9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 My story begins in Zimbabwe, with a brave park ranger named Orpheus and an injured buffalo. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And Orpheus looked at the buffalo on the ground, and he looked at me, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and as our eyes met there was an unspoken grief between the three of us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 She was a beautifully wild and innocent creature and Orpheus lifted the muzzle of his rifle to her ear [gunshot]. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 At that moment, she started to give birth. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 As life slipped from the premature calf, we examined the injuries. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Her back leg had been caught in an 8-strand wire snare. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 She had fought for freedom so hard and for so long that she had ripped he pelvis in half. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, she was finally free. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Ladies and gentlemen, today I feel a great sense of responsibility in speaking to you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on behalf of those who never could. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Their suffering is my grief. Is my motivation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Martin Luther King best summarizes my call to arms here today. He said: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 'There comes a time when one must take a position that's neither safe, nor politic, nor popular. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But he must take that position because his conscience tells him that it's right.' 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because his conscience tells him it is right. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 At the end of this talk I'm going to ask you all a question. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That question is the only reason I travelled here today all the way from the African savannah. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That question for me has cleansed my soul. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 How you answer that question will always be yours. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I remember watching the movie The Wizard of Oz as a young kid, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I was never scared of the witch or the flying monkeys. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 My greatest fear was that I'd grow up like the lion, without courage. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I grew up always asking myself if I thought I'd be brave? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, years after Dorothy had made her way back to Kansas, and the lion had found his courage, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I walked into a tattoo parlour and had the words 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 'Seek and Destroy' tattooed across my chest. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I thought that'd make me big and brave. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But it would take me almost a decade to grow into those words. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 By the age of 20 I'd become a clearance diver in the navy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 By 25, as a special operations sniper, I knew exactly how many clicks of elevation I needed on the scope of my rifle 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to take a headshot on a moving target from 700 metres away. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I knew exactly how many grams of high explosives it takes to blast through a steel plate door from only 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a few metres away without blowing myself, or my team up behind me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I knew that Baghdad was a shitty place, and when things go bang, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 well, people die. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Back then, I had no idea what a conservationist did, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 other than hug trees and piss off large corporations. [audience laughter] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I knew they had dreadlocks. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I knew they smoked dope. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I didn't really give a shit about the environment. And why should I? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I was the idiot who used to speed up in his car just trying to hit birds on the road. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 My life was a world away from conservation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I'd just spent nine years doing things in real life most people 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 wouldn't dream of trying on a playstation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, after 12 tours to Iraq as a so-called 'mercenary', the skills I had were good for one thing: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I was programmed to destroy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Looking back now, on everything I've done and the places I've been, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in my heart I've only ever performed one true act of bravery. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that was a simple choice of deciding 'Yes' or deciding 'No'. But it was that one act 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 which defines me completely and ensures there'll 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 never be separation between who I am, and what I do. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When I finally left Iraq behind me I was lost. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Yeah, I felt...ahh...I just had no idea where i was going 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in life or where I was meant to be and I arrived in Africa at the beginning of 2009. I was aged 29 at the time. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Somehow, I always knew I'd find a purpose amongst chaos, and that's exactly what happened. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I'd no idea though, I'd find it in a remote part of the Zimbabwe bush. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We were patrolling along, and the vultures circled in the air 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and as we got closer the stench of death hung there, in the air like a thick, dark veil 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and sucked the oxygen out of your lungs. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And as we got closer there was a great bull elephant, resting on its side, with its face cut away. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the world around me stopped. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I was consumed by a deep and overwhelming sadness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Seeing innocent creatures killed like this hit me in a way like nothing before. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I'd actually poached as a teenager and they're memories I'll take to the grave. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Time had changed me though; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 something inside wasn't the same. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And it's never gonna be again. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I asked myself: 'Does that elephant need its face 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 more than some guy in Asia needs a tusk on his desk?' 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well of course it bloody does, that was irrelevant. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 All that mattered there and then was: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 'Would I be brave enough to give up everything in my life to try and stop the suffering of animals?' 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This was the one true defining moment of my life. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Yes? Or No? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I contacted my family the next day and began selling all my houses. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These are assets a well-advised mercenary quickly acquires with the proceeds of war. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 My life savings have since been used to found and grow the International Anti-Poaching Foundation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The IAPF is a direct-action, law-enforcement organisation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 From drone technology to an international qualification for rangers, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we're battling each and every day to bring military solutions 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to conservation's thin green line. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now my story may be slightly unique, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but I'm not going to use it to talk to you today about the organisation I run. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In what probably could have been a pretty good fund-raiser. [audience laughter] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Remember, today is about the question I'm going to ask you at the end. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because it's impossible for me to get up here and talk about just saving wildlife when I know 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the problem of animal welfare is much broader throughout society. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A few years after I saw that elephant I woke up very early one morning. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I already knew the answer to the question I was about to ask myself, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but it was the first time I had put it into words: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Does a cow value its life more than I enjoy a barbecue? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 See, I'd been guilty all this time of what is termed 'speciesism'. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Speciesism is very much the same as racism or sexism. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It involves the allocation of a different set of values, rights or special considerations to individuals, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 based solely on who or what they are. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The realisation of the flexible morality I'd used 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to suit my everyday conveniences made me sick in the stomach. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 See, I'd loved blaming parts of Asia for their insatiable demand for ivory and rhino horn, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the way the region's booming economic growth 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is dramatically increasing the illegal wildlife trade. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When I woke up that morning though I realised 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 even though I'd dedicated my life to saving animals, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in my mind I was no better than a poacher, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or the guy in Asia with a tusk on his desk. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 As this 'over-consumptive meat-eater' I'd referred to some animals as 'beasts'. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when in reality I'd been the beast. Destructively obedient, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a slave to my habits, a cold shoulder to my conscience. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We've all had contact with pets or other animals in our lives. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we can't deny our understanding of the feelings that each animal has. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The ability to suffer pain or loneliness. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And to fear. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Like us also, each animal has the ability to express contentment, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to build family structures, and a want of satisfying basic instincts and desires. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 For many of us though, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that's as far as we allow our imagination to explore 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 before the truth inconveniences our habits. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The disconnect that exists between consuming a product 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the reality it takes to bring that product to market is a phenomenon to itself. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Animals are treated like commodities and referred to as property. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We call it murder to kill a human being yet create legal 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and illegal industries out of what would be regarded as torture 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if humans were involved. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and we pay people to do things to animals 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that none of us would engage in personally. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Just because we don't see it up close 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 does not mean we are not responsible. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Peter Singer, the man who popularised the term 'speciesism' wrote: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 'Although there may be differences between animals and humans 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they each share the ability to suffer. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And we must give equal consideration to that suffering. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Any position that allows similar cases to be treated in a dissimilar fashion 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 fails to qualify as an acceptable moral theory.' 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Around the world this year 65 billion animals will be killed in factory farms. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 How many animals' lives is one human's life worth? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A meat-eater in this room will consume, on average, 8000 animals in their lifetime. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Ocean pollution, global warming and deforestation are 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 driving us towards the next great mass-extinction 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the meat industry is the greatest negative factor in all of these phenomenon. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The illegal trafficking of wildlife now ranks as one of the largest criminal industries in the world. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's up there with drugs, guns and human trafficking. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The ability to stop this devastation 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 lies in the willingness of an international community 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to step in and preserve a dying global treasure. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Experimentation on animals: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If animals are so like us that we can substitute using them instead of humans 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 then surely they have the very same attributes that mean they deserve to be protected from harm? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Whether we're talking about factory farming, live export, poaching, the fur trade, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 logically it's all on the same playing field to me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Suffering is suffering, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and murder is murder. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the more helpless the victim, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the more horrific the crime. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now next time you think an animal lover is too emotional, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 too passionate, or even a little crazy, please remember 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we see things through a different lens. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So in a few days, my son is going to be born. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I find myself wondering: 'What kind of a world is he entering?' 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Are we going to be the generation that defines our failure as a species? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I believe our generation will be judged 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by our moral courage to protect what's right. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that every worthwhile action requires a level of sacrifice 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well I now offer myself, without reservation, to animals. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And when I strip away all the material belongings around me, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I see that I too, am an animal. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We're family. Together on one planet. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And of the five million species on that planet, only one 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 has the power to determine what level of suffering is acceptable 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for all other sentient beings to endure. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Whether it's eating less meat, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 contributing to the fight against poaching, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or speaking up for the voiceless, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we all have choices. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And small changes in our lives 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 mean big changes in others. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So now back to the beginning. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 My reason for being here is my question for you: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Next time you have an opportunity to make a difference for animals, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 will you be brave enough? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Yes or no?