Jon Erik West, a Finnish journalist, documentary filmmaker, and vegan whose passion for dogs has spanned over 30 years in both his private life and professional work. Jon's recent documentary is pioneering. Please watch at https://mydogisavegan.com

Jon’s exceptional career in investigative journalism is backed by grants from the Karuna Foundation (US), Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU), Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike), and Free Press Unlimited (FPU). As a long-standing member of the Union of Journalists in Finland, Jon has shaped perspectives in the media industry since 1992, always putting the welfare of animals at the forefront.

Julius Kirumira, a dynamic young advocate from Uganda, is at the forefront of a growing movement for veganism and animal rights across Africa. As the founder of Vegan Planet Africa, Julius’s work is rooted in a deeply personal journey—sparked by the loss of his beloved dog, Max, to poisoning. This tragedy inspired him to dedicate his life to protecting all animals, promoting plant-based living, and building a more sustainable future for his community and continent. 

The Vision Behind Vegan Planet Africa

Founded in 2019, Vegan Planet Africa is committed to spreading awareness about the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle, not only as a dietary choice but as a conscious decisionaligned with compassion, health, and environmental sustainability. Julius’s vision extends beyond individual change; he aspires to influence policy, build strategic partnerships, and empower communities to adopt compassionate andeco-friendly lifestyles.

 Navigating Cultural Challenges in Uganda

Veganism in Uganda faces unique challenges. Eating meat is often seen as a symbol of wealth and celebration, while economic constraints mean many Ugandans already eat mostlyplant-based diets but aspire to consume more meat. Julius emphasises the importance of focusing on animal welfare and gradual change, rather than imposing veganism outright. Through education, outreach, and collaboration, Vegan Planet Africa seeks to shift perceptions and reduce meat consumption by highlighting the ethical and health benefits of plant-based living.

Project Funding andCommunity Impact

Despite the significance of their work, Julius and his team face ongoing challenges in securing funding for their projects. Initiatives like the Aqua Bloom Uganda Project, which protects marine life and promotes sustainable practices, have only been possible through a combination of small grants and individual donations. Other programs, such as Art for Change and Farm Animal Advocacy, often struggle with limited resources, making it difficult to expand their reach and collaborate withorganizations in neighbouring countries.

Food Security and Animal Welfare in Urban Uganda

Julius highlights the complex issues surrounding food security in Uganda’s urban centres, where high meat consumption meets limited access to sustainable food sources. Poorconditions for farmed animals, inadequate vaccination, and suffering during transport pose both human health risks and animal welfare concerns. Addressing these issues requires a focus on strengthening food systems, implementingstricter animal welfare laws, and improving conditions during transport.

Expanding Plant-BasedOptions and Youth Engagement

The rise of fast-food chains like KFC in Uganda has been limited by affordability, especially in rural areas. Julius sees an opportunity to introduce plant-based alternatives, citing previous successes where over 20 restaurants added vegan options to their menus. Engaging youth is a key strategy, as younger generations are more open to change and have the potential to drive long-term impact. Educational programs have already reached thousands of students, fostering curiosity and compassion for animals.

Policy Advocacy and Positive Messaging

Julius’s approach to advocacy emphasizes constructive engagement with policymakers and the broadercommunity. Rather than focusing solely on criticism, he seeks collaborative solutions—such as addressing street dog welfare and working with religious and communityleaders. Positive messaging and practical examples resonate with audiences and help build momentum for change.

“Choose compassion, make a difference, and create a more sustainable world for all.” – Julius Kirumira

SHEVEGA TALKS

https://www.shevega.com

Infographics

Vegan Planet Africa - the Animal Friendly podcasthttps://www.animalfriendly.earth/20-vegan-planet-africa/https://sustainablelifestylehub.org/2024/09/05/vegan-planet-africa-a-small-but-mighty-ugandan-organisation-championing-change/

The Rise of Plant-Based Diets for Companion Animals: Insights from Shevega Talks

In this Episode of Shevega Talks, host Ruby Sandhu—an ethical vegan, co-founder of Shevega.com (sustainable pet nutrition), senior international lawyer, and member of the Vegan Society's International Rights Work—brought together two leading experts, Professor Andrew Knight and co-founder Dr Malina Fielder, to answer critical questions about plant-based diets for companion animals, focusing on both dogs and cats.

The discussion explored scientific evidence, clinical experience, and the future of vegan pet nutrition.

Meet the Experts

Professor Andrew Knight is a globally recognised veterinary specialist in animal welfare. He is affiliated with Murdoch University School of Veterinary Medicine and Griffith University in Australia, as well as the University of Winchester in the UK. Knight’s distinguished career began with animal advocacy campaigns inAustralia, including opposition to the live sheep trade in the early 1990s. He practiced as a small animal veterinarian in London for a decade before moving into academia, where he became the Founding Director of the Centre for AnimalWelfare at Winchester. Professor Knight holds veterinary specialist credentials in the UK, Europe, America, and New Zealand, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. He has earned two PhDs: one in 2024 on vegan pet food and its health, behavioural, and environmental implications, and another in 2010 critiquing scientific and educational animal use. With around 150 academic and 80 popular publications, Knight is also the author of The Routledge Handbook of Animal Welfare and The Costs and Benefits of Animal Experiments. He is a frequent media commentator, has received over 20 awards and research grants, and his studies on vegan pet food are widely reported globally. He also maintains the website https://www.sustainablepetfood.info, which provides up-to-date research and resources on vegan companion animal diets, the environment and sustainability.

Dr. Malina Fielder, DVM is the co-founder of https://www.Shevega.coma practicing veterinarian, and an experienced animal nutritionist with more than 30 years of expertise in small animal medicine, surgery, and nutrition.She is the creator of the Modified Human Diet (MHD) plans for pets and is passionate about animal rights and welfare. Dr. Fielder advocates for vegan diets for dogs, emphasising that such diets can be optimal and healthy when they are complete, balanced, and based on professionally calculated plans withhigh-quality ingredients. She highlights the well-known benefits of plant-based diets, including detoxification, improved liver and kidney health, better coat quality, reduced parasites, improved arthritic signs, and support for thyroid issues. Dr. Fielder also recommends Shevega supplements alongside homemade diet plans for pets.

Host Ruby Sandhu, FRSA brings her own journey as an ethical vegan and animal advocate to the heart of Shevega’s mission, emphasising that responsibility to animals extends beyond our own plates to the choices we make for our pets. This ethos shapes everything we do, from product development to customer education and advocacy. Here are some of the common questions that are asked about vegan diets for companion animals and the responses from our experts.

Jan Deckers is a Senior Lecturer in Health Care Ethics in the School of Medicine at Newcastle University. His specialisms include animal ethics, ethics of genetics, naturalness, reproductive ethics, and veganism. He spent his undergraduate years studying philosophy, religious studies, and theology at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) before obtaining a PhD from the University of St Andrews (Scotland) with a dissertation on ecological ethics. He started his work at Newcastle University in 2001. He published ‘Animal (De)liberation: Should the Consumption of Animal Products Be Banned?’ with Ubiquity Press in 2016 and ‘Fundamentals of Critical Thinking in Health Care Ethics and Law’ with Owl Press in November 2023. You can read more about his work here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medicine/people/profile/jandeckers.html

book 1: Animal (De) Liberation

Retail price: 

Hardback: £24.99; Paperback: £15.99

Digital formats free thanks to a grant from the Wellcome Trust: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/bay/

book 2: Fundamentals of Critical Thinking in Health care Ethics and Law

Retail price: 

£22.00; available from various outlets, including: https://www.centralbooks.com/fundamentals-of-critical-thinking-in-health-care-ethics-and.html

 Table of contents:

Chapter 1: A short introduction to health care ethics and law

Chapter 2: Autonomy and its limits

Chapter 3: Duties of care, confidentiality, candour, and cost minimisation

Chapter 4: The creation and use of human embryos for human reproduction

Chapter 5: When is it acceptable to use non-human animals to promote human health?

Chapter 6: Research ethics

Chapter 7: Ethics in relation to pregnancy termination

Chapter 8: Is genetic engineering justified?

Chapter 9: Human embryo research in embryonic stem cell and cloning debates

Chapter 10: Ethical and legal issues related to the end of life

Altamush Saeed is a BIPOC Award Winning, Pakistani Interspecies Justice lawyer, activist, philanthropist, teacher and a filmmaker. He holds 4 advanced law degrees including an Animal Law LLM from Lewis and Clark Law School, being the first Pakistani recipient of the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights and Policy International Scholarship. He also holds a Human Rights LLM from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was the Comparative and International Law Scholar and winner of the Myint Zan LLM Prize and the outstanding LLM Student for Pro-Bono Service, and a BA-LLB from Lahore University of Management Sciences. In December 2023, he completed an Environmental Law LLM as an Environmental Law LLM Ambassador Scholarship recipient at Lewis and Clark Law School. He is an Animal , Environmental and Animals in Disasters Law Lecturer at the University of Central Punjab Law School in Lahore and Nust Law School in Islamabad where he teaches Pakistan's 1st Animal Law Advocacy, Intl Animal and Environmental law and Animal Disaster Law Courses .

Altamush is known for his non-profit work in Interspecies Justice, earning him the 2022 LUMS Alumni Achievement Award (Youngest LUMS Law School Winner) and the 2023 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Trailblazer in Animal Welfare Award from the Humane Society of the United States and the Inaugural DEI Trailblazer Spark Award recipient at the HSUS Expo 2024. He is the Founder and lead of Pakistan's 1st International Animal and Environmental Rights Conference and Director for Pakistan's 1st Animal law Advocacy Film series, an International Animal Law Expert for Pakistan at World Animal Justice, and a Co-Founder of Charity Doings Foundation Pakistan and Founding Managing Partner At Environmental and Animal Rights Consultants, Pakistan’s 1st dedicated Animal and Environmental law and policy firm. He is the Founder and Chair of Pakistan's 1st notified Animal Law Committee at the Lahore High Court Bar Association of Pakistan.

My handles are:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/altamushsaeed95

https://www.instagram.com/altamushsaeed?igsh=NTJldWhkbW9jM3Zk

https://www.facebook.com/share/18Xs5DqDxR/

https://charitydoings.org/legal-advocacy-earc/

https://charitydoings.org/conference

Founder and Lead of Pakistan's 1st International Animal and Environmental Rights Conference, bestowing the Animal and Environmental Rights Champions to Honorable Justice Athar Minallah of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and Dr. Amir Khalil of Four Paws International. Both of them are my heroes. While Justice Athar wrote Pakistan's arguably greatest animal rights judgment granting intrinsic sentient rights to animals and shutting down zoo prison camps for animals, Dr. Amir Khalil is our go to veterinarian for all wild animals in Pakistan. Every time, Dr. Amir has been needed to help the animals of Pakistan, he has been there.

This photo was taken place at Pakistan's 1st International Animal and Environmental Rights Conference which took place on 18 and 19 January 2025 at Pearl Continental Hotel Lahore Pakistan.

We are changing Pakistan one step at a time.

This podcast is on Joyce D’Silva recent publication - Animal Welfare in World Religion - Teaching and Practice.

Joyce DiSilva  is Ambassador Emeritus for Compassion in World Farming, the leading charity advancing the welfare of farm animals worldwide. She is co-editor of The Meat Crisis: Developing More Sustainable and Ethical Production and Consumption (Routledge, 2017) and Farming, Food and Nature: Respecting Animals, People and the Environment(Routledge, 2018). She has been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Winchester and the University of Keele, UK, and is a patron of the Animal Interfaith Alliance.

Angela Crawford, Ph.D. brings her background in psychology to empower people toward plant-powered living for greater physical and emotional well-being. She is author of "The Vegan Transformation: A Journey to Heal Yourself and the World" (Lantern, 2025).

As a Vegan Lifestyle Educator, she speaks at Veg Fests, writes articles, and teaches about thriving emotionally and socially as a vegan; the connection between food and mood; overcoming barriers to lifestyle change; and values alignment and compassion. Her YouTube channel, @TheVeganTransformation, shares inspiring interviews and insights for flourishing with a plant-powered, vegan lifestyle.

She holds a doctorate in clinical psychology. She previously worked as a psychotherapist for 25 years, empowering clients to make lifestyle changes to address stress and trauma and achieve holistic well-being. She holds certifications in Plant-Based Nutrition (T. Colin Campbell Institute for Nutrition Studies at e-Cornell), as a Master Vegan Lifestyle Coach and Educator (Main Street Vegan Academy), and as a Transformational Coach.

Dr. Crawford is passionate about the power of personal transformation to create a more fulfilling, healthy, and purposeful life - and a kinder, more sustainable world.

Meet our Mr Sandip Kumar, based in South India, he has 20 years immersed in the vibrant world of Indian textiles. He has traversed every nook and cranny of this industry.

Sandip is passionate about ethical and sustainable fashion, his mission is to champion natural materials and craft based techniques for women.

He is committed to shaping the future of Indian markets and is dedicated to creating a fusion of tradition and innovation in the realm of fashion.

Importantly as a practising Jain he had an epiphany when taking over his father's silk business, and realised the extraordinary cruelty in the making of silk and started his journey in how to create alternative cruelty free silk.

In addition to cruelty free silk he has been working on ensuring that the indigenous artisanal community are also brought along in this journey and transition as well as looking at sustainable and environment friendly dyes and processes.

Please reach out to Sandip on [email protected] and please do visit his website and shop at www.handanyarns.com

Dr Jeanette Rowley is a consultant leading authority on veganism and law and has led the promotion of the legal rights of vegans for over a decade. She is the founder and chair of The Vegan Society’s International Rights Network (formerly The International Vegan Rights Alliance established in 2012). She manages The Vegan Society’s rights, and advocacy service and recently introduced The Vegan Society’s education function to promote a rights-based approach to much-needed vegan-inclusive education for all pupils.

Jeanette conducted and published a groundbreaking survey in 2013 on vegans’ experiences of equality and in 2014 published Vegan Rights: Questions and Answers. She contributed a chapter in a volume published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2016, published Toward a Vegan Jurisprudence: the need for a reorientation of human rights in 2020, and in 2021 published Vegan Freedom of Conscience Around the World with co-Editor Dr Carol Prisco. She has also contributed countless blogs and articles to various organisations.

Over the last decade, Jeanette has held conferences around the world on vegan legal issues and inspired and mentored vegan campaigners and lawyers helping them to consider the use of available legal measures to advance veganism and protect vegans. She has defended the rights of vegans to practice veganism whether at work, school, and college or when in the care or control of other state authorities, and has had a significant impact on equality policy in both the public and private sectors. She has successfully dealt with countless formal grievances, achieved out-of-court settlements, been involved in employment tribunals, provided consultancy to solicitors and barristers as well as intervened in vegan cases at the European Court of Human Rights. She has also engaged with high-profile international initiatives including promoting the rights of vegan children to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Jeanette is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Religion and Belief Network. She is an advisor to Vegan Option Canada and an honorary member of The Hungarian Vegan Society.

Mark Randell spent 30 years in the UK police, retiring as a senior detective responsible for tackling serious crime and terrorism through investigations and international collaboration. This included gun and narcotic operations, homicides, and human trafficking. His focus was criminal motivation, analysis, and policing strategy.

Since retirement, Mark has carried out covert investigations and training around the world on crimes against animals. This work has reached Australia, Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. In addition, Mark has been involved in documentaries for the BBC and Vice News and regularly features in the media as a subject expert.

Now, with a UK based charity, Naturewatch Foundation, he collaborates with police officers, prosecutors, and politicians globally to highlight the relevance of animal-based crimes within society, helping to develop legislation and policy that keeps both animals and people safer.