💚 I do have a few heroes who I turn to for my constant source of hope and inspiration such as the late Dr Jane Goodall and Sir David Attenborough, but Chris Packham is definitely up there as someone I respect so enormously and turn to for the science facts.
How I admire him as I do fear such retaliation myself by exposing the meat-based pet food multi-billion pound industry as I prove through the stories of countless dedicated owners that plant-based dog food is as good, if not better for our dogs. I have met Chris Packham and his beloved Poodles Sid and Nancy at Vegan Campout in 2024 (they are tiny and noisy and yes he adores them!!)
These facts that he shares keep me going, keep me inspired and so incredibly hopeful for our future of plant-based feeding! He says that –
“Science tells us that we need just 25 percent of people to change their thinking about something and then it cascades quickly. By the time you get to about 27 percent, you’re on a roll, and in a very short space of time, the entire population will change.”
Wow now that fills me with SO much hope for our future of veganism for us as humans and for our pets!
I watched a programme on BBC 1 one Sunday night where Chris Packham goes on a favourite walk in the Hampshire countryside and he speaks about his life and his memories. I was totally entranced in that hour as he spoke with such complete honesty about how the deaths of the beloved Poodles he has had over the years have impacted his life.
We can all connect with this and I know that the loss of our pets have also deeply affected me. This programme and his words prompted me to action. With everything that he stands for, in March 2022, I sent him some top quality vegan food food to try on Sid and Nancy who I knew were raw fed even though Chris is a staunch vegan.
When he replied with this e-mail
“Arielle
Thanks for the package
We’ve tried the tins and both of the very picky poodles wolfed it down! Makes a change!
We will try the rest now we’ve done the photo
Thank you
Best Chris”
This was in April 2022 when we hadn't even launched our best seller Give A Dog A Bean, and Green Crunch packaging was still white with a slightly different recipe.
He published the photo below to all his social media accounts; I don’t think he realised what an enormous environmental impact he would have as we suddenly had SO many dogs trying plant-based food who are to this day still eating our food and thriving on it - we couldn't be happier!!
Has Chris Packham always been vegan?
“No, I’ve been vegetarian since my early 20’s, I thought I would just cut down on meat and then I found after a break from it that it made me ill so I gave it up. I carried on eating fish but then, of course, I recognised that our fish stocks are seriously imperilled -and that’s an understatement of enormous magnitude, many are on the brink. It became clear that eating fish was unsustainable but in any case, I had never toed the line that fish didn’t feel pain and all that nonsense.”
“However it was factory farming that finally pushed me from vegetarianism to veganism, after I’d been to an indoor, zero-grazing dairy unit. It was spick and span, remarkably clean, and none of the animals were being abused there but they never went outside. They did three lactation cycles and had their calves taken away instantaneously after birth.”
“I got in the car after spending the day there and that was it – game over. I knew I couldn’t trust myself or food labelling claiming good quality, organically produced, animal-husbandry -friendly dairy products. If I’m not in control of myself, how am I going to be in a position to ask people to do something which I think is a better idea?”
How I mirror all his views as a vet I just accepted that dairy cows were happy and well cared for, but the reality is so far from that.
Everything that Chris Packham stands for is protecting our biodiversity and fairness and by choosing to feed our pets a balanced healthy plant-based diet, we are supporting all his ideals.
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