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with a breif pa karenge nine to office
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and injured buffalo
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north this look at the buffalo on theground they looked at me
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and as our eyes met those an unspokengrief between the three of us
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choose a beautifully wall that innocentcreature
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wolf is listed the muzzle of these awfulto hear
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at that moment
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she started to give birth
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as loss that some of her mature cafre-examine the injuries
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back leg being cord and i just ran twicenow
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to foster freedom to start in so long
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but she griffith told us in half
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which is finally free
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but isn't gentleman today are still agreat sense of responsibility
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in speaking to you on behalf of clothesthat never code
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this suffering
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is my grief
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is my motivation
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martin luther king day summarizes mycold aunty today
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he said the comes a time when one musttake a position if they decide
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no political
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no popula
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but he must take that position becausehe's conscience tells him
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at its wrought
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because he's conscience tells him
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it is wrought
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biggest all come in our school question
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at questions the only reason i traveledhere today all the way from african
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savannah
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a question for ms clings wants all
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how you answer that question will alwaysbe yours
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remember watching the movie the wizardof oz as a young kid
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i was never scared of the whichwell-defined monkeys
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my greatest fear is that i grew up withthe line
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without courage
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brabois asking myself if i thought to bebright
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we use up the dorset matter went back tokansas
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and the wife and his carriage
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i walked into a tether pollard had thewould seek and destroy
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senator chris purchased
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before that it might be bigan breif
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but i tell my student carried a growingto those words
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budget when you have become a clearancegovern the nightly
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what twenty five
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as a special operations naba
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you exactly have any pics of elevationon eight of them start more awful
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to take a head shot on a moving targetfrom seven of the made his way
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and exactly how many grams of hikesplaces it takes the bus is still quite
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tool for money if you made his way withthat one myself
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wanton dumping on him
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i need to baghdad was a shitty place
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when things go bang
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will people door
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the back then
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i had no idea what a conservationist itother than countries of piss off large
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corporations
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argue that it lots
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a new that's like that
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i really give a shit about theenvironment washer dryer
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i was the idiot used to speed up thesecatastrophic birds on the road
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model offers a world away fromconcentration
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expanding or news doing things in reallife
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most people wouldn't dream of trying toplay station
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loftus fault it was to rock
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as a cycle of miss anna
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skills i hadn't been for one thing
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i was programmed to destroy
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looking back now
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on everything off time
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and the prices of bain in my heart
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of oliver perform one trip to pray foryou
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analysis of which us officials and yesfor this audit nine
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there was that one act which defines mecompletely
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and shows them that would be separationbetween who i am
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and what i did
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well-funded if the rock before me i waslost awful uh...
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said no at the rose garden waffles mettoday in our austin africa the beginning
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it's because an unknown
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house i just went on at home
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somehow i was not for the purposeamongst cuts and that's exactly what
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happened
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but no idea that
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unfunded
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in a remote part
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of zimbabwe bush
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andrew patrolling along the vulturescircled in here
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and as we go close to the states if thiseconomy
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in the end of the six doc file
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sucked the oxygen ideologues
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and as we go closer
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there was a great bull elephant
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resting on its side
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with its fis cutaway
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and the world around me stopped
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os can share my date
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and overwhelming sadness sing innocentreaches killed like this if you know i
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like nothing before
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what actually parses it a night in thename result expert dr
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on the chinese leader
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something in salt was in this time
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that's never going to be again
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i asked myself
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is that elephant
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needed spies
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open some blind eyes major task uneasedisk
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buckles of but it does i was a relevant
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all that mattered there and then
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this would all be brave enough
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to give up everything in my life
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to transport the suffering of animals
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this is the one true too far in montanamarch
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yes or not
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a contact in the family the next day
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begin selling warehouses
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his assets would go as mention thequickly cause of the prices of war
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what studies since being used to faminegrow the international any party
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foundation
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the ivf_ is a direct action
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law-enforcement organization
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from drying technology
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twenty two national qualification forrenters
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we're battling each and every day tobring military solutions conservation
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finger in line
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the my story might is for the unique
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but i'm not gonna use it to talk to saythat the organization around
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and what what we could have been apretty good fundraiser
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for memo
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president of course i mean i ask you atthe end
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is it impossible for me to get up hereand talk about deciding what what what i
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know the problem
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of animal welfare
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is much broader throughout society
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she is after i saw that elephant or whatup very early one morning
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already knew the answer to the questionas a better ask myself
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that was the first time put into words
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does a cow bell you it's lost
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more than i enjoy barbecue
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to be guilty all the start of whatstands species is in
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species is in his very much society'sracism or sexism
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involves the allocation of a differentset of values brought to a special
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considerations the individuals
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by sali on who or what they are
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the realize i shipped the flexiblemorality argues this is my everyday
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conveniences made me sick in the stomach
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schadler flooding parts of asia furtherinsight into the mound of audrey and ron
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i won't
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and the why the region's boomingeconomic growth
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is dramatically increase in illegalwildlife trade
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when i woke up that morning are realized
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even now dekat umah loss
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deciding animals
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him on my nose now better than a poacher
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organizer of the test plans test
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estes over consump tive
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nikita
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of referred to some animals is based
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when in reality up in the based
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destructively obedient
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a slave to my habits skull shoulder
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to my conscience
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we've all had contact with pics or otheranimals in our lives
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which aren't in our understanding thefeelings that each animal has
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the ability to stop the plane loneliness
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and two fea
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la casa lsa
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each animal has the ability to expresscontentment
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to build family structures and won't
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satisfying basic instincts and desires
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For many of us though that's as far as we allow
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our imagination to explore
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before the truth
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inconveniences our habits.
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the disconnect that exists betweenconsuming a product
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and the reality takes to bring thatproduct marketing phenomenon so itself
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animals are treated like commodities andreferred to as property
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we caught motive to kill a human beingit correct legal
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and you're going to set of what would beregarded as to what refused to involved
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and we pay people to do things danamongst
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that none of us
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winged edging personally
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just because we don't see up close
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does not mean window responsible
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paid a singer
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the men the popularize the ten spacesism right
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although the many differences betweenanimals and humans
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they teach you the ability to stuff
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we must keep the poor consideration tothat suffering
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a position to lessen the taxes to betreated
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in a dissimilar fashion files to qualify
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as an acceptable moral theory
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around the world issue sixty fivebillion animals
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will be killed
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in factory farms
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how many animals live there was onehumans lost works
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a mediator in this room will consume onaverage
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trails and animals in the last time
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archerd pollution global warming anddeforestation driving us towards an
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expert mass extinction
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and the meat industry
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is the greatest negative factor in allof these phenomena
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the illegal trafficking walled off nowranks as one of the largest criminal
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industries in the world is up there withguns drugs and human trafficking
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the ability to stop this devastationlines in the willingness of an
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international community to step in andpreserve its on global treasure
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experimentation on animals
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if animals aside like us that we cansubstitute using them instead of humans
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and surely
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to have the very same attributes thatmean that is it to be protected from
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home
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whether we're talking about factoryfarming
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live export punching the fair trade
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logically
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it's all on the same playing field to me
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suffering is suffering
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and murder is murder
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and more helpless the victim
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the more horrific the crime
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next on the seek an animal lover
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is too emotional
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to passionate or even a little crazyplease remember we see things were
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different lines
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sort a few days
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my son's going to be born
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tough on myself wondering what cornerwill be the intern
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we gonna be the generation that definesa father is a species
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a believer generation will be judged
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biomol courage to protect what's right
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and that if they were followed trip wasa little of sacrifice
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well on our offer myself withoutreservation to animals
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when a strip away
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all the material belongs around me
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see that ought to
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aman aman
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with family
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together on one planet
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and of the five million species on thatfront it only one has the power to
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determine
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what level of suffering is acceptablefor office internet banks to endure
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where there is a list made
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contributing to the fight againstpoaching a speaking up for the voiceless
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we'll have choices
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small changes in allies
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made big changes in others
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so now back to the beginning
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my reason for being here is my questionfor you
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next time you have an opportunity
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to make a difference for animals
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will you be broken off
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yes or no
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thank you very much
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My story begins in Zimbabwe, with a brave park ranger named Orpheus and an injured buffalo.
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And Orpheus looked at the buffalo on the ground, and he looked at me,
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and as our eyes met there was an unspoken grief between the three of us.
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She was a beautifully wild and innocent creature and Orpheus lifted the muzzle of his rifle to her ear.
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At that moment, she started to give birth.
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As life slipped from the premature calf, we examined the injuries.
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Her back leg had been caught in an 8-strand wire snare.
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She had fought for freedom so hard and for so long that she had ripped he pelvis in half.
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Well, she was finally free.
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Ladies and gentlemen, today I feel a great sense of responsibility in speaking to you
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on behalf of those who never could.
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Their suffering is my grief. Is my motivation.
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Martin Luther King best summarizes my call to arms here today. He said:
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'There comes a time when one must take a position that's neither safe, nor politic, nor popular.
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But he must take that position because his conscience tells him that it's right.'
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Because his conscience tells him it is right.
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At the end of this talk I'm going to ask you all a question.
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That question is the only reason I travelled here today all the way from the African savannah.
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That question for me has cleansed my soul.
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How you answer that question will always be yours.
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I remember watching the movie The Wizard of Oz as a kid,
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and I was never scared of the witch or the flying monkeys.
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My greatest fear was that I'd grow up like the lion, without courage.
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And I grew up always asking myself if I thought I'd be brave?
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Well, years after Dorothy had made her way back to Kansas, and the lion had found his courage,
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I walked into a tattoo parlour and had the words
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'Seek and Destroy' tattooed across my chest.
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And I thought that'd make me big and brave.
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But it would take me almost a decade to grow into those words.
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By the age of 20 I'd become a clearance diver in the navy.
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By 25, as a special operations sniper, I knew how many clicks of elevation I needed on the scope of my rifle
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to take a headshot on a moving target from 700 metres away.
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I knew exactly how many grams of high explosives it takes to blast through a steel plate door from only
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a few metres away without blowing myself, or my team up behind me.
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and I knew Baghdad was a shitty place, and when things go bang,
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well, people die.
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Back then, I had no idea what a conservationist did,
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other than hug trees and piss off large corporations. [audience laughter]
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I knew they had dreadlocks.
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I knew they smoked dope.
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I didn't really give a shit about the environment. And why should I?
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I was the idiot who used to speed up in his car just trying to hit birds on the road.
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My life was a world away from conservation.
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I'd just spent nine years doing things in real life that most people
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wouldn't dream of trying on a playstation.
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Well, after 12 tours to Iraq as a so-called 'mercenary', the skills I had were good for one thing:
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I was programmed to destroy.
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Looking back now, on everything I've done and the places I've been,
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in my heart I've only ever performed one true act of bravery.
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And that was a simple choice of deciding 'Yes' or deciding 'No'. But it was that one act
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which defines me completely and ensures
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there'll never be separation between who I am, and what I do.
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When I finally left Iraq behind me I was lost.
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Yeah, I felt...ahh...I just had no idea where i was going in life
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or where I was meant to be and I arrived in Africa at the beginning of 2009. I was aged 29 at the time.
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Somehow, I always knew I'd find a purpose amongst chaos, and that's exactly what happened.
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I'd no idea though, I'd find it in a remote part of the Zimbabwe bush.
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We were patrolling along, and the vultures circled in the air
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and as we got closer the stench of death hung there, like a thick, dark veil
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and sucked the oxygen out of your lungs.
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As we got closer there was a great bull elephant, resting on its side, with its face cut away.
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And the world around me stopped.
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I was consumed by a deep and overwhelming sadness.
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Seeing innocent creatures killed like this hit me in a way like nothing before.
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I'd actually poached as a teenager and they're memories I'll take to the grave.
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Time had changed me though;
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something inside wasn't the same.
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And it's never gonna be again.
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I asked myself: 'Does that elephant need its face
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more than some guy in asia needs a tusk on his desk?'
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Well of course it bloody does, that was irrelevant.
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all that mattered there and then was:
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'Would I be brave enough to give up everything in my life to try and stop the suffering of animals?'
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This was the one true defining moment of my life.
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Yes? Or No?
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I contacted my family the next day and began selling all my houses.
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These are assets a well-advised mercenary quickly acquires with the proceeds of war.
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My life savings have since been used to found and grow the International Anti-Poaching Foundation.
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The IAPF is a direct-action, law-enforcement organisation.
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From drone technology to an international qualification for rangers,
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we're battling each and every day to bring military solutions
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to conservation's thin green line.
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Now my story may be slightly unique,
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but I'm not going to use it to talk to you today about the organisation I run.
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In what could have been a pretty good fund-raiser. [audience laughter]
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Remember, today is about the question I'm going to ask you at the end.
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Because it's impossible for me to get up here and talk about just saving wildlife when I know
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the problem of animal welfare is much broader throughout society.
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A few years after I saw that elephant I woke up very early one morning.
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I already knew the answer to the question I was about to ask myself,
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but it was the first time I had put it into words:
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Does a cow value its life more than I enjoy a barbecue?
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See, I'd been guilty all this time of what is termed 'speciesism'.
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Speciesism is very much the same as racism or sexism.
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It involves the allocation of a different set of values, rights or special considerations to individuals,
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based solely on who or what they are.
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The realisation of the flexible morality I'd used
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to suit my everyday conveniences made me sick in the stomach.
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See, I'd loved blaming parts of Asia for their insatiable demand for ivory and rhino horn,
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and the way the region's booming economic growth
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is dramatically increasing the illegal wildlife trade.
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When I woke up that morning though I realised
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even though I'd dedicated my life to saving animals,
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in my mind I was no better than a poacher,
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or the guy in Asia with the tusk on his desk.
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As this 'over-consumptive meat-eater' I'd referred to some animals as 'beasts'.
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when in reality I'd been the beast. Destructively obedient, a slave
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to my habits, a cold shoulder to my conscience.
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We've all had contact with pets or other animals in our lives.
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we can't deny our understanding of the feelings that each animal has.
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The ability to suffer pain or loneliness.
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And to fear.
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Like us also, each animal has the ability to express contentment,
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to build family structures, and a want of satisfying basic instincts and desires.
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For many of us though,
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that's as far as we allow our imaginations to explore
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before the truth inconveniences our habits.
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The disconnect that exists between consuming a product
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and the reality it takes to bring that product to market is a phenomenon to itself.
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Animals are treated like commodities and referred to as property.
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We call it murder to kill a human being yet create legal
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and illegal industries out of what would be regarded as torture
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if humans were involved.
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and we pay people to do things to animals
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that none of us would engage in personally.
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just because we don't see it up close
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does not mean we are not responsible.
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Peter Singer, the man who popularised the term 'speciesism' wrote:
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'Although there may be differences between animals and humans
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they each share the ability to suffer.
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And we must give equal consideration to that suffering.
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Any position that allows similar cases to be treated in a dissimilar fashion
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fails to qualify as an acceptable moral theory.'
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Around the world this year 65 billion animals will be killed in factory farms.
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How many animals' lives is one human's life worth?
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a meat-eater in this room will consume, on average, 8000 animals in their lifetime.
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Ocean pollution, global warming and deforestation are
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driving us towards the next great mass-extinction
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and the meat industry is the greatest negative factor in all of these phenomenon.
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The illegal trafficking of wildlife now ranks as
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one of the largest criminal industries in the world.
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It's up there with drugs, guns and human trafficking.
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The ability to stop this devastation
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lies in the willingness of an international community
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to step in and preserve a dying global treasure.
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Experimentation on animals:
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If animals are so like us that we can substitute using them instead of humans
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then surely they have the very same attributes that mean they deserve to be protected from harm?
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Whether we're talking about factory farming, live export, poaching, the fur trade,
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logically it's all on the same playing field to me.
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Suffering is suffering,
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and murder is murder.
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And the more helpless the victim,
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the more horrific the crime.
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Now next time you think an animal lover is too emotional,
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too passionate, or even a little crazy,
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please remember, we see things through a different lens.
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So in a few days, my son is going to be born.
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I find myself wondering:
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'What kind of world is he entering?'
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Are we going to be the generation that defines our failure as a species?
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I believe our generation will be judged
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by our moral courage to protect what's right.
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And that every worthwhile action
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requires a level of sacrifice.
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Well I now offer myself, without reservation, to animals.
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And when I strip away all the material belongings around me,
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I see that I too, am an animal.
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We're family. Together on one planet.
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And of the five million species on that planet, only one
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has the power to determine what level of suffering is acceptable
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for all other sentient beings to endure.
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Whether it's eating less meat,
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contributing to the fight against poaching,
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or speaking up for the voiceless,
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we all have choices.
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And small changes in our lives
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mean big changes in others.
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So now back to the beginning.
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My reason for being here is my question for you:
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Next time you have an opportunity to make a difference for animals,
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will you be brave enough?
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Yes or no?