.
39:48
I mean, yeah, it's quite frustrating seeing people
39:50
just going back to like business as usual
39:52
after the pandemic and after everyone having to
39:55
go into lockdown.
39:56
And then I guess, yeah, during that time,
39:58
we were still doing actions where we could.
40:01
And it was, yeah, an interesting time to
40:03
plan actions because, yeah, we were trying to
40:05
do things socially distanced and things, and hoping
40:08
that, yeah, the pandemic would change things.
40:11
But yeah, I guess it just feels like
40:13
almost nothing happened and everyone's forgotten that that
40:16
ever happened.
40:16
And people aren't changing their behaviour because of
40:18
that.
40:19
And yeah, it's just, it is beyond belief
40:22
like how dissociated people are.
40:25
Like people are not making that connection or
40:27
not wanting to make the connection between what
40:28
they're eating and pandemics or what they're eating
40:31
and climate change and also animal suffering.
40:36
So yeah.
40:36
We're gonna jump in again because we've got
40:38
another caller.
40:39
Sarah in Venice Beach, California.
40:40
Your question or thought for Animal Rising.
40:45
Hi, I actually have a question.
40:47
I wanted to find out, do you think
40:49
the reason why they're trying to ban TikTok
40:52
is because they don't want people to see
40:55
all the cruelty?
40:55
Because I feel like now that I was
40:58
thinking about this, about TikTok the other day,
41:02
it's really depressing.
41:04
I don't wanna watch it, but it seems
41:06
to wake people up to what's really going
41:08
on.
41:09
And I wanted to find out, do you
41:10
think that's good?
41:11
Or what is the number one way that
41:15
you can reach the youth of our nation
41:17
to find out what's really going on?
41:20
Because I feel like it's still really being
41:21
suppressed.
41:22
So thank you so much.
41:24
Thanks.
41:25
Good question, Ben.
41:26
What do you say?
41:27
Well, actually we keep having our TikTok taken
41:29
down actually.
41:30
Cause yeah, TikTok does reach, but it's quite
41:33
strict actually.
41:34
It's specifically on TikTok.
41:36
So that's our one platform that I think
41:39
anything that looks a little bit illegal, they
41:40
just take down.
41:43
But how do you reach young people?
41:46
I don't know.
41:47
We're on Instagram, Facebook's a bit for older
41:50
people, we use Instagram, but we do get
41:52
a lot of news.
41:54
And getting viral videos, we've got a lot
41:56
better at designing viral videos, which I take
42:00
off on Twitter.
42:00
And we've had somewhere like 10s of millions,
42:02
while we're on with 15 million views.
42:05
So I'm not sure, I'm afraid if I
42:07
had the exact answers to that, probably wouldn't
42:09
be in the state we're in.
42:11
Well, I look back to my youth when
42:14
I was in high school and college was
42:16
the Vietnam War.
42:18
That's what everybody was talking about.
42:20
And the protests were enormous.
42:22
And I remember hearing a famous musician.
42:25
And honestly, I wish I could remember, was
42:27
it Joan Baez or Joni Mitchell?
42:29
One of them was saying, the movement was
42:33
a political movement until music entered the picture.
42:37
And once music started, songs started being written
42:41
about the Vietnam War, all of a sudden
42:43
it became a cultural and a social phenomenon.
42:47
And that's when all the quote unquote, kids,
42:50
the students, the college students really got on
42:54
board.
42:55
And that's why I think what you're doing
42:56
in colleges is really important.
42:58
But what about bringing in that music component?
43:03
That's one of the reasons why we put
43:04
up a music category on Unchained TV.
43:06
Anybody who's written anything about animal suffering, I've
43:09
written a couple of songs myself.
43:12
We invite you to do a music video
43:14
because it's a video channel and submit it.
43:17
We'd be happy assuming it meets certain technical
43:19
criteria to put it up.
43:21
But where are we?
43:23
If you look at the example of the
43:25
Vietnam War protests, the anti-war protests, which
43:28
really went from a political issue to a
43:31
cultural issue that enveloped anybody, everybody.
43:34
Where are we on that, Rose?
43:38
Yeah, I think we're so far from that
43:41
right now.
43:42
But I think it's really important.
43:44
I guess it's like two ways to approach
43:45
it like in the music industry, because yeah,
43:47
you can have like animal rights activists or
43:49
vegans creating music.
43:50
However, I don't think many people or to
43:53
reach people with that music is quite difficult.
43:55
But I think really we need to be,
43:58
well, the ideal would be for people that
43:59
already have influence, like Billie Eilish, for example.
44:03
She's vegan.
44:03
She's already speaking out for animals and against
44:07
climate change as well.
44:08
And she's already got that platform.
44:10
So I think we need more people like
44:11
her.
44:12
Also people like Cillian Murphy, who stars in
44:14
Oppenheimer.
44:15
He recently came out as going vegan or
44:18
at least plant-based.
44:19
So I think we are slowly seeing more
44:21
people with celebrity status, which to me, it
44:26
shouldn't matter if it's a celebrity thing.
44:28
But yeah, those people do have influence on
44:29
young people and the general public.
44:31
And I think it's important that those people
44:33
do speak out for animals.
44:35
And it is nice seeing more people doing
44:36
that.
44:36
And we are seeing a lot of support
44:38
from people like, for example, Moby recently reached
44:41
out to us.
44:42
We're not even having to reach out to
44:43
them anymore.
44:44
It's like Moby reached out to us to
44:45
support the Plant Based Universities campaign.
44:48
Brian May has also supported, publicly supported our
44:53
campaigns too.
44:53
We're seeing a lot of celebrities coming out
44:55
and support without us even having to reach
44:57
out, which is really cool.
44:59
So yeah, I think things are changing a
45:02
little bit, and I think they see it
45:03
as being risky for them to be speaking
45:06
out, I guess, in any way, like any
45:08
political way.
45:09
But yeah, particularly around animals, I think it's
45:11
quite controversial still.
45:12
So it's quite a risk for them.
45:14
It's funny you said come out, like they're
45:17
revealing their sexuality.
45:20
And I'm speaking as somebody who came out,
45:22
I was one of the earlier journalists to
45:24
come out as gay publicly on the radio.
45:29
But it's almost like coming out, because yes,
45:34
you're right.
45:35
To reveal that you are a vegan is
45:39
considered a political statement.
45:42
But here's the thing I can't really understand.
45:46
What is it going to take?
45:48
We are in a climate crisis.
45:50
Your videos have referred to the climate crisis
45:53
that we're in and deforestation.
45:56
And the New York Times recently reported a
46:01
story that wasn't picked up by anybody, okay?
46:04
I thought, is this going to be on
46:06
CNN?
46:07
Is this going to be on NBC?
46:08
Is this going to be on ABC?
46:10
Crickets.
46:11
Even though they play catastrophe porn all day
46:14
and show people, you know, houses going up
46:17
in flames and going into the water and
46:19
people drowning.
46:20
I call that catastrophe porn.
46:22
When it comes to solutions, unless it's fossil
46:26
fuels.
46:27
You know, half the people marching couldn't even
46:29
identify exactly what a fossil fuel is.
46:31
But people know what a hamburger is.
46:34
So it's much more threatening because people could
46:37
take the power back.
46:38
But I mean, Oxford University, as reported in
46:42
the New York Times, did a study that
46:44
showed that heavy meat eaters, which is most
46:46
Americans, could reduce their greenhouse gas emissions footprint
46:50
by 75% by switching to a plant
46:55
-based diet.
46:57
It was in the New York Times.
46:59
Nobody else reported it, right?
47:02
Even though they're on TV.
47:03
What can we do?
47:04
What can we do?
47:05
Yeah, drive a fancy electric car that most
47:08
people can't afford.
47:09
That's not the answer.
47:12
But what's it going to take for people
47:14
to connect the dots?
47:16
One of your videos, Ben, mentioned Sir David
47:18
Attenborough, who has a great documentary called Breaking
47:21
Boundaries.
47:22
There's only about nine.
47:24
We're already crashing through about six of them.
47:27
I mean, we're going to get to the
47:28
point, we have a documentary on Unchained TV
47:32
called Countdown to Year Zero, which I produced,
47:35
which says we have only until 2026 to
47:39
transition to a plant-based culture.
47:41
That's two years away.
47:43
What is it going to take, Ben, for
47:44
people to wake up?
47:47
Well, I'd say one of the really annoying
47:49
things in the UK is, and around the
47:51
world, is the big NGOs, the big nature
47:54
NGOs, the big animal NGOs, and the big
47:56
climate NGOs not talking about animal farming.
47:59
So that's something that we tried in the
48:01
past and we'll probably try and get in
48:02
the future, is pushing those big organisations to
48:07
actually say stuff on animal farming, which is
48:10
really frustrating.
48:11
But I'd also actually highlight, Jamie, is I
48:14
think the media environment in the US is
48:17
particularly hostile.
48:19
So when we talk to our friends DXC
48:21
in the US, it sounds that the media
48:25
are a lot more hijacked by big ag
48:28
in the US and also in Australia than
48:31
they are in the UK.
48:32
It's not great.
48:32
It's not great in the UK, but that's
48:34
part, I think we've got it slightly easier
48:37
in our, we don't yet have like proper
48:38
ag-gag laws.
48:40
So if you report on, you know, if
48:44
you say anything bad about animal farming, you
48:46
can be pursued and sued.
48:47
So I think we'll probably get there over
48:50
the next couple of years, but we're not
48:51
quite there yet.
48:52
So we do have it a little bit
48:54
easier than what you have in the US,
48:55
I think sometimes.
48:56
Well, yes.
48:57
And this whole idea of crackdowns, you talked
49:00
about excessive force being used on you.
49:04
I just wanna play some video of an
49:07
open rescue in action.
49:10
This is in Northern California and you could
49:14
see the police turnout.
49:16
Now the protesters are holding flowers and singing
49:20
songs, a la Peace Knicks in a way.
49:24
And there's, look at the police presence.
49:28
And you know, I'm scared to walk my
49:30
dogs after 10 o'clock at night because
49:33
I could get mugged very easily.
49:36
Okay, crime is rampant.
49:38
Their big box stores are closing in California
49:41
because of mass thefts.
49:44
Where are the police?
49:45
Well, they're here cracking down on animal activists
49:49
who are trying to point out that what's
49:53
going on inside these factory farms is a
49:56
lot of suffering.
49:57
And they allege that there's violations of Prop
50:01
2, which is a proposition passed overwhelmingly by
50:04
California voters that says that animals have to
50:07
have certain rules, certain room, blah, blah, blah.
50:12
There has never been a single prosecution based
50:15
on Prop 2 since it was put into
50:19
law in 2015.
50:20
So either you could presume that there's never
50:23
been a single violation or they're just not
50:26
enforcing it, which kind of makes the voters
50:29
of California suckers, including me.
50:32
I collected signatures for Prop 2 and for
50:35
Prop 12.
50:36
And actually I threw a big party for
50:38
Prop 2.
50:39
And here we are all these years later,
50:41
almost a decade later, and it's never been
50:45
enforced ever.
50:47
So it's really a problem.
50:50
And the crazy thing is, I don't know
50:53
if you saw this film, Don't Look Up,
50:56
starring Leonardo DiCaprio, but it's a metaphor for
51:01
climate change where these people know that there's
51:04
a meteor coming and they're trying to alert
51:05
the media.
51:06
And the media is like, you're so strident,
51:09
you're so extreme, calm down.
51:11
Do you ever get that sense of like,
51:13
hello, you're not getting a commission every time
51:17
a chicken is saved.
51:19
You're doing this for a greater reason, Rose.
51:22
Yeah, definitely.
51:23
I love that film as well.
51:25
And yeah, I agree.
51:25
It sounds like we're just like screaming into
51:28
the wind.
51:28
And it's like the problem to us is
51:31
so obvious and so severe as well and
51:34
serious.
51:35
And the suffering is so great and no
51:36
one's listening.
51:37
So yeah, I definitely, definitely relate to that.
51:41
So yeah, it's just, yeah, trying to get
51:44
people to wake up is just, yeah, it
51:47
just shocks me.
51:48
And yeah, it's beyond belief sometimes.
51:50
We've got another caller.
51:51
We've got Annie in Los Angeles.
51:53
Your question, your thought for Animal Rising.
51:57
Hi, thanks, Dane, for taking the call.
51:59
And oh my gosh, I love you guys.
52:01
Like you, Dane, when I searched for animal
52:04
rebellions, I found you.
52:05
You are so incredible.
52:08
I am just impressed by how you got
52:11
together and do all these incredible world-changing
52:15
actions.
52:16
What motivated you?
52:18
What got you to get together?
52:20
And what bonds you together?
52:22
It's just impressive.
52:24
And I can't thank you enough.
52:25
You're heroes plus infinite.
52:28
Love you all.
52:29
Thank you so much.
52:29
Great question.
52:30
So why you, Ben?
52:31
And I always wonder why some people get
52:34
it and others don't.
52:36
Well, I went vegan.
52:39
And then I think I watched Dominion.
52:41
And then I spent three months ranting.
52:44
Then my mom said, stop ranting at me.
52:46
Go do something about it.
52:50
And yeah, I'm not like an overly emotional
52:54
kind of person.
52:55
I mean, I can't remember the last time
52:56
I cried, except when I watch videos of
53:00
what happens to pigs and stuff.
53:02
So yeah, so that's.
53:05
And you, Rose?
53:08
Yeah, I guess I went vegan almost 12
53:10
years ago now after watching the Earthlings documentary.
53:13
And yeah, it just made me, I guess
53:15
since I was a child, I've always felt
53:16
a strong connection with animals and felt very
53:20
angry.
53:20
When there was anything that was ever unjust,
53:24
I felt like, yeah, anger.
53:25
And felt like life doesn't have to be
53:27
unfair.
53:27
You can make it more fair.
53:29
And I always felt like that as a
53:30
child.
53:30
And then, yeah, learning about what's going on
53:33
in the dairy and egg industries after going
53:36
vegetarian and then vegan, I don't know, yeah,
53:39
just straight away, I was like, I need
53:40
to do something.
53:41
I felt just really moved to do something
53:43
and wanted to wake, help wake people up.
53:46
And then four years ago, I guess I
53:48
was doing a lot of outreach as well
53:49
as some covert animal rescues for years.
53:51
And then, yeah, then found Animal Rebellion, met
53:55
Ben in, I joined in 2020.
53:58
And then Ben joined a few months later.
54:00
And yeah, we've just got the best team.
54:03
Just the most amazing, passionate, dedicated group of
54:05
people.
54:06
And we just have a real, we're just
54:08
all so motivated and know that we can
54:10
do this.
54:10
And yeah, we're just, I don't know, we
54:12
just work so hard to make things happen.
54:15
And we're just good at making things happen,
54:16
I think.
54:17
And it's animalrising.org, correct?
54:21
Yeah.
54:21
Yes, go to animalrising.org and get involved.
54:26
And I assume that you as a nonprofit
54:28
take donations, right?
54:31
Yep, that's right.
54:31
Yeah, so I think it's super important to
54:35
support Animal Rising.
54:37
Are you coming to America?
54:40
We've had some issues getting into America.
54:43
We'll try, we'll try.
54:45
What I like about you guys is you're
54:47
so laid back.
54:48
Like you're like, yeah, we're doing open rescues.
54:51
We're rescuing the king's sheep.
54:55
But it's like, you're very chill about it.
54:58
I think you're accomplishing some really amazing stuff.
55:01
And I just am very grateful that you
55:05
agree to allow us to stream some of
55:07
your videos and keep them coming because they're
55:10
really, really good.
55:12
So I think you're working on all cylinders
55:14
because you're also documenting the work you're doing
55:18
in creative ways and getting it out to
55:21
the media.
55:22
And everybody would like to have the same
55:26
luck as you have, but it's not luck,
55:29
it's strategy in getting the mainstream media to
55:33
cover this.
55:34
So I just wanna say thank you both.
55:36
It's late at night in England.
55:38
They're both coming to us from England.
55:40
I'm in Los Angeles.
55:41
And of course, I always leave you with,
55:44
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55:46
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55:47
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55:50
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55:59
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55:59
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56:03
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56:03
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56:06
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56:09
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56:11
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