progressivepodcastaustralia

You can listen to this episode above and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. You can also listen to this episode on Stitcher, Cyber Ears or download it on Archive.org (67mins, 53MB).

We’re joined by activist and academic Jess Ison who discusses her research challenging the use of prisons and other punitive measures as a way to counter animal abuse. More specifically, she covers: the criminalisation of animal activism; queer people, the state and homonormativity; the new show The Break on Netflix; problems with focusing on individual acts of animal cruelty eg to a stingray, cow or kangaroo, while ignoring more institutionalised cruelty on a much bigger scale; the importance of looking into structural explanations for gendered violence rather than just putting “bad apples” in jail, particularly in light of the recent horrific murder of Eurydice Dixon in Melbourne; sex offender registries; transformative justice; and prison abolition. If you’d like to look further into the issues of prisons and prison abolition, Jess recommends the book Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis.

https://twitter.com/Utopiana/status/1008907410067488769

This episode is replayed from Freedom of Species, an animal advocacy show on 3CR community radio, which Nick now regularly hosts. This show is broadcast live on 855AM in Melbourne 1-2pm every Sunday and if you’re outside of Melbourne you can listen in live 1-2 Melbourne time/AEST on 3cr.org.au – the show is also on iTunes. You can listen to all of the episodes that Nick has been on here.

Jess Ison is a part of The Institute for Critical Animal Studies (Oceania) collective who are organising a discussion forum for animal activists and academics in Melbourne in August. Connect with ICAS Oceania on Facebook, Twitter or sign up for email updates to be notified of the details of this forum once they are announced.

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Clips:

The Broadways ‘2^nd Grade Cells’; Goldfinger ‘Iron Fist’; Goldfinger ‘Behind the Mask’ – watch the clip here (content warning for graphic images of animal suffering); Petrol Girls ‘Touch Me Again’.