Anthony Damiano—president and co-founder of the Alliance for Earth, Life, Liberty & Advocacy (AELLA), an environmental, animal and human rights organization—discusses his childhood and formative years as an activist, launched when he began writing about environmental issues. 
He recalls an experience more than a decade ago, observing an isolated beluga whale pushing around a beach ball at SeaWorld, as a pivotal moment that crystalized his feelings about animal exploitation (as did working with birds) and helped formulate the broad yet integrated perspective about the welfare of animals—both human and nonhuman animals—that would become a guiding tenet of AELLA. On a very related note, Damiano notes the staggering impact that animal agriculture (including the billions of cows on the planet) has on the environment, one day after the White House released a significant report, the National Climate Assessment, indicating that climate change is real, it’s here and it’s already having significant impact. Also in the conversation Damiano addresses an ongoing, major AELLA campaign, Stopcrush.org—the initiative 
was founded in 2008 by Marla Stormwolf Patty, co-founder of AELLA–striving through legislation and other means to end the production, sale and consumption of crush videos, a brand of pornography that represents the horrid collision of animal cruelty and human depravity. (http://aella.org, www.stopcrush.org, www.facebook.com/AELLA.ORG, www.facebook.com/STOPCRUSH.ORG)
COMEDY CORNER: Jim Gaffigan’s “Whales” (portion) (www.jimgaffigan.com)
MUSIC: Rebekah Pulley’s “Talking Animals Theme,” Good Graeff’s “White Horses,” Victor Wainwright and the Wildroots’ “Big Dog’s Running This Town,” instrumentals
NAME THAT ANIMAL TUNE: Duran Duran “Hungry Like The Wolf”
AUDIO ARCHIVE:
Listen Online Now:
