We discuss the biggest questions: "what's real?", "who matters?" and "how to make a better world?" with scientists, celebrities, activists, writers and philosophers. The Sentientism worldview is "evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings." It's a simple, yet radical, philosophy that's grounded in reality (naturalistic epistemology) and has compassion for all sentient beings (mostly human and non-human animals). Naturalism & sentiocentrism combined.
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Dr Sabine Brels is a lawyer dedicated to advancing animal protection law worldwide. She teaches international and comparative animal law and published books on animal related-issues in French and English. In the last 15 years, she directed Global Animal Law (GAL) project and worked as legal advisor for the World Federation for Animals, the Eurogroup for Animals, and Compassion in World Farming. Besides her consulting work, she is currently leading the World Animal Justice NGO that she founded in 2023.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?”
Sentientism is “evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
00:00 Clips!
01:09 Welcome
– Sabine’s previous appearance on episode 66
02:15 Sabine’s Intro
– #internationallaw , #animallaw and #animalrights
03:17 International vs. national law
– #icc #icj #unitednations
– Laws of genocide, humanitarianism, crimes against humanity…
– Policy, law, regulation, enforcement
– Regional law e.g. EU, Asia
07:34 World Animal Justice
– Bringing non-human animals into international law
– “An animal law revolution”
– #CrimesAgainstAnimality or #sentientity ?
– “Massive crimes against animals happen every day, everywhere worldwide… it’s our collective responsibility”
– “Every day the entire European Union population is killed… that’s a reality for animals… 450 million of animals are killed per day… this is only for food… every second it’s 5000 animals killed”
– “It’s not acceptable when we know that we can do otherwise… that this is avoidable”
– Companion, stray, laboratory, sport, working, wild animals “they are all victims of crimes against animality”
– Crimes against humanity: massive murders, sequestrations, enslavement, deportations, torture, violence including sexual violence “this is what is actually happening against animals every day… and it can still be legal in some places”
– Anti-cruelty and pro-welfare laws: “usually to reduce the suffering of these exploited animals or to condemn some acts of cruelty… against companion animals”
– “1/3 of countries today still have nothing to protect animals – not even the basic anti-cruelty laws”
– “Some of the most cruel practices are still legal in some countries…” force-feeding for #foiegras and #bullfighting in France are “a kind of torture for animals”
– The potential for a global consensus at least against some of those most egregious practices “That’s wrong for animals but also for our human dignity”
– India and some South American countries: have granted some rights to great apes or large mammals based on poor treatment in zoos
– WAJ: “Go faster and higher… criminality against animals is huge”
– Welfare / anti-cruelty approaches “we are not taking this concern for the gravity it is”
– “If we were doing the same to humans… it would seem unbelievable that it would be still legal… we would cry about genocides and crimes against humanity”
– WAJ’s network of experts and NGOs spanning 5 continents
28:22 WAJ Expert Network and Strategy37:00 Impacts on Animal AgricultureFollow Sabine and @WorldAnimalJustice :
– WAJ contact: contact@worldanimaljustice.org
…and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.
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