Cats: Ethics. With Erin Red, Evolution Diet’s Eric Weisman, and vets Lorelei Wakefield, Andrew Knight, and Jean Hofve
Cats: Ethics
Last show’s investigation of whether cats can be vegan leaves us with an ethical quandary. What should vegans feed cats?
Erin and I reflect on listener’s comments. The three expert veterinarians examine the moral issues. And I ask Eric Weisman, CEO of major US vegan cat food brand Evolution, some tough questions.
Cats: Can they be vegan? With vets Lorelei Wakefield, Andrew Knight, and Jean Hofve; and special guest Erin Red
Cats: Can they be vegan?
Three experienced veterinarians with experience of vegan cats say whether and why they think cats can thrive on a vegan diet.
Jean Hofve argues – out of bitter experience – that cats need meat.
Andrew Knight advocates a vegan diet for cats – if you do it right.
Only Lorelei Wakefield has published a peer-reviewed study to try to discover who is right.
Farewell, Diana
After fifteen great shows, Diana is leaving The Vegan Option. She’s continuing to talk about evolution, animals and ethics – blogging at Sentientist.org and tweeting as @Sentientist. (“Sentience” means the capacity for feeling and consciousness, so the name captures both her academic interests and ethical principles.)
Extended interviews on iTunes, starting with Dr Julia Minson
If you’re like most of our listeners, you get The Vegan Option show via the podcast feed – an automatic index of shows that’s read by iTunes, Stitcher and other “podcatchers”. (If you haven’t heard any of the shows – what are you waiting for? Use the “Listen” menu at the top, pick a show that piques your interest, and press play. That’s the other way of hearing episodes.)
The shows usually focus on topics rather than individual interviewees – talking to a range of people to get a full picture. This can mean that only a few minutes out of an hour-long interview gets into the show. (This isn’t unusual for public radio documentaries.)
Some full interviews are posted on the website – such as our conversations with Peter Singer and Gary Francione for the episode “Peace on Earth”. But should they go in the podcast feed as well? Diana asked on the Facebook page and “yes” not only won the vote, but for some people it was the only way to get the extended interviews.
South East Asia: Finding Vegan Food in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia
Travelling Vegan in SE Asia
In 2009, I travelled through South East Asia from equatorial island to the far north of Thailand, discovering the vegetarian threads running through the region. Hear Diana and I banter about my trials and triumphs on everything from missing passports to cheeky elephants.
Judgemental: social attitudes towards vegetarians
As you may remember from our Judgemental episode we interviewed Dr. Julia Minson at the Wharton School about her research on “Do Gooder Derogation” - the phenomenon of people thinking worse of those who are behaving morally or prosocially (PDF of the Minson and Monin paper).
Listen to my full extended interview with her (she laughs endearingly like Marge Simpson doesn’t she?):
(23min) (download or play MP3 24MB) (other formats)
Some of you might be questioning the whole premise saying to yourself “hey, do people really think that vegetarians are doing good?”. But that is what Julia found.
Even though people tend to rate themselves as better than others, and (Dr Minson found) more moral than others, even meat-eaters rated vegetarians as more moral than average (i.e. other) meat-eaters.
LOLCat
A plaintive message from our cat, Mazzy, who snuck into our “studio” as we were taking it down.
Judgemental: with Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Dr Julia Minson, and Marla Rose
Judgemental!
Those judgemental vegans. A charge you’ve probably heard (or perhaps even uttered).
But what is “judgement”? How does it really affect the relationships between vegans and others? What can scientists say about it? And how do vegan activists react to the charge?
Dr Julia Minson explains the science.
Marla Rose explains exactly how Bacon Loving Hipsters Can Kiss Her Vegan Ass.
And Colleen Patrick-Goudreau discusses the psychology and experience of “judgemental vegans”.
Ask The Vegan Option?
Last World Vegan Day we brought the world’s vegan lawmakers together – putting questions from Dennis Kucinich and Maneka Gandhi to the three vegan members of the UK Parliament.
So what shall we do on WVD 2012?
Let’s give you the chance to ask us some questions. We’re considering doing a call-in show.
Statements on Olympics Opening Ceremony Animals
In the Olympics shows, we talked about the use of animals in the opening ceremony and when the decision to use them was made.
I promised to blog about the responses I’ve had from both LOCOG (the London Games organisers) and the RSPCA (a venerable animal welfare group whose consultancy advised LOCOG on the use of animals).
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All Shows
- Cats: Ethics. With Erin Red, Evolution Diet’s Eric Weisman, and vets Lorelei Wakefield, Andrew Knight, and Jean Hofve March 13, 2013
- Cats: Can they be vegan? With vets Lorelei Wakefield, Andrew Knight, and Jean Hofve; and special guest Erin Red February 1, 2013
- Extended interviews on iTunes, starting with Dr Julia Minson January 8, 2013
- South East Asia: Finding Vegan Food in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia November 28, 2012
- Judgemental: with Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Dr Julia Minson, and Marla Rose October 6, 2012
- London Olympics: Closing Update with Vx, Animals in the Opening Ceremony, and Vegan Food August 13, 2012
- London Olympics: interview with Kara Lang, vegan Olympian, Canada soccer team August 9, 2012
- London Olympics July 27, 2012
- Vegan Cheese: Casein, Casomorphins, and the Daiya Redwoods Vegusto Taste Test July 4, 2012
- Born Vegan at Vegfest UK, with Ruby Roth, Mair Perkins, and a studio audience May 31, 2012
- Born Vegan: from 1976 UK TV to the Hebrew Israelites, three very different vegan childhoods May 1, 2012
- Lab Meat: Can in vitro meat save the animals? With Nicholas Genovese, David Pearce, and Jordi Casamitjana April 3, 2012
- Rebel Poet: Benjamin Zephaniah discusses the life of Abul ʿala Al-Maʿarri (أبو العلاء المعري), the medieval Arab vegan philosopher poet March 6, 2012
- Digital Vegans: with Happy Cow founder, iPhone apps, London Vegans, and Kerry McCarthy MP January 30, 2012
- Peace on Earth: will we ever have it? With Peter Singer and Gary Francione discussing Steven Pinker’s “The Better Angels of our Nature” December 20, 2011
- Veganism in Politics: The British Parliament Debates World Vegan Day December 13, 2011
- Veganism in Politics: Chris Williamson MP, Cathy Jamieson MP and Kerry McCarthy MP answer your questions December 1, 2011
- Veganism in Politics: Chris Williamson MP, Cathy Jamieson MP and Kerry McCarthy MP with questions from Dennis Kucinich and Maneka Gandhi November 1, 2011
- The Pledge: the London Vegan Campaigns challenge to go vegan for a month October 11, 2011
- A very small sneak peek. October 11, 2011
Diana
Ian McDonald
