About the moral and legal status of animals.
On January 4, 1903, a female Asian elephant called Topsy was electrocuted to death on Coney Island, New York. I first learned about Topsy in the 1990s. I was working with the talented film-maker Jayne Loader on her outstanding documentary about animals. Jayne’s film was composed of pre-existing footage from many sources woven together to… Read More
Knowing Animals is a regular 30 minutes podcast about all things related to animals and ethics; animals and the law; animals and politics; and animal advocacy. It features interviews with academic and animal advocates. Episode 155 features an interview with yours truly. Host Josh Milburn invited me to discuss two topics. First, my chapter, ‘A… Read More
Notwithstanding those who say to the contrary, authors appreciate reviews, particularly when they’re positive. Recently, I discovered an enthusiastic review of my book, Growl, posted anonymously on Amazon. The author then contacted me and my delight in the review was enhanced when I discovered who it was. It’s for these reasons that I want to… Read More
The Kim Stallwood Archive of research material documenting the history of the animal rights movement will become part of the British Library’s permanent holdings starting in autumn 2020. The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and provides information services to academic, business, research, and scientific communities. My unique archive chronicle the animal… Read More
Animal advocates often moan about politicians because they don’t care about animals. They also complain about how existing legislation for animals is often biased in favour of those abusing animals. I share these frustrations. I also believe there’s a way forward for the animal rights movement to ensure our elected representatives and governments do care about animals and act effectively on their behalf. I advocate a strategy to put animals into politics.… Read More
Tired of living in a world where animals have no value. Wherever you look, they’re treated like garbage. Fine to export them across oceans even though thousands of them die en route. OK to let them burn alive trapped in cages in factory farms because they’re not worth anything—not even a water sprinkler system or… Read More
Topsy was in her late twenties when she was murdered at Luna Park on Coney Island in New York on January 4, 1903. The murder scene is one of America’s first theme parks at a time when the United States emerges as an industrial world leader. My use of the word “murder” rather than “killed” is deliberate. Her life and death represent the fate of many animals—not just elephants and not just in the entertainment industry. Even though some thought her guilty, I felt she was innocent.… Read More
The U.K. General Election of 2019 will most likely go down in the record books as the Brexit Election. But, to their great credit, many politicians, political parties, some parts of the media, and campaign groups, such as Extinction Rebellion, have turned it into the Climate Election. The political parties themselves, particularly the Conservatives… Read More
I will be a speaker at the MANCEPT Workshops, which is an annual conference in political theory organised under the auspices of the Manchester Centre for Political Theory. My presentation, Putting Animals into Politics, will be part of the workshop series called “Just Animals? The Future of the Political Turn in Animal Ethics.” The Mancept… Read More
“The Oxford Group and the Emergence of Animal Rights: An Intellectual History” is the name of a research project led by Professor Robert Garner and Research Associate Yewande Okuleye from the University of Leicester. Recently, Robert and Yewande visited my office to record an interview with me and review materials in my animal rights collection for the project.The Oxford Group is the name given to an informal group of young academics who lived in Oxford in the 1970s who became vegetarians and explored animal ethics. The Oxford Group is generally recognized as initiating the philosophical foundation to the contemporary debate about our ethical relationship with other animals. The Oxford Group is an important but little-known historical development in animal ethics and the animal rights movement. This research project, and the subsequent publication of a book, are the first of their kind to explore the Oxford Group.… Read More
The Kim Stallwood YouTube channel is now open! There are eight videos to watch and listen to where I give different presentations about the Politics of Love; the Animal Rights Movement; Why Animals Matter; the Knowing Animals podcast interview; and Topsy, the elephant we must never forget. The videos were made in the UK, Luxembourg, Mexico, Poland, and Finland from 2012 to 2018. More videos will be added as they become available.… Read More
At the Politics of Love conference at All Souls College, Oxford on December 15, 2018, I made a presentation about Animal Rights. This film is the video of my PowerPoint presentation and the live audio of me giving the talk. I want to thank Max Harris and Philip McKibbin for inviting me to speak at this special event.… Read More
Anyone eavesdropping on the conversation among friends in a pub in East Sussex one recent Saturday evening may have been bewildered by the range of topics they discussed. Hunting. Sabbing. Arrests. Prison. League Against Cruel Sports. Countryside Alliance. Pranking the police. RSPCA. Vegan. Brexit. Fooling the hunt. Animal sanctuaries. Chicken eggs and women’s periods. Hunt Saboteurs Association. Smoking beagles. Demonstrations. And so on.… Read More
On January 4, 1903, an Asian elephant called Topsy was electrocuted to death on Coney Island, New York. One hundred and fifteen years later, I remember Topsy in my chapter in Animal Biography: Re-framing Animal Lives edited Andre Krebber and Mieke Roscher and published by Palgrave in their series Studies in Animals and Literature.… Read More
On January 1, 1974, I became a vegetarian and two years later a vegan. Also, in 1976, unbeknownst to me, I started to work full-time for animal rights with some of the world’s leading animal advocacy organizations.… Read More
In August 1977, Compassion In World Farming’s co-founder, Peter Roberts, took me as his Campaigns Officer to a symposium organised by the RSPCA at Trinity College, Cambridge. This conference, which was called ‘The Rights of Animals’, was my first opportunity to meet and hear from the philosophers Tom Regan (1938-2017) and Stephen Clark, the authors Brigid Brophy (1929-1995) and Ruth Harrison (1920-2000), the campaigners Clive Hollands (1929–1996) and Lord Houghton of Sowerby (1898–1996), the psychologist Richard D. Ryder, and the Reverend Andrew Linzey, an authority in Christianity and animal rights.… Read More
Catherine Oliver is a Doctoral Researcher in Human Geography, at The School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham. Her Ph.D. Research is called “Changing Spaces of Animal Rights Activism in the U.K.” Her study looks to better understand how and why the animal rights movement has changed in the U.K. since 1950.… Read More
In 2012, I wrote here that Sue Coe is “quite simply, my favourite living artist.” For me, her work sits “proudly along a continuum which includes George Grosz, Otto Dix, Kathe Kollwitz, on the one hand, and El Greco, Thomas Bewick and Goya, on the other.”… Read More
Knowing Animals is among my favourites of podcasts that I follow. It’s hosted by Siobhan O’Sullivan, the Australian political scientist and political theorist who is currently a lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales. With nearly 80 30-minute episodes produced, Knowing Animals addresses animals and ethics; animals and the law; animals and politics; and animal advocacy. It features interviews with academic and animal advocates. … Read More
Between 1976 and 1978 I was campaigns organiser for Compassion In World Farming. My duties included representing Compassion at various events, organising local groups, public speaking, and producing newsletters and other public educational materials. As Compassion’s second full-time employee, I was very fortunate to work directly with its co-founder, Peter Roberts, who I learned a great deal from. Please read my book, Growl (Lantern Books), for more on my animal advocacy.… Read More