To suggest that animals are persons – with all that such a claim implies – may seem far-fetched to some. After all, the way we treat animals is usually justified on the basis that there are fundamental differences between humans and animals. In the latest episode, we are joined by Professor Mark Rowlands from the University of Miami in Florida, who makes the case that other animals meet the criteria for personhood.

His books ‘Can Animals Be Persons?’ and ‘The Happiness of Dogs’ provide a fascinating insight into the lives of animals.

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The scale of animal farming is vast, its cruelty horrific, and the environmental damage extensive. Animal Equality is an international organisation working to end the suffering caused by such farming, and to promote a plant-based diet. Its large number of undercover investigations have been instrumental in exposing the reality between farm and slaughterhouse. We talk to its Executive Director, Abigail Penny, about the challenges and the successes, and how each and everyone of us can make a real difference.

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In this episode, we talk to Dr Maureen O’Sullivan who is a law lecturer at the University of Galway, and whose academic interests include intellectual property law, particularly the morality of granting patents for biotechnology ‘inventions’, including genetically altered animals. Maureen has a particular interest in vegetarianism and veganism in Ireland. At the recent summer school run by the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, of which she is a Fellow, she presented on the animal rights sympathies of Irish authors such as George Bernard Shaw and James Joyce. We also talked about her involvement in the successful campaign to ban fur farming in Ireland.

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