WEBVTT

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My story begins in Zimbabwe

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with a brave park ranger named Orpheus

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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,

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and Orpheus lifted the muzzle
of his rifle to her ear. (Gunshot)

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And 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 eight-strand wire snare.

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She'd fought for freedom 
[for] so hard and so long

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that she'd ripped her 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

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in speaking to you 
on behalf of those that never could.

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Their suffering is my grief,
is my motivation.

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Martin Luther King best summarises 
my call to arms here today.

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He said, "There comes a time 
when one must take a position that's neither safe,

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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 gonna ask you all a question.

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That question is the only reason
I traveled here today

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all the way from the African savanna.

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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 young 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,

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and the Lion had found his courage,

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I walked into a tattoo parlor 
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'd 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,

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I knew exactly 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 700m away.

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I knew exactly how many grams 
of high explosives it takes

NOTE Paragraph

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to blast through a steel plate door 
from only a few meters away,

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without blowing myself, 
or my team, up behind me.

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And I knew that Baghdad was a shitty place, 
and when things go bang,

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well, people die.

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Now back then, I'd no idea 
what a conservationist did,

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other than hug trees and piss off large corporations. 
(Laughter)

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I knew they had dreadlocks.
I knew they smoked dope. (Laughter)

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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 that 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

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most people 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'.

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But it was that one act 
which defines me completely

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and ensures 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.

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I was aged 29 at the time.

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Somehow, I always knew 
I'd find a purpose amongst chaos,

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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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And 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, in the air like a thick, dark veil,

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and sucked the oxygen
out of your lungs.

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And as we got closer, 
there was a great bull elephant,

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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; 
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

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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

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the International Anti-Poaching
Foundation.

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The IAPF is a direct-action, 
law enforcement organization.

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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 organization I run --

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in what probably could have been 
a pretty good fundraiser.

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(Laughter) (Applause)

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Remember, today is about the question 
I'm gonna 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

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when I know 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'd 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's 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,

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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

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I'd used 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 a 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,

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a slave 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 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 imagination 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 and illegal industries

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out of what would be regarded as torture 
if humans were involved.

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And we pay people to do things to animals 
that none of us would engage in personally.

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Just because we don't see it up close 
does not mean we're 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, 8,000 animals in their lifetime.

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Ocean pollution, global warming 
and deforestation

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are 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 phenomena.

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The illegal traffic in wildlife now ranks 
as 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

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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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Next time you think 
an animal lover is too emotional,

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too passionate, or even a little crazy, 
please remember

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we see things through a different lens.

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So in a few days,
my son's gonna be born.

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I find myself wondering, 
"What kind of world is he entering?"

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Are we gonna 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 
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,

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only one 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
or speaking up for the voiceless,

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we all have choices.

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And small changes in our lives
mean big changes in others' [lives].

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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?

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)