The Solution
Peter Sankoff
My Upcoming Date with Bob Barker…
I won’t lie. I’m a HUGE Bob Barker fan. 
Most New Zealanders probably have no idea who Barker is – though you may have seen his cameo in Happy Gilmore, where he beats up Adam Sandler (apologies for the poor video quality) – but as a boy growing up in Canada, Bob Barker played a big role in my early life. Back when our television only picked up 3 or 4 channels – in the 70s and 80s – Barker was the host of one of North America’s most famous game shows: The Price is Right. Barker was an institution, hosting the show for thirty-five years. My grandmother – like many grandmothers – was a big Price is Right fan, as well as a huge Barker fan, and I have fond memories of watching the show with her as a child.
Of course, that’s hardly the only reason for my being a big Bob Barker fan. He was perhaps the first prominent celebrity to take up the animal cause, ending every one of his shows with a plea to pet owners to get their pets ‘spayed or neutered’. But Barker went much further than that. He put his money where his mouth was, and unlike many celebrities who offer time and energy regarding specific causes, Barker’s focus has been animal law, with him correctly reasoning that we need lawyers who understand how animals are treated by the law in order to move the movement forward. In addition to numerous other donations to animal related causes, Barker has stimulated the study of animal law in the USA, and inferentially, around the world. From the ALDF web page: Continue reading
Eating Well During the Holidays!
Ah, holiday time is here, and for most of us, that means a time to feast. I’ve been feasting even a bit more than usual, as this year’s holiday has also matched up with my 40th birthday – which means it’s been celebrations a-plenty. At these times – in fact, at all times – good food is essential. Thankfully, over the past few years, making good vegan food has gotten easier than ever, primarily because of one woman: Isa Chandra Moskowitz.
Who is this person? Well, let’s look at what I’ve been feasting on lately, and it will come into focus. For my birthday, it was delectable chocolate mocha and also rum and raisin(!) cupcakes. Both earned rave reviews, but the kudos belonged to Moskowitz, whose amazing book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World was the inspiration. Of course man cannot live by cupcake alone, so we also had Lemondrop and Chocolate Mint Icebox (with real pieces of mint tucked in) cookies. Again, these were off-the-chart delicious, and everyone – vegan and non-vegan alike – dug in. These beauties came from Moskowitz’ latest book, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.
Companion Animals, Abandonment, and Legal Analysis
The Question: ‘What could I write?’
As a law lecturer who teaches animal law, it is extremely common for me to get questions from students about potential paper topics. Equally often, students make outright statements, along the lines of ‘I have no idea what to write for a final paper!’ Students often think that everything worth writing has been written.
This usually makes me laugh!
Coming Around on Zoos
Zoos: Fun for Everybody?
Earlier this year, I wrote a blog on my personal web page discussing the uproar (pardon the pun) over the death of Dalu Mncube, killed by a tiger at Zion Wildlife Gardens. I was somewhat impressed by the fact that writers from across the political spectrum were coming together to agree that greater concern needed to be paid to zoos and wildlife parks. Just as importantly, these columnists were pointing to a much bigger concern: that the primary objective of most zoos is not conservation or education – despite the public bleating of officials to the contrary – but profit.
Today I was amazed to see a conservative columnist from Canada reach the same conclusion in the wake of a recent spate of tragedies at the Calgary Zoo in Alberta. Margaret Wente – one of the contenders for the title of “columnists I love to hate”, meaning that I read her religiously, even though I usually disagree vehemently with her views – of the Globe and Mail has posted a thoughtful and reflective column on zoos. She makes a number of excellent points, including the fact that elephants should not be in zoos – ever – and that the rush for profit puts animals at risk, despite the PR statements coming from zoo directors about the values promoted by these “living museums”. [As an aside: I've long wondered about the messages that are being supposedly promoted by zoos. My favourite is where people tell me that zoos allow kids to "think about our relationship with animals" and gain a new found respect for animal life. I usually point out that I'll believe this when they stop serving hot dogs and hamburgers at zoos. Why not giraffe burgers, while they're at it?]
Wente stops short of calling for the abolishing of zoos, but I’ll still throw her a rare “kudo”, for a solid and provocative column. Zoos tend to escape scrutiny from the mainstream public unless something goes horribly wrong. It’s important for society to understand that its not individual tragedies that are the problem in zoos. These breakdowns are just symptoms of the bigger concern: zoos themselves, being run “for profit”, usually at the expense of the animals contained therein.
‘Great with Chicken, Fish, and Vegans’
I’ve now lived in New Zealand for almost nine years, and I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen the word “vegan” appear in the New Zealand Herald – the country’s largest newspaper – in a positive light.
Imagine my surprise to wake up this morning to p A10 of the paper and see a good-sized advertisement with the heading “Great with chicken, fish and ‘vegans’. Peering closer, I saw a picture of Oxford Landing chardonnay, like the one above. The text states: ‘Vegetarians and vegans alike can enjoy a nice drop of Oxford Landing Estate. While many wines contain animal based fining products like milk and egg whites, we prefer to make ours without.’
Without question, it’s the first ad I’ve ever seen from a ‘mainstream’ company targeting vegans as a group. While I’m wary of drawing too big a conclusion from this, I do think it’s a very positive development. If vegans comprise a big enough purchasing group to warrant an ad in a major newspaper, we’re headed in the right direction. Good on ya, Oxford Landing!
On a related note, expect to see lots of Oxford Landing wine at my upcoming birthday party!
Finding Vegan Products in New Zealand
A couple I weeks ago, I mentioned that the Vegan Society of Aotearoa (for our foreign readers, Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand), had been revived, and that the group was planning some ambitious projects for 2010. It is a much needed organization that focuses on veganism, as opposed to the more common and diluted vegetarianism. One of the reasons I love the Society so much is that its goals match those of SoLVe: providing resources and assistance in getting people to make the transition to going vegan.
The Society has launched with a roar, and one of its first outputs is a much need resource guide to Vegan Products in NZ. I cannot count the number of questions I get from students thinking about going vegan about how to find proper things to eat. Well wonder no longer. This book of products – available free at the NZ Vegan Society website – is a welcome step in the right direction. It certainly doesn’t replace the need for proper labelling (a topic for future blogs), but it will make life easier for vegans (or aspiring vegans) across the country.
Kudos to the Society. If you’re not a member yet, and supporting these efforts, what are you waiting for? It’s cheap, and the group is doing as much as anyone to promote veganism in New Zealand.
Animal Law in Queensland
Hello from the Gold Coast where – in contrast to Auckland – it’s warm and sunny.
Peter with his Animal Law whiteboard after a busy class...
I recently finished teaching animal law at the University of Melbourne – a great class filled with enthusiastic students who learned a lot about why animals are treated so poorly in our society.
The growth of animal law classes has been a particular interest of mine, and something I’ve tried to catalogue over the years. [See my article on the subject, which shows the dramatic rise of animal law courses worldwide]. It’s been especially nice to see these courses take off in Australia, as there are now nine undergraduate courses running regularly in this country – including two in Queensland [Note: It's been quite the growth. In 2006, when I launched my course at Auckland, not one LLB animal law course was being taught in Australia]. Indeed, the two courses here – at Bond University and Griffith Law School – are amongst the most popular offerings in the country.
Animal Welfare ‘Spin’
In the first SoLVe Seminar held earlier this year, I spoke about the dangers of animal welfare ‘spin’ being used by government and animal industries, and how difficult it was for the ordinary consumer to decipher the messages being put out about the treatment of animals. It’s not like the ‘old days’ where animal welfare was simply ignored, and farmers would respond to concerns by saying that ‘animals didn’t matter’ or ‘couldn’t feel pain’. Instead, those in power now respond with much more refined language. They talk about how essential welfare is, and remind us that New Zealand has (they claim) the highest standards in the world. This type of PR ‘spin’ is, in my view, much tougher to combat. Continue reading
Blogging at The Solution
I’ve posted a new blog on my personal web site that explains why I’m blogging more here – at The Solution – and less there! The blog provides some additional SoLVe background that might be of interest. Check it out!
Review: SAFE Event – Animals in Entertainment
Yesterday, I attended the SAFE event at the Auckland Museum entitled ‘Speaking for Animals on Show‘, set up for the purpose of launching the group’s newest educational initiative: the Animals on Show resource, the third in the Animals and Us series of resources designed to reach secondary school students and encourage their interest in human-animal studies.
The event itself was very well put together, and had three notable speakers: (1) Jeffrey Masson, Auckland based author on animal issues who spoke on animal emotions and the importance of respecting animal needs in making decisions about them; (2) Nichola Kriek, SAFE’s education officer, who was the co-creator of the Animals on Show resource and talked about how it was developed and its purpose, and (3) Michael Apted, Hollywood director of Gorillas in the Mist and other notable films.
