Preventing Pandemics & Mistreatment of Animals via the Convention on Animal Protection, a global treaty (interview with Dr. Raj Reddy)

Law professor Dr. Raj Reddy explains an important new global treaty for animal welfare and pandemic prevention called “Convention on Animal Protection” found at https://www.conventiononanimalprotection.org/   This is a first draft of a treaty prepared by Lawyers for the Convention on Animal Protection, following the passage of a resolution on animal protection by the American Bar Association House of Delegates in February 2021 which “urges all nations to negotiate an international convention for the protection of animals that establishes standards for the proper care and treatment of all animals to protect public health, the environment, and animal well-being.”  In this 26-minute podcast, host of In Tune to Nature, Carrie Freeman, speaks with Raj Reddy, JD, PhD who directs the Global Animal Law and Animal Law Advanced Degree Programs at the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School in Oregon, USA. He discusses the purpose and need for the Convention on Animal Protection global treaty that nations and international bodies could ratify that guides animal welfare policies to better protect the interests of nonhuman animals, as well as humans (via public health) and our mutual life-preserving interests in environmental sustainability. We especially concentrate on the One Health concept and how the treaty addresses the holistic approach to preventing future pandemics (and zoonotic disease transmission) by dramatically improving our interactions with fellow animals in wild and domesticated settings. If we go back to business as usual in trading in and confining and eating nonhuman animals, we will continue to see more frequent and probably more virulent pandemics in human society. Now is the time to leverage the political will to act to set standards for how we relate to the nonhuman animal world. This Convention on Animal Protection is one way to get started, so please do promote it with your political leaders. Check it out at www.conventiononanimalprotection.org In Tune to Nature is an eco and animal protection radio program hosted by Carrie Freeman, Sonia Swartz, and Melody Paris as part of Radio Free Georgia’s progressive indie media programming. It streams weekly on Wednesdays from 6:30-7pm EST on www.wrfg.org and 89.3FM-Atlanta radio and can also be subscribed to on streaming sites via podcasts and shared at https://cpfreeman.podbean.com/. Please consider making a financial donation to support non-commercial, indie media with a mission at www.wrfg.org (40+ years strong). Take care of yourself and others, including other species!