Renee King-Sonnen is the Founder and Executive Director of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary that transformed from a cattle ranch to a sanctuary for more than 120 animals—the first documented beef cattle ranch converted to a 100% vegan sanctuary in history. Rowdy Girl sanctuary is changing the world for farmed animals with programs like the Rancher Advocacy Program (RAP), an educational program that inspires cattle ranchers and animal farms to consider alternatives to animal farming, and Families Choosing Compassion that offers a compassionate alternative to Future Farmers of America and 4-H programs. Most recently, Renee has been the subject of a documentary, Rowdy Girl, that had its World Premiere in Toronto at Hot Docs, and the U.S. Premiere at the Hampton Film Festival. She has just completed a memoir with the working title of Secret Diary of a Cattle Rancher’s Wife, slated to be published in 2024. Renee tells her fascinating story of transformation from cattle rancher’s wife to vegan animal activist.  

 We would like to thank A Well-Fed World (AWFW) for their generous support of this podcast! A Well-Fed World is an international hunger relief and food security organization advancing plant-based foods and farming to create a sustainable, nourished, and climate-friendly future. Learn more at awfw.org. 

Resources:

Hope’s Book: The Humane Hoax: Essays Exposing Happy Meat, Humane Dairy and Ethical Eggs

Donate to Compassionate Living

Rowdy Girl Sanctuary and Film:

 https://www.rowdygirlfilm.com

https://rowdygirlsanctuary.org

https://www.facebook.com/rowdygirlsanctuary

https://www.instagram.com/rowdygirlsanctuary/

https://twitter.com/RowdyGirlRanch

https://www.youtube.com/rowdygirlsanctuary

https://www.tiktok.com/@rowdygirlsanctuary

https://rancheradvocacy.org

https://www.facebook.com/rancheradvocacyprogram/

https://www.instagram.com/rancheradvocacyprogram/

https://twitter.com/RancherAdvocacy

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Compassionate Living

Hope for the Animals Podcast

This is a special short episode just for dedicated listeners. In this time of giving, I hope you will consider supporting grassroots vegan education. 

Please donate to Compassionate Living to support the continuation of this podcast. Thank you! 

This episode is dedicated to the legendary Karen Davis, PhD, founder and president of United Poultry Concerns (UPC). Karen died on Nov. 4th 2023 of cancer. Vegan since 1983, Karen was an activist, author, outspoken animal advocate, and had a sanctuary for rescued birds on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. 

United Poultry Concerns was the first sponsor of this podcast and our host, Hope Bohanec, worked with Karen at UPC for close to a decade from 2012 - 2021. Karen started United Poultry Concerns, the first ever organization focused on chickens, in 1990. She wrote numerous books on chickens and turkeys and advocated for an end to not only the farming of these birds, but also cock fighting, down, foie gras, Kapporos, birds used in experimentation, and many other exploitive practices involving chickens and other birds. 

This episode is a compilation of highlights from the four times Karen was on the podcast. Karen tells the story of how she was inspired by the animal rights movement in the 1980s and how she started United Poultry Concerns. Karen shares some of her philosophies and unique thoughts about chickens and animal advocacy. She also talks about the plight and delight of turkeys. She discusses the importance of language and reveals how she believed chickens, and all animals, have Earth Rights. Rest in Power Karen, we will carry on in your honor. 

Resources: 

United Poultry Concerns

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Compassionate Living

Hope for the Animals Podcast

Many compassionate people and vegans are drawn to the concept of ahimsa, the Sanskrit word for non-harming or non-violence. Today we explore this concept with Dr. Jonathan Dickstein, Assistant Professor of Jain Studies at Arihanta Institute. Johnathan received a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara and his areas of research include Jain Studies, religion and ecology, comparative ethics, and South Asian religions. Jonathan and Hope discuss the spiritual reasons for living vegan through the Jain lens. He offers some history and context for the Jain religion and how their highest concept, ahimsa, or non-harming, is core to their belief. He also discusses karma theory and how that relates to ahimsa and defines Transnational Veganism.

Resources:

Ahimsa Vegan Conference Videos

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Compassionate Living

Hope for the Animals Podcast

Did you know that your veggies, fruit, beans, nuts, and seeds were probably grown with the blood, ground up bones and/or manure of farmed animals? Or the ground up bodies of fish? This episode we are talking about Veganic farming, growing food without animal products and inputs, with Meg Kelly. In 2008 Meg co-founded the Veganic Agriculture Network to promote fully plant-based food systems that are not fertilized with the byproducts of farmed animals. She now teaches the Learn Veganic online gardening course to empower people around the world to grow their own fruits and veggies at home using sustainable vegan techniques. On this episode, she shares how to get started gardening veganically, how to create compost, how to consciously and compassionately co-exist with wildlife while gardening, and more. Meg has been gardening veganically for 15 years and explains the myriad of good reasons for the world to go vegan AND veganic! 

Resources:

Veganic Summit (November 10 – 12th 2023): https://veganicsummit.com/

Veganic Agriculture Network: https://goveganic.net/ 

Learn Veganic Gardening Course: https://learnveganic.com/ 

Free Guide to Veganic Gardening: https://learnveganic.com/materials/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LearnVeganic/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/learnveganic/ 

Food Empowerment Project’s Chocolate List

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Compassionate Living

Hope for the Animals Podcast

Steven Rouk is the founder of Connect For Animals, a platform for people who want to help end animal farming. He has been in the animal advocacy movement for the last decade working on data analysis, strategy, community building, and grassroots activism. Steven and Hope discuss the importance of building vegan community to help people feel supported and connected in veganism and animal advocacy. They explore the psychological and social reasons for recidivism and the fascinating concepts of social network theory and how we spread information through our social networks. 

Resources: 

• Website: http://connectforanimals.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connectforanimals
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/connectforanimals
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connectforanimals/

Book Recommendation:

Change: How to Make Big Things Happen by Damon Centola

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Compassionate Living

Hope for the Animals Podcast

Are you curious how to feed your companion animals vegan? Have you been considering switching your dog or cat to a vegan diet? Maybe you already do feed your companion plant based but want to be sure it’s the most nutritious vegan diet? Our guest today, Jan Allegretti, has answers. 

Jan Allegretti, D.Vet.Hom, has been a consultant and educator in holistic health care for nonhuman animals since 1988, specializing in nutrition, homeopathy, and lifestyle assessment. She is the author of The Holistic Animal Health Series, which includes the bestselling The Complete Holistic Dog Book: Home Health Care for Our Canine Companions, and The Fresh & Flexible Meal Plan: The Easiest, Most Nutritious Way to Feed Your Dog and Cat. She works with home caregivers, shelter and rescue organizations, and veterinary professionals on nutrition for our companions. Jan talks about the detrimental impact commercial dog and cat foods have on our planet and on farmed animals, and how feeding our companion animals a vegan diet can benefit not only our global ecological crisis, but support our dog’s and cat’s health so they can thrive. 

Resources:

Sonoma County VegFest, September 23, 2023

Jan’s Website

The Holistic Animal Health Series Books By Jan Allegretti:

The Complete Holistic Dog Book: Home Health Care for Our Canine Companions

The Fresh & Flexible Meal Plan: The Easiest, Most Nutritious Way to Feed Your Dog and Cat

Listen to the Silence: Lessons from Trees and Other Masters 

Vegan Supplements for Dogs and Cats:

Compassion Circle

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Compassionate Living

Hope for the Animals Podcast

We open today’s episode with Hope sharing some thoughts on the destructive EATS Act making its way through US legislation and then we have JH Burnett joining us from South Africa. JH spent years farming in both the sheep industry on his family’s sheep farm in South Africa as well as in the dairy industry. The experience sent JH into a deep depression and he left farming to dedicate himself to animal liberation and recently released a vegan memoir and offering services as a life coach. Join us for this incredible story of transformation. 

Resources:

Veganism Has Won

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Compassionate Living

Hope for the Animals Podcast

Ruchika Chitrabhanu was born and raised in a Jain family and pursued her Master’s in Philosophy in Jainism. Inspired by Gurudev Chitrabhanu and Smt. Pramoda Chitrabhanu, Ruchika has been a vegan for over seventeen years, and she raises awareness about animal compassion and the benefits of following a vegan lifestyle through events and festivals in India. She is a co-founder of Ahimsafest, India's largest vegan festival, she also co-founded The Earthen One, an events platform to help people transition to a vegan lifestyle, and she is a board member of Jain Vegan Initiative. Ruchika will be a keynote presenter at our upcoming Ahimsa Vegan Conference.  

Resources:

Ahimsa Vegan Conference

Gurudev Chitrabhanu and Smt. Pramoda Chitrabhanu

AhimsaFest in India

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Compassionate Living

Hope for the Animals Podcast

Dr. Tushar Mehta practices Emergency Medicine in the Toronto area and is the co-founder of Towards Ahimsa and Plant Based Data, a free database which organizes academic and institutional literature regarding plant-based diet health, environment, food security, and zoonotic pandemic risk. Tushar will be speaking at Compassionate Living’s upcoming Ahimsa Vegan Conference. 

Tushar joins us to discuss the environmental impact of animal agriculture and thoroughly debunks “regenerative” grazing. He also addresses common arguments for eating local and other “sustainable” meat, dairy, and eggs. He warns of animal farming’s resource intensive use of land and water and offers solutions that we so desperately need as we swelter in the new normal of extreme summer heat, floods, and fires. This is a rebroadcast of an interview with Tushar in 2021. 

Resources:

Ahimsa Vegan Conference

Another Industry Attempt to Greenwash Beef

Plant-Based Data

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Compassionate Living

Hope for the Animals Podcast