Podcasts

#63: LIVE From the Online Canadian Law Conference!

This episode of the Paw & Order podcast is brought to you LIVE from the online Canadian Animal Law Conference! For the first time ever, hosts Camille Labchuk, Peter Sankoff, and Jessica Scott-Reid come together to host an exciting show.

#62: Animal Cruelty Cover-Up Laws Continue to Spread

Camille Labchuk and Jessica Scott-Reid give an update on ag gag laws in Canada, including police handing out tickets to protesters outside of Fearmans Pork slaughterhouse, Ontario releasing info on draft regulations for ag gag Bill 156, a new provision under the bill going into effect that now prohibits advocates from stopping transport trucks, and Manitoba launching public consultations for its own troubling ag gag legislation.

#61: Animals as Victims of Crime

Peter and Camille discuss legal efforts aimed at having animals considered to be victims of crimes, with the ability to provide a victim impact statement in court. The hosts debate whether this move is merely symbolic, or whether it advances protections for animals in a meaningful way.

#60: Meat Industry Backlash

Camille Labchuk and Jessica Scott-Reid dive into the aftermath of Regan Russell’s death, and the reaction from farmers and truckers.

#59: No Criminal Charges for Trucker Who Killed Regan Russell

Hosts Peter & Camille are back at it after a short summer vacation! There’s a lot of animal news in the headlines, so this episode breaks it down. We discuss:
Canadian Animal Law Conference tickets are now available, why no criminal charges were laid against the driver who ran down and killed activist Regan Russell outside Fearmans Pork slaughterhouse (and why police and prosecutors have a long history of giving the meat industry a free ride, while targeting animal advocates), a class action suit against the Cargill slaughterhouse in Alberta, for letting COVID-19 run wild amongst workers, animal Outlook’s lawsuit in the wake of a fish farm investigation, new Zealand courts throwing out secretly-recorded video evidence of animal cruelty on a dairy farm, a California court ruling that the state’s foie gras ban is constitutionally-compliant, two guilty pleas in last year’s Alberta turkey farm occupation, and Spain and the Netherlands killing off a million minks following COVID-19 infections.

#58: Dr. Marc Bekoff Talks Animal Sentience

This episode is dedicated to animal advocate Regan Russell, who was tragically run over and killed by a transport truck bringing pigs to be killed the at Fearmans Pork slaughterhouse in Burlington, Ontario. Regan regularly attended vigils outside the slaughterhouse with the Animal Save Movement, and was protesting Ontario’s ag gag laws the day she was killed. In the main segment, Camille speaks with renowned biologist and animal behaviour expert Dr. Marc Bekoff about animal sentience, who rips apart claims that animals can’t think or feel, recently from farm lobby group the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

#57: Animal Rights Journalism with Writer Jessica Scott-Reid

Camille is joined by special guest host Jessica Scott-Reid, Canada’s most prolific journalist covering animal protection issues. Jessica speaks about her work writing about animal rights and issues, how she got onto the animal beat, the importance of getting stories about animals into mainstream media publications, and how you, too, can contribute to the public conversation by writing letters to the editor.

#56: 14 Years of Animal Law – a Conversation with Siobhan O’Sullivan

In this episode, we welcome Peter Sankoff back to the co-host chair after some time off. Peter also brings listeners as a special interview with Australia-based Siobhan O’Sullivan, host of the Knowing Animals podcast. Peter and Siobhan discuss how animal law and animal studies have grown in the last decade and a half, and the iRoar Podcast Network.

#55: Canada Shouldn’t Bail Out Slaughterhouses & Factory Farms

Camille Labchuk and guest co-host Kaitlyn Mitchell delve deeply into Animal Justice’s request that governments deny bailout funding to factory farms and slaughterhouses, and instead fund a transition to a more resilient, plant-based agriculture system that’s also more pandemic-proof. Business-as-usual isn’t good for animals, workers, public health, the environment, or our food supply chain. It’s time for a re-think.

#54: COVID-19 Shuts Down Slaughterhouses, Sickens Workers

Camille and Katie Sykes dive into the massive COVID-19 outbreaks at slaughterhouses in Canada and south of the border. Animals aren’t the only victims of slaughterhouses—the meat industry also treats workers abysmally. Slaughterhouses are already one of the most dangerous workplaces imaginable, and now they have become coronavirus hotspots due to the meat industry’s failure to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. Slaughterhouses are being forced to shut down, and there are now calls for a criminal workplace investigation after at least two Alberta slaughterhouse workers are dead. Meanwhile, the meat industry is already starting to “depopulate” animals because of its inability to pivot and adapt to new market conditions.

#53: Kendra Coulter On Tiger King, Covid, & Our Blatant Disrespect for Animals

Hosts Camille and Peter sit down for a fascinating interview with professor Kendra Coulter of Brock University. The wide-ranging discussion covers her important empirical research on animal law enforcement models, and her recent op ed on why our obsession with Tiger King says a lot about how disrespecting animals led to the coronavirus pandemic in the first place. Check out Kendra’s study on Manitoba’s law enforcement model, co-authored with Brittany Campbell.

#52: How Will COVID-19 Affect Animals?

The COVID-19 pandemic originated from human use of wild animals, and it will have an immediate and lasting impact on many more species of animals. Hosts Peter & Camille go over some of the recent animal law developments in Canada and abroad, including a cow slaughter plant shut-down after a worker tested positive for the virus, a Macleans story on the live horse meat export industry, and a new BC animal cruelty case.

#51: Eating & Using Animals Keeps Breeding Deadly New Viruses

There’s only one thing on everyone’s mind right now: the novel coronavirus health crisis. Hosts Peter and Camille discuss how their lives have changed and what this means for Animal Justice, including the postponement of our April 25 benefit gala.

More than ever before, the coronavirus is teaching humanity an urgent lesson that we must take to heart—that human health is inextricably linked to the well-being of animals and the planet around us. Peter and Camille discuss how the coronavirus originated in a wildlife market in China, but how life-threatening viruses and bacteria can and have also emerged from factory farms in North America and other countries, due to the perfect breeding grounds created by intensively confining animals. For more on this topic, watch Dr. Aysha Akhtar’s brilliant TEDx talk.

#50: Interview with Emma Hurst from Australia’s Animal Justice Party

It’s the 50th episode of the Paw & Order podcast! In this episode, Camille sits down with Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst, serving in the Upper House of New South Wales Parliament, Australia. Emma is one of three MPs with the Animal Justice Party giving a much-needed political voice for animals.