Peter Egan (vegan) – The Veteran Actor with a Heart of Gold, Part 2 of 2

“As with human beings and human welfare, everything to me revolves around the right to life. So, I am more involved in animal rights than I am in animal welfare. And because within industrialized animal agriculture, there is absolutely no animal welfare at all in that. All of the five freedoms are ignored by the corporations that want to produce food cheaply and quickly from an animal source. So, I think that animal welfare and the Five Freedoms are something that should be strictly adhered to, and not ignored as it is, of course, most of the time.”

Mr. Egan kindly explains in greater detail what is meant by the Five Freedoms of animal-people welfare. “So, animal welfare is very important to me because I think animals have a right to life, and I think they have a right to be considered in precisely the same way as we human beings like to be considered.” “So, in relation to animal welfare, I could just read to you these Five Freedoms that I think they were brought in in 1996 as a direct result of the cruelty imposed on animals in industrialized animal agriculture. So, the freedom from hunger and thirst, the freedom from discomfort, the freedom from both pain, injury, and disease, freedom to express normal behavior, and the freedom from fear and distress. Now, if you think of those five freedoms as described there, all of them, all of them are betrayed by industrialized animal agriculture because of the intense fear that the animals suffer, because they have no opportunity to exhibit natural behavior.”

“I have four dogs at the moment, and they are all experiencing a plant-based diet, which they all like very much. And I feed them various pulses and sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, peas, broccoli, which they all love. Their stomachs are better, and as indeed is their flatulence. So, yes, I find that a vegan diet, so long as you do it carefully and you get it well balanced, dogs love it. They don’t need to eat bones and meat. My dogs are all very happy.”

“I would say to people, think, think about what you’re doing to yourself and what you’re doing to the planet. Think about what you want to leave your children and your grandchildren. And as we know, we’re in the sixth big extinction at this moment in time, which is quite devastating, you know. So, it has to be addressed. So, I would say, think about your life, be kind about your life, be ethical about your life, be compassionate about your life and be empathetic.”