A Kynd Life

Emma was born and raised in Sydney and recalls a moment in her childhood when she held a hen and realised the hen was no different to her cat. At that moment, she knew she could no longer eat animals. This was just the beginning of Emma's passion for animal protection and she has been campaigning for animals ever since, working with organisations such as Animal Liberation and PETA.

Emma is the first female Animal Justice Party representative to be elected to the NSW Parliament. She works tirelessly to bring forward animal issues in Parliament and seeks legislative change to bring about a kinder world for animals.

In this episode, Emma shares her motivation for being such a strong voice for the animals, some highlights of her time as a politician and provides advice for anyone interested in getting involved in animal rights and politics.

http://www.emmahurstmp.com
http://www.instagram.com/emma.hurst/
www.facebook.com/EmmaHurstMP
twitter.com/MlcHurst

In celebration of the 20th episode of A Kynd Life, I am sharing my story.
I grew up loving animals and at age 15 I went vegetarian after seeing a snippet of chicken slaughterhouse footage. Fourteen years later, I had an amazing opportunity to speak to Damien Mander, Founder of International Anti Poaching Foundation, and I made the life changing decision to go vegan.
I knew it wasn't enough to just be vegan, I had to help animals, so I started volunteering at Victorian Lamb Rescue. I am also an Organiser of Anonymous for the Voiceless Geelong Chapter and more recently have become active in my local Animal Justice Party regional group.
In this episode, I discuss being a strong voice for the animals, how I manage relationships with non vegans, valuing the vegan community and adopting lambs from Victorian Lamb Rescue.
https://www.instagram.com/akyndlife/
https://www.facebook.com/elisha.atchison

Geelong Duck Rescue (GDR) formally began in 2016 and consists of a dedicated group of volunteers who actively have a presence at the Lake Connewarre wetland system in Geelong each duck shooting season.
GDR's mission is to protect native waterbird species who call this ecosystem home. Volunteers attend the wetlands from dawn to dusk to rescue wounded birds and collect evidence of shooters breaching regulations. The number of shooters attending the wetlands has declined since GDR's involvement.
In this episode I speak to the Coordinators of GDR Nat and Mish who provide an insight into what is involved in duck rescue, their experiences and their vegan journey. They provide great suggestions for people to get involved both on the wetland and from their home.
https://www.facebook.com/geelongduckrescue
https://www.instagram.com/geelongduckrescue/
TAKE ACTION!
https://animaljusticepartyvictoria.good.do/banduckshooting/email/
https://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/duck-shooting-is-not-a-sport/
OTHER VIC DUCK RESCUE GROUPS
https://www.facebook.com/CADSDuckRescue/
https://www.facebook.com/Regionalvictorians

Dim Kailaris was raised in a Greek family, with strong ties to culture and traditions including eating meat, dairy and eggs in every meal. He could never understand people being vegan, until seven years ago when he watched Earthlings. Dim saw what happens inside slaughterhouses and went vegetarian. Two months later, he learnt about the egg and dairy industry and went vegan from an ethical standpoint.
Being vegan was not enough, Dim needed to speak up about what was happening to animals, so he became active. Initially, Dim started posting on his social media and attended organised events such as protests, vigils and street outreach.
Dim recognised the importance of slaughterhouse footage in his own vegan journey and got involved in investigation work inside slaughterhouses and factory farms. He knew how powerful the footage was, so entered facilities in Australia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Being a teacher, Dim tried educating students about the realities of where their food comes from, however he quickly received backlash from schools and parents. Dim recently moved into full time animal rights work, which allowed him to focus on creating dontwatch.org
dontwatch.org includes a 6 minute video showing the realities of the animal agriculture industry. During the first 48 hours of it's launch, dontwatch.org had over 100,000 views and now averages 2000 views per day. The website contains recipes, links to Challenge 22, activism materials and the ability for people to contact the organisation for support.
In this episode, Dim also shares his experiences in conducting investigation work, disruptive action and activists working together to achieve total animal liberation.
https://dontwatch.org/
https://www.instagram.com/dim.stagram/
https://www.instagram.com/dontwatchofficial/
https://www.facebook.com/kailaris

Alicia recently opened her own real estate agency Saint & Wood after being involved in real estate for over two decades. The agency is well on the way to being an entirely vegan agency, with 3 staff already vegan and one vegetarian.
Alicia went vegan overnight after reconnecting with a friend over Facebook who happened to be vegan. She studied all of the animal rights content on her friend's page and was shocked at what she learnt. Alicia has 3 children, all of whom are vegan, including one from birth.
Over the years Alicia has been heavily involved in activism including attending rallies, marches and protests as well as joining the Animal Justice Party (AJP) soon after going vegan. Alicia stood as a lower house candidate for AJP three times and worked for the political party during the last state election, as a coordinator of three electorates.
Alicia's passion for real estate is what has kept her in the industry since she was 18. Starting in reception and administration, Alicia then moved into property management, sales and onto co-owning a successful agency with her dad. Alicia's prime motivation behind Saint & Wood is to give back to the community, with a portion of the funds going to charities that align with the company values.
In this episode, Alicia also shares her vegan love story, returning to her real estate career and being the best example of a vegan she can.
https://www.instagram.com/saint_and_wood/
https://www.instagram.com/alii_kate/
https://www.facebook.com/saintandwood
https://saintandwood.com.au/