Animal Law Week at HLS | Sharon Nuñez, “Defending Animals Around the World”

all right so let's take everyone's got
their food so it's a really good great
pleasure for me today to be introducing
chin unis to all she's the founder and
president of a group called animal
equality that was founded 12 years ago
in Spain and are now I have offices in
eight countries and are working in China
as well and they recently were named one
of animal charity evaluators top three
charities for a second year and some of
you may have seen them on campus before
with their I animal project it's this
virtual reality experience it takes you
into different scenarios and
environments to actually see things as
an animal would see them and it's a
remarkable way of generating a servant
empathetic response but I first met
Sharon four years ago at a farmed animal
advocacy retreat and right when she was
getting ready to come here with Jose by
a who she runs the organization with and
they were gonna start a u.s. office and
just seeing the enthusiasm they had me
approach and then getting to know her
better over the years and then later
seeing her at the animal rights
conference where she was talking about
how to run an effective organization and
you know there could be a fair amount of
drama with different animal protection
groups and @ar that sort of gets a
little concentrated but in her talk she
was talking about how at the time they
had close to 50 employees and they had
almost zero turnover in the previous
five years and she said well in her view
it all came down to treating your staff
with kindness and I think those are now
they've grown to nearly having about 80
people working for them and more more on
the way and it just shows just sort of
ethos of not only her approach generally
to the world into this work but how to
treat everyone around her better so
please join me in welcoming Sharon from
animal quality
thank you so much I am so excited to be
here today firstly I want to thank the
Harvard student animal Legal Defense
Fund and the Harvard animal law and
policy program and of course the
wonderful my dear friend Chris green who
I've learned so much from in the last
few years so I want you to raise your
hands if you're part of the animal low
program animal low program here in
Harvard okay cool
excellent ok so today I'm going to be
speaking about animal equality our
strategic approach the countries were
working in the situation of animals in
those countries and what we are doing to
help animals and there will be room for
questions and comments so animal
equality animal equality there's a team
that works in 8 countries around the
world and we believe in a world where
all animals are respected and protected
we're an international organization and
we work with society governments and
companies to end cruelty to farmed
animals animal equality is focused on
foreign animals animals that are raised
and killed for food over 56 billion
farmed animals are raised and killed for
food every year and they endure the most
harrowing lives their lives are brutal
and their deaths are even worse and this
number 56 billion doesn't even include
fish or other sea creatures that are
counted by the tons so animal equality
is an effective ultra Storen ization we
want that every person that works at our
organization were currently a team of
over 70 people worldwide every volunteer
that volunteers at animal equality or
every person that gives $1 to the
organization is assured that we're doing
what we can to reduce as much suffering
as possible that is why we focus on
farmed animals if we look at this
graphic we can
the number of animals that are raised
and killed for food in the United States
we can see that the numbers are not
comparable to the animals that are
raised and killed in shelters for
clothing or in labs unfortunately if we
compare this with the attention and the
money these animals get we can see that
there is a vast difference of course for
us all animals are important all animals
are individual st. Ian's beings they all
deserve respect and consideration that
is why it is our mission to spare as
many as possible if we look at the
number of land animals killed annually
by the average American consumer we can
see that over 94 percent of those
animals are chickens again this leaves
out fish the biggest victims of our
consumption over 90% of animals killed
by for direct or indirect consumption by
the average American diet are fish or
other sea creatures so we are focused on
animals that are raised and killed for
food they die in the largest number they
experience the most terrible lives they
have the least resources dedicated
dedicated to them and we can also track
the success of our campaigns so animals
raised and kill for food but within
these we have specific strategic
priorities animal equality strategic
priorities are caged hens these are the
animals with others that you will see in
a minute but get most of our resources
and attention I myself have been in
dozens of k10 farms in Spain in India
and in other countries this hen will
spend two years in this cage she will
not be able to move she will not be able
to spread her ways her feathers will rub
against the metal cage and she will
probably get feather less
her feet will suffer deformities and get
crippled because she will spend her
entire life those two years I mentioned
standing on bars standing on medals
after two years she will be brought to
slaughter or she will be killed and a
high percentage of animals around the
world that are killed are fully
conscious so it is animal equality
strategic priority to end the use of
cages for hens and we'll see how we do
that in a minute
broiler chickens animals that are raised
and killed for meat as we see as we saw
90% of the animals of the land animals
that are raised and killed for meat
around the world but most specifically
in the United States are chickens for
these animals their body is their cage
they are selectively bred to grow so
fast in such a short period of time but
like this fellow they [ __ ] and fall
because of the weight of their own body
most of them die because they can't
reach food or water at the farm actually
five times more chickens die in farms
before reaching slaughter than if we
combine all other forms of animal
exploitation so if we add up the animals
that are raised and killed in labs so
for vivisection for clothing for in
shelters that will be a number there
will be five times lower than the amount
of chickens that die in factory farms
before reaching slaughter because of the
condition in the United States this
chicken will spend the six months of his
life on litter this litter is not
changed and the air is full of ammonia
that makes it difficult for him to
breathe so it's animal equalities second
animal that were mostly focused on our
chickens that are raised and killed for
meat and thirdly of course sorry this is
this is the amount of chickens that are
being killed at this instance and I want
to show you footage of an investigation
we reach we've recently presented in the
United Kingdom inside the chicken
industry
[Music]
yeah I want to warn you the footage is
quite shocking
[Music]
they're totally treated by
[Music]
[Laughter]
[Music]
they suffer from heart problems because
of their big names
[Music]
[Laughter]
[Music]
thank you for watching thank you for
bearing witness it's the 3rd animals
that we are focused on that the
organization is focused on our farmed
fish what is called aquaculture so
sometimes we are asked okay well why
farmed fish and not wild caught fish
well it's true that wild caught fish
have brutal deaths many of them spend
several minutes several hours before
they die but they have a relatively good
life in the wild in the case of farmed
fish they suffer from over overcrowding
in the farms from diseases from
parasites and as we will see in this
video sorry it's not allowing you to
okay sorry
okay don't don't worry anyway the video
is not available so this is a fish bar
and I think it's in Vietnam and
basically there is tens of thousands of
fish in this farm the water is
incredibly polluted now the problem with
pollution and water and fish farms is
that fish gills are they have been
evolutionary selected so they can absorb
more oxygen so of course the water
pollution causes them tremendous
problems it is also filled with
parasites and diseases actually with
this photo that I showed you before this
fish is being eaten alive at a fish farm
by parasites so caged hens broiler
chickens and farmed fish are the animals
that animal equality uses most of his
resources to help we have yeah just want
to show you this too so at the moment we
can see that aquaculture well this was
in 2010 the amount of animals that were
fish farm to fish the word fish farm was
a little bit smaller it was smaller than
the animals that were caught in wild
fisheries but if we look at the trend by
2050 we can see a significant increase
in aquaculture okay so as I said caged
hens broiler chickens and fish farms a
farm fish what are our strategic
priorities there our strategic
priorities but what is our focus these
are our strategic lines animal equality
focuses on corporate outreach so we work
with companies to try to get them to
eliminate some of the worst forms of
Cruelty usually from their supply system
we are currently focused on ending cages
for hens from the supply system of many
companies around the world and we also
work with companies to try to get them
to introduce more plant-based products
and meat alternatives legislation so we
work with governments around the world
to try to get them to introduce better
laws for animals and we also work
getting them to an
the laws that already exist education we
educate the public and we not only
motivate them we not only show them how
they can help animals but we also tell
them and show them how they can do it
and investigations investigations feed
into all of our strategic lines thanks
to all this as Chris mentioned animal
equality was considered this year a top
charity by animal charity evaluators we
are considered one of the most effective
charities in the world okay so animal
equality works around the world to
reduce the suffering of animals we are
currently working in four European
countries in India in Brazil in the US
and Mexico I want to show you the
situation of these animals around the
world and I want to specifically show
you the work we are doing to help these
animals okay of course Europe is in the
country as you can see in this graphic
but animal equality is working in five
of the countries that have more million
live farm animals at this moment we are
working in four European countries the
United States India Brazil and Mexico so
India India is the third country in the
world with the largest amount of farmed
animals at this very moment I just came
back from India I was there two weeks
ago I was in a city called Pune and in a
city called you die poor in India this
very moment there is 300 million cows
and buffalos alive when you walk around
the streets of India you see cows you
see buffaloes as many as you probably
know the slaughter of cows and calves is
prohibited but this causes big animal
welfare problems there's not only the
abuse of the dairy industry a percentage
of Indian population is vegetarian but
very few people
vegan most people most families consume
dairy products and when you walk in the
streets of India you can see the cows
and the cows and they're eating plastic
they get hit by cars they're not put
down because it's against the law and
they don't receive any veterinary care
it was recent and recently a story in
the media that they had found 40 pounds
of plastic in the stomach of a cow and
this happens because cows aren't like
dogs or other animals when they're
eating and they usually are eating the
rubbish in the streets they can't tell
the difference between plastic they're
not able to differentiate and it ends up
in their system in India the provincial
- Cruelty to Animals Act exists and that
protects animals to a certain extent for
example it prohibits the use of battery
cages the problem the big problem in
India is enforcement I myself have been
in battery caged farms hen farms in
India and most of them were battery
caged it is calculated by compassionate
world farming that 78 percent of the
hens in India are currently living in
caged systems India banned dolphin
captivity in 2013 and as I mentioned one
of the big problems in the country is
enforcement so a lot of people a lot of
us think about India as the land of
vegetarians and it is it's the country
in the world with the most vegetarians
with 35 to 40 percent of the population
being vegetarian but meat consumption is
growing especially poultry meat
consumption this is a map of the
countries that are going to be
increasing or growing their demand for
poultry meat by 2030 as you can see
India is the country in the world that
will most increase their demand for
poultry meat when I was in India last
year I sat down with a group of students
and I asked them about their diet their
dietary habits and they told me that all
of them ate meat and I asked why and
they
said well our parents are vegetarian but
we don't really think that we need we
think that we need the protein and we
think that it's cool to eat meat so that
is one of the big things that is
happening in India is that younger
populations the younger people are
eating more meat they're generally not
eating meat like in the West am an
average Indian family would eat maybe
meat once a week but still we can see
what this is going to mean for animals
from here to 2030 so what is animal
equality doing in India well first
legislation it's a great country because
there is an interest in animal welfare
the Prime Minister of India himself is
vegetarian so animal equality did an
investigation into foie-gras farms in
France Spain and Italy in 2012 and we
took our executive director in India
took this footage to the Indian
government and thanks to that we managed
to ban to help ban the importation of
foie gras in the country India became
the first country in the world to ban
the importation of this product we are
now working with the government to get
new rules for hens and chickens in the
country also after one of our
investigations these rules aren't
perfect but they provide recommendations
on things like veterinary care the
amount of chickens that should be in the
farms etc investigations so
investigations is one of our key focuses
since the founding of animal equality we
have investigated over 700 facilities
animal facilities around the world in
India animal equality presented the
first dairy investigation with our team
of investigators they're visiting over a
hundred and forty dairy farms now this
shocked the Indian public that thinks
that it's milk is humanely produced but
it isn't there was not only widespread
mistreatment of these animals with
beatings and using electrical pods to
get them to move and a lot of the farms
the cows were living on
own filth they had no veterinary care
and because of this investigation it was
out on some of the most important media
channels in India it reached over 300
million people animal equality also
presented the first Cade pen
investigation in India and with our work
with companies we are working with
companies in India to get them to move
away from caged systems for hens we are
currently campaigning against McDonald's
Mexico Mexico is the ninth country in
the world with the largest amount of
farmed animals with a total of six 654
million farm animals alive at this
instance the federal criminal code of
Mexico does not contain any animal
welfare provisions at all there is no
animal welfare provisions for Mexico on
and in Mexico for animals in a national
level there are animal welfare laws and
provisions across states but they vary
greatly in Mexico there is two types of
slaughterhouses municipal and state
slaughterhouses I'll talk about our
investigations in Mexico that our team
in Mexico has done but municipal
slaughterhouses in Mexico are films of a
nightmare pollution is a big problem in
Mexico and something that we need to
analyze when we're thinking about our
strategy in this country because Mexico
City is considered one of the most
polluted cities in the world that is
something I didn't say about India and
that we're also going to be tackling but
New Delhi the level of pollution and New
Delhi are so high that it's considered a
city where people should not be living
in so that is as you know a lot of the
pollution is called is caused by the
animal agriculture industry and it's a
big problem in developing countries and
there is some enforcement on a state
level for the laws I talked about that
exist in Mexico on a state level but
they're mainly fines so what is animal
equality doing in Mexico most
importantly investigations animal
equality didn't invest
where we visited slaughterhouses across
seven states in Mexico we filmed workers
killing pigs with axes most of the
animals a hundred percent of the animals
actually I was just looking at the
information this morning in municipal
slaughterhouses were still conscious
when they were being killed there were
fully conscious and some of them took
over 30 minutes to die
they were just knifed on the side so we
took this footage to the government we
took it to the media it had huge media
coverage and we took it to the
government
an animal equality introduced with the
senator lavalle Gastelum from the party
and government in Mexico key legislation
or we helped introduce key legislation
it hasn't been passed by Congress yes
but it was introduced in the Senate that
would make it a crime to abuse animals
in Mexico animal equality also carried
out the first investigation inside caged
and hen farms in Mexico and the first
investigation inside dairy farms
visiting dairy farms again throughout
the country because of the result of our
investigation inside cage farms and the
work of our corporate outreach team in
Mexico we have managed to get five
companies including the ones you can see
para Samanya Pacific star grupo Anderson
to eliminate cages in Mexico from their
supply system to eliminate cages from
their supply system food policy this is
another of our strategies in Mexico as I
mentioned before pollution is a huge
problem in Mexico with Mexico City being
one of the most contaminated cities in
the world we are actually working with
the government of Jalisco that is a
Mexico a Mexican state and the biggest
Mexican the biggest producer of meat the
biggest state producing meat in the
indica in Mexico the state of Jalisco
has agreed to reduce their pollution 50%
by 2014 and we are working with them at
the moment to try to get them to
introduce me
the Sundays and other meat alternatives
in public in public places and we're
also working in education we have seen
that most Mexican students and Mexico
Millennials are incredibly interested in
animal welfare in trying vegetarianism
and in veganism only last year we handed
out two hundred and fifty thousand
leaflets and universities and we worked
with celebrities such as Sophie Estes
Nia in the photo that presented our I
animal virtual reality film in Mexico
okay so we've talked about India we've
talked about Mexico
what about Brazil Brazil is the fourth
country in the world with the largest
amount of farm animals and it's one of
the top producers and exporters of meat
products in the world specifically beef
and chicken what we are finding in
Brazil we just started working in Brazil
about a year ago we started to
incorporate outreach work and our
executive director that is going to be
doing legislation education and
corporate outreach started came came on
board in September 2017 what we have
seen is that there is huge interest by
the media in Brazil currently there's a
huge discussion in the media in Brazil
about live export that is taking animals
from Brazil to the Middle East there are
some provisions for animals under the
Constitution that protect them from
suffering and there is good news
especially in South Paulo that's where
we have our head office Sall paulo bound
the testing of animals for cosmetic into
cosmetics in 2014 becoming the first
state in Latin America to ban this and
of course there's the Amazon that is
being destroyed because the land is
being used to create crops to feed
animals that then feed people okay so
what is animal equality doing in Brazil
well corporate outreach in Brazil
working with companies to try to get
them to eliminate cages for hens from
their supply system has been an
incredible success we
117 policies in the country we have
gotten the biggest meat company in the
world GBS to eliminate cages from their
supply system animal equality presented
the first ever investigation inside
caged farms in Brazil and we are
currently working with politicians to
try to get a ban for hemp for kit 4k a
ban for cages for hens and the European
Union that is where I'm from I'm half
Irish and half Spanish and I've spent
most of my life in Spain so they say
that the European Union is ahead of
other countries or ahead of other
continents when it comes to animal
welfare and it is but it isn't in the
European Union we have countries like
Austria or the UK that are leading the
way banning fur farming banning butyl
ations and banning all cages for animals
but we also have countries like Spain
where bullfighting is still part of a
tradition and the culture in the
European Union there was a ban on
battery cages there's a trick to this
that even though battery cages were
banned
they were substituted by enriched cages
which are cages for hens that are a
little bit bigger and the hens have a
few purchase but basically the hens are
living under the same conditions and a
ban gestation crates
now again gestation crates are banned
after the fourth week of the South's
pregnancy and of course there is big
there was a ban sorry on veal crates in
2006 and there's big differences across
the countries as we have seen so animal
equality started in Europe and we had
were working in four countries so what
is animal equality doing in the European
Union first corporate outreach so we're
working with companies in the European
Union to eliminate cages for hens and
only in one year only in 2017 we have
got 22 company companies to eliminate
cages from their supply sister companies
like grupo pombe local court Inglis
you may not they not may not sound
familiar to you but there are some of
the most important companies in Europe
investigations throughout our 10 years
in existence we have visited over 700
animal exploitation facilities and we
have presented over 60 investigations in
the European Union where currently as I
said only focused on farmed animals but
we have investigated the use of animals
and circuses and Sue's we've
investigated the foie gras industry a
chicken industry a hen industry etc and
there is a lot that can be done and that
is being done on at the European
Parliament level so animal equality was
involved in an initiative last year we
worked with other groups and we worked
with a European parliamentarian called
Stefan Eck and we managed to get animal
welfare improvements for over 370
million
rabbits in Europe a rabbit meat is
highly consumed in countries like France
Italy and Spain in Europe and this law
paves the way to ending cages for
rabbits in Europe rabbits in Europe are
kept in cages too in very similar
circumstances to hens and we're
currently involved in a campaign to end
pig mutilations pigs are routinely
castrated their teeth are clipped and
their tails are adopt all of it without
anesthesia it is part of the system of
raising pigs from eating we also work on
education then we do education and to
levels so on the level of the European
Parliament this is an exposition we did
last year a factory farming in Europe
and we brought our I animal headsets and
we had dozens of members of the European
Parliament try the headsets and
experience firsthand what it's like to
be an animal in a farm in Europe and we
also had an exposition of photos and we
also educate citizens through online and
offline education another of the focus
in Europe is enforcement with the laws
that already exist in countries like the
UK we did an investigation and presented
investigation in December 2016 inside a
dairy farm in the UK where
workers were beating and kicking baby
cows we presented it to the media and it
got to the courts and one of the farmers
that was involved in this abuse got
sentenced on two counts of animal
cruelty now the picture that you can see
here is probably part of one is part of
one of the most horrible investigations
that I have ever seen
it was footage that was sent to the
organization it was a pig farm in Spain
and the pig farmers were killing
pregnant sows with sorts with no
anesthesia and then they were taking
pictures of themselves this was one of
the biggest cases of animal cruelty and
abuse in Spain and it got the first and
longest prison sentence for animal
cruelty in the country so I want to
finish on a positive note we are an
effective altruist organization as I
said we want to spare as many lives as
possible and we do that in a number of
ways but one of the ways we do it is
telling stories so today I want to tell
you the story of Luis please watch
[Music]
this is Luis he is a so-called broiler
chicken this beautiful young rooster was
destined to become chicken meat but
luckily his fate took an unexpected turn
[Music]
Luis was raised on a chicken farm
alongside thousands of other baby chicks
in modern factory farming chickens like
Luis are specifically bred to gain as
much weight as possible this extreme
rapid growth results in cardiovascular
problems skin sores and painful leg
injuries due to the horrible living
conditions many of the birds died inside
these arms others are killed by
farmworkers undercover footage taken by
animal equality investigators tells the
story of week 60 injured chicks who are
systematically being crushed beaten to
death or discarded alive in German
chicken farms this would have been the
fate of Luis and his three brothers
their legs couldn't cope with the weight
of their own bodies anymore in farms
like these that is a death sentence
animal equality investigators decided to
rescue the injured checks and give them
the chance of a new life the chicks were
exhausted and dehydrated they were
brought to a sanctuary where they were
taken care of and nursed for several
weeks thanks to the love and care they
received lewis and his brothers are
fully recovered they can now spend the
rest of their lives in freedom
[Music]
Luis has become a proud young rooster
today nothing remains of the week baby
chick destined to be thrown out like
trash Louis's new life is just getting
started
thank you for watching and I want to end
with two important resources snow not
Lois again here I want to end with two
important resources so we're very
excited and we have our wonderful
international director of communications
here with us she will be able to give
you more information we are very excited
because we have launched love veg that
is an incredible platform for all things
vegan and we have also launched a meal
planner so it's a resource that I
recommend you all you all visit and I
also want to talk to you about AI
animals so I animal or is our virtual
reality project and we are taking these
headsets I don't know raise your hand if
you've tried our virtual reality project
okay a few of you have okay so we are
taking these headsets as you saw to the
European Parliament we've taken it to
the British Parliament and we're also
taking it to universities around the
world we have just launched a program
where we are going to be sending the
headsets to students to university
students so they can use it as part of
their outreach so if anyone is
interested in having a headset and using
it as part of their outreach please let
us know okay so a lot of you here I and
I know you dedicate your your life part
of your time to animals others are
thinking well how can I help animals
with my life I just want to let you know
that this is probably one of the most
important causes in the case of farm
animals as we have seen there is very
very few people who are dedicated to
them so I hope this talk has inspired
you or inspires you a little bit to take
your activism for animals one step
further thank you very much
questions we've got time for questions
if please raise your hand and wait to
the mic comes around so we can get you
recorded and thank you I'm just curious
how do you get permission to go into
these factories and film sorry I do you
got permission to go into the factories
to film oh well I unfortunately I can't
disclose a lot of information because
then we may not be able to go into
factories and film I am unfortunately I
can't I count two schools a lot of
information I'm sorry
yeah the questions just wanted to know
if you're working directly in the United
States and if you have made contact with
national public media national public
radio and television thank you I let
Sara our international director of
communication answer about media yes we
are working in the United States two of
our staff members are general counsel
Kalin lebarge and Sarah Pickering are
working from here in Boston and we have
an office in Los Angeles where we have
12 people working we're currently doing
education in the United States so we
launched 12 edge and we're taking our I
animal tour to universities throughout
California and sending headsets to to
students and then we're going to be
doing campaigning corporate outreach
campaigning and we're also going to be
doing investigations in the United
States this year and I'll add Sarah
talked about the media yeah that's
pretty much it so the media so far have
tended to cover I animals so the New
York Times last year ran an article on
how animal rights organizations had a
new tool in their arsenal and that it
was this virtual reality experience so
that's been what the media in the US is
primarily focused on television radio
and newspapers but we're actively
starting investigations in the US this
year which will really help us leverage
our media contacts and
get them to cover it the undercover
investigations that we do here but some
media in the US have covered
investigations that we've done elsewhere
usually when there's a link to a company
or a supply chain that comes into the
u.s. and we can make that connection to
get coverage
hi thanks so much again for coming those
a great talk I just wanted to ask how
you respond to potential imperialist
accusations when you're going into these
countries cuz I'm sure that's a common
comment that's brought up by leaders in
those countries sure so yeah that is a
great question so first of all we have a
team of 12 international directors who
basically set the strategy plan and that
includes people from 13 different
countries so all of our directors are
heavily involved in the decision-making
the strategy and the goals of the
organization we have executive directors
that are local in each one of these
countries and these executive directors
are empowered to do the work in their
countries so they set their goals based
on our strategy plan they are managing
their teams they're managing their
office they're making strategic
decisions about the organization so we
our investigations are done by local
teams and then when we there is a
strategic discussion we are always
listening to our executive directors I
mean we wouldn't be a successful animal
organization if it weren't because we
trust and we listen to our directors
there wasn't there's no way that someone
in the US or in Europe can come up with
these strategies these strategies need
to be implemented and they need the
feedback from the people in those
countries so that is I think yeah what
we're doing thank you yes
thank you so much for speaking about
your work
I really admire what you do your focus
on the three your three main animals
that you're focusing on it sounds very
familiar too similar to what they you
mainly it doesn't how do you have any
collaborations or yeah yeah absolutely
the Human League is one of the our
sister organizations one of the
organizations we admire the most we are
constantly in contact the reason why
these are our strategic priorities and I
mean I don't know if they're the Human
League strategic priorities like if they
present it that way they probably are
it's because we're both effective
altruist organizations so what an
effective ultra stork emaciation wants
to do is make sure that all of the
resources of the organization are being
used efficiently and are sparing as many
lives as possible and these are the
animals that are dying in the largest
number we're also members of the open
wing alliance that is a coalition
created by the humane League to end
cages for him so yeah there you're a
wonderful organization we admire them
very much and we're in close
collaboration ask a question well I'm
getting over there you can answer this
one what is it so far since you first
started 12 years ago which of your
successes are you most proud of and if
money and resources are no object what
would you most like to accomplish mm-hmm
well it's a very very big question so I
think that what I think what the
organization and what I'm most proud of
is the team we've put together I think
that I mean we really I feel we have an
incredible team with experts in their
field experts in the different countries
and that are just doing who are
completely dedicated and committed to to
saving animals I think that putting this
incredible team of people in the room
and having them all in the same
organization is very unique so that is
that is not one of my accomplishments
that's something I've I've helped but
it's mostly because I think because of
the organization
because of them and then your second
question was so if money weren't an
impediment I think that it's very
important for organizations to start
looking at China we are kind of timidly
looking at China at work we can do there
but it's it's the first country in the
world that has the most farm animals and
I think that if if money weren't a
problem we would probably try to hire an
executive director in in the country and
think of a I would probably take six
months or a year but a a strategy that
really works to to spare lives in the
country so I think that's what that
what's what we would do so I have a
question about redundancy and I'd like
to know your attitude toward it sure I
mean things like factory farm
investigations are nothing new right
yeah so is it important to continue to
do them or should there and I mean the
the virtual reality is sort of a new
technology yeah but I'm just wondering
if there's any point in animal
protection agencies getting together and
deciding not to repeat what has already
been done but possibly to just provide a
greater space for those that the
information that has already become
available mm-hmm that is a very
important question and yes you're
absolutely right and we are already in
conversation with a lot of organizations
to make sure that there's no redundancy
so for example in some of our European
countries we're constantly meeting
organizations in those countries to make
sure that we're doing different
investigations that we're not presenting
investigations at the same time that
there's space between investigations
having said that I think that
investigations and specifically farmed
animal investigations is one of the most
powerful tools that we have in our
toolbox to help animals and I think that
even if every of out of every ten
investigations we do to don't get a lot
of media attention and to are redundant
the truth is that when we have doing
investigations like in India and dairy
farms that gets 300 million reach in the
media or in Spain we just presented an
investor
with the most important the Michael
Moore of Spain one of the most important
journalists in the country and we went
undercover with him and this has sparked
one of the biggest food scandals in the
country this does not happen when we're
talking about I don't know what when my
experience this happens when there is
footage of inside the farms so I think
that there is maybe the risk of some
redundancy it can be solved to a great
extent with a lot of communication with
other organizations and and we try to do
that and I think we're doing that quite
well but also they are so powerful they
help move so many people that I really
think it's important that we continue to
focus on farmed animal investigations
thank you thank you for a really
fantastic talk and thank you thank you
that you do thank you I'm interested to
hear what you think lawyers can best do
to support the work of your organization
in addition to donating to support the
work you do around the world thank you
so much I will let our kale on the barge
who is our general counsel on dress so
that question if she doesn't mind
great question thank you and it's
wonderful to be in a room with so many
lawyers and future lawyers who are
interested in farmed animal welfare and
animal affair in general lawyers play a
huge part in animal activism everything
from my role supporting the organization
compliance you know the the non animal
aspects of helping an organization like
animal equality but also petitions to
enforce consumer protections helping the
organization release an investigation
petitions to a law enforcement to crack
down on any violations of animal cruelty
laws that we find so and and just
volunteering your time there's there's
not a lot of animal law positions out
there it's still a very small field but
in turning offering pro bono services to
organizations like animal quality can be
incredibly valuable to organizations
like that and and yeah so anything that
you're interested in I'm happy to
provide my email to Chris and offer to
to speak with you one on one if you're
interested in getting involved any other
further questions well we've had people
who need to leave for class I want to
clock anyway so please join me in
thanking sherry yes thank you thank you
I left my card here if anyone is
interested and you have my email too so
please feel free to send me an email
thank you