Why should be care about bees? Why should we avoid honey and beeswax? Vegans want to eliminate as much harm, exploitation, and killing as possible. When animals are farmed for profit, there is always compromise of their wellbeing, and bees farmed for their honey and beeswax are no exception. Ethical veganism is about getting justice over the species barrier, and in this case it’s concern for the amazing, beautiful bee.

In this short episode, our host Hope Bohanec offers her knowledge about honey bees. We learn about their fascinating and complex lives, details of honey farming practices, and the truth about how our interference and manipulation of bees is hurting them and the entire planet.

Vegans are careful to read ingredients, to make sure no animal products are in our meals, we scrutinize products for animal testing, but what about a 401k? What about an investment portfolio? What kind of animal use and abuse do investments support? More than you would ever consider putting your money into if you had a choice. Our guest today is working on a solution. Claire Smith and her team have a first of its kind vegan investment option tailored to exclude any and all animal exploitation.

Claire Smith is the founder of humane investment platform Beyond Investing. She is a vegan and environmentalist with 38 years’ experience in finance and investment at top-tier banks and investment houses. Beyond Investing creates investment programs designed for animal advocates and climate-conscious investors in both public listed equity markets and venture capital. Based in Switzerland, Claire is the founder of Beyond Cruelty Foundation, formed to campaign for zero animal exploitation and to fund safe havens for animals. This foundation will also receive a portion of profits of companies under the Beyond Investing umbrella.

Resources:

Websites:

www.beyondinvesting.com

www.veganetf.com

Social media links:

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeyondInvest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-investing/

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

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Tapping into fandom with animal protection and vegan messages, The Protego Foundation accesses sci-fi, fantasy, and other other devoted fan communities to advocate for animals. Our guest is Brittany Drake, campaigns director for The Protego Foundation. Brittany talks about the foundation’s creative campaigns such as getting vegan butter beer offered at the Harry Potter theme parks, a Game of Thrones inspired campaign encouraging vendors at fan conventions not to use wild animals as props for photos, and their latest campaign around the release of the movie sequel, Wicked For Good.

Brittany and Hope go on to talk about the animal rights and vegan themes in numerous movies and televisions entertainment, unpacking the animal personhood vision of Wicked, the strong animal characters in The Wizard of Oz, disturbing animal eating parallels in Stargate Atlantis, and vegetarianism in Avatar: The Last Airbender. They also talk about how the use of fictional creatures and characters can garner an audience's imagination and empathy for animals.

Brittany Drake is the campaigns director for The Protego Foundation. She has helped with countless campaigns and seen several achieve success including Starbucks’ dropping of the vegan upcharge for nondairy milks, Harvard and UMass closing their monkey labs, and Farmer John closing their Los Angeles slaughterhouse. In addition to her campaign work, she has rescued farmed animals and been arrested for civil disobedience on multiple occasions.

Resources:

The Protego Foundation

The Protego Foundation Mailing List

(related) Hope for the Animals Podcast, episode 127: From Teddy Bears to Talking Fish: Children’s Media and Animal Personhood with Cogen and Hope Bohanec

Recommended Movies:

Wicked and Wicked For Good

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Chimp Crazy

Okja

Support this podcast:

Hope for the Animals Podcast

Compassionate Living

Social Media:

Facebook

Instagram

YouTube