EP 899 Animal Festivals and Other Human Behaviors: When Do the Animals Have Their Say?

As a dog parent, I bristle at doggie dress-ups at the local pet supply store, yet I still eat meat.  Call me a hypocrite.  I accept the critique.  And yet when it comes to animals, there is a stratification as to how we treat them and the title of a book published a few years back most aptly put it, “Some We Love, Some We Hate and Some We Eat.”  Our guest, Elizabeth Melampy, author of “Forget the Camel: The Madcap World of Animal Festivals and What They Say About Being Human,” and an animal rights attorney, tries to answer in the book the profound question of what makes humans different from animals, since as we are reminded early on in it that our origin story must start with accepting the fact that humans are animals. The modality she uses to expertly delve into the subject are the dozens of festivals around the country that use animals as the central theme.  It becomes clear, like the doggie dress ups shows, how we often disregard the needs of the animals even as we host events seemingly in their honor.  We go on to discuss a range of animal rights issues in this compelling podcast.

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