In March of this year The UK government declared that lobsters, crabs, octopuses and related species will be included under the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill. This means that they can finally get legal protection that protects them from practices like being boiled alive and having the tendons of their pincers cut. All I can say is if you need a law to stop you from engaging in such horrific practices….shame on you.

Today my guests are two renowned philosophers, Alice Crary and Lori Gruen who have published a new book called Animal Crisis: A New Critical Theory.

Among other important issues they tackle, they invite us to rethink and recalibrate our relationship with other species. Incidentally, hey have a chapter on Octopuses and discuss the film My Octopus Teacher. Personally I was not a fan of the film. However, it put octopuses on the mental map of people. At the same time, many of those same people will happily eat octopuses while raving about the film. This is the depth of our cognitive dissonance when it comes to connecting with individual animals while purchasing a meal made of the very same species. OK, I’m not the philosopher, they are.

If you want to connect Lori Gruen you can check out her website: http://www.lorigruen.com where you will find tons of videos, her other books, and interviews. You can also follow her on Twitter @last1000chimps. To keep up with Alice Crary you can visit her website: https://alicecrary.com and check out her other books and links to other interviews.

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