Aryenish Birdie: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Animal Protection

Species Unite

elizabeth novogratz

Philosophy, Society & Culture

5.0 • 911 Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2020

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"I think that when the animal protection movement really started gaining hold in the seventies... in the United States at least, I think there was a lot of harm done in the ways that we messaged the connections between humans in marginalized communities and animals. And I think that there's also a dynamic where… communities of color are often struggling for basic rights, basic needs to be met. And so, fighting for others is kind of a nice to have." - Aryenish Birdie

Aryenish Birdie is founder and Executive Director of Encompass, an organization that is fighting to increase effectiveness in the animal protection movement by fostering greater racial diversity, equity, and inclusion while empowering advocates of color.

Before founding Encompass, Aryenish was a federal lobbyist at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. She was part of a four-woman team instrumental in reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act to ensure that animal protection language was integrated into the law.

Thank you,

Elizabeth Novogratz

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I also think that when the animal protection movement really started gaining hold in the 70s I want to say in the United States at least I think there was a lot of harm done in the ways that we messaged the
0:16.2	connections between humans and marginalized communities and animals and I think
0:22.3	that there's also a dynamic where, and it's a very real dynamic where communities
0:28.7	of color are often struggling for basic rights,
0:32.8	basic needs to be met.
0:35.0	And so fighting for others is Species Unite. We have a favor to ask if you like today's episode and you have a spare minute
0:55.6	could you please rate and review Species Unite on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to
1:01.8	podcasts? It really helps people to find the show.
1:07.0	This conversation is with Aranesh Birdi. Aranesh is the founder of Encompass, an organization that makes the animal protection
1:16.6	movement more racially diverse, more equitable, and more inclusive. Erenausch, thank you so much for being here and for doing this today. I'm really excited to have you on, thank you. Of course, thank you. I want to go back to before you were even born to start because I love your parents story and I love, I just I want to talk about it I love it so will you talk about them first and kind of how they met and the journey that
2:01.4	you to produce these two incredible sisters.
2:05.0	My parents started dating as teenagers in Karachi, Pakistan.
2:08.5	And one of the things that they did
2:10.9	as they were falling in love was taking care of stray dogs on the streets.
2:15.2	I don't really know where this love for animals came from inside of them.
2:20.6	They themselves don't know, but I think there was just something about seeing that suffering that really spoke to them and they were very much alone in
2:33.2	caring for animals on the streets. I think that bonded them together in a very deep way.
2:37.4	They were teenagers. I forget exactly the ages, but they were like 15 and 16 so quite young. Yeah my dad is my mom's first and only boyfriend.
2:50.0	That spirit of just compassion and justice was just very deep inside them.
2:53.8	And so my parents immigrated to the United States in 1985.
2:57.1	My dad came to get his master's in engineering at the University of Kansas. My mom came shortly thereafter and they were just enamored with the United States. It was just like the whole place to be. They just reached it and one of the things that they really
3:14.2	wanted to try to do in raising their future children was they wanted to raise us
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from elizabeth novogratz, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of elizabeth novogratz and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.