Original subtitles

I'm an animal person.

I appreciate the beauty of 'em.

I dunno, I was just an animal lover when I was a kid.

Dogs and cats and snakes and lizards

and whatever I could find.

It started when my dad went deer hunting.

And shot this deer.

And he said, "You know, when I shot the deer?"

He says, "The deer wasn't quite dead.

And, it looked up, with its head, and looked at me."

And he said it was almost like saying, "Why did you shoot me?"

He was intelligent in a very natural way.

And he said, "I just never could do it after that."

And then you realize we've been put

on here for something, and the best thing we can do

is manage what we have and the beautiful things we have.

And animals fit right into that category.

Mustang horses are gonna become extinct if we don't save 'em,

and, uh, so I just sort of house them.

And you can have a place to live out their existence.

I just like seeing things, everything live.

I like, uh, living things.

They come in and bulldoze everything.

The topsoil's gone,

the ground water table changes...

the orangutans are in dire straights right now.

United States, when you look at the back of any product,

about 50% of the products contain palm oil.

And it's anywhere, you know, from shampoos,

to lotions, to cookies.

Do you think that that female orangutan that, uh, approached

you, do you think that she knew that you were gonna be the one?

Alright, so we've just arrived at the orangutan

- information center-- - Welcome to our office.

Thanks for having us, umm, and umm, Paul,

of course, organizing this whole adventure.

So tell me, what are you guys...

you're about to go out on an orangutan rescue.

Used to be an orangutan habitat,

but then converted to become palm oil plantations.

And that's why some of the orangutans still live there,

and been isolated from their own habitat.

And that's why we need to rescue them.

So, I was just here in 2012.

I was invited to come and document

the palm oil expansion and the forest destruction.

And also the wildlife trade and what was going on.

Yeah, I remember just photographing

the orangutan rescue.

He just made eye-contact and that was it.

I just, you know, the world needed to know

about this issue, and that was it.

I've been coming back ever since.

So, you're rescuing the orangutan

and then now where are you going to trans-locate them?

If they are in a good condition, we are going to release them at

the same day, but if they're in, like, a condition that

need medical services, so we work together with

SOCP Quarantine Center, and we are going to send

them to be rehabilitated before they going to

be released one day when they are ready.

Wow! Alright. Well, I know you guys have to get going.

Thank you for your amazing work. Thank you so much.

- You're welcome. - Thank you.

Good luck.

We'll hopefully see you in the next day or so.

We'll be catching up with you soon. Thank you.

Community and plantation workers shoot the orangutans initially,

and if that doesn't work, then, sadly,

then they're calling OIC or SOCP to extract these orangutans.

So, you can imagine there's a lot of wild orangutans

out there with bullet wounds.

It's incredibly sad that this even has to take place.

Rescuing an orangutan from where it, you know,

should be its home, to trans-locate it to a place,

like, a lesser eco-system where it's going to be protected.

How long does it usually take

for the dart to take affect?

She's pregnant?

Is this gonna affect the baby?

She was shot by people? Oh no.

Can you take the bullet out? Are you removing it?

Yeah. Yeah. Aww.

Yeah, I see.

I hope not.

For me, it's just another image,

a tool to influence issues and influence people, and how,

you know, we interact with the planet at times like this.

It, uh, strong imagery can really

influence people's choices and I think that's important

right now to show 'em what's going on.

The reason, talk about why it's going on and hopefully,

un, things can change in the future.

They will go extinct. So, it's not enough.

So, we really need to build these, corridors.

Secure land and build corridors between them

so the orangutans can move.

When they first arrive,

every orangutan is given a full medical check-up.

So, they get chest x-rays to check for TBC,

they get blood samples taken and tested for things like

hepatitis, herpes virus, and stuff.

They get a full check over.

When an orangutan has been through its quarantine,

and done all its medical checks and pronounced fit

and healthy, then it'll be brought here.

So, usually we don't just open the door and throw 'em in.

We put them in this shut off case, so they can see

each other for a couple of days.

And then gradually introduced to groups.

On the left here, is Chriswan.

He was in a cage that was barely bigger than

his shoulder width, you know.

I think I have a picture somewhere.

He came out of it a couple of years ago.

He could barely stand. He barely had the use of his legs.

We actually trained him so that we could move him around

to get his food. So we got him climbing.

Can these people be prosecuted for keeping a wild orangutan?

That particular case, in theory, yes.

But, there's never been a case.

By a long way, you find a lot more

illegal pet orangutans being kept in areas where

the palm oil concession is out actively clearing forest.

I see, Okay.

So there is a strong connection there.

In front of you now, Allosa.

He was shot sixty-two times with an air rifle.

He's totally blind.

He's still got two pellets in one eye and one in the other.

That's the one I saw a picture of, yeah.

We took the pellets out that

we could palpate through the skin,

but he's still got forty-eight pellets inside him.

But, he's doing very well.

He's fit and strong, but totally blind.

He'll never be a wild orangutan again.

At a place called Orangutan Haven,

we're building these nice islands surrounded by water,

where they'll be trees and ropes and long grass and bamboo.

And, he's one of the candidates to go over there.

You know, after many, many years,

I still get a massive thrill,

just seeing some of the orangutans we've released

in the forest behaving like wild orangutans and looking down

at me and they couldn't care less if I'm there or not.

That's the goal.

When did the tourism, um, really start happening here?

Well, it started happening

after the turn of the century.

I always say, "If you want to help the great apes,

the first thing that you can do is go to the habitat countries.

Vote with your dollars, vote with your feet."

And, because if you go there, you tell the people,

the local people, the national governments of those countries

that you consider the great apes important.

Come to see orangutans. And that's my message.

An orangutan used to be able to go from here, you know,

a hundred miles into the mountains, into the foothills,

and then, you know, ten years later come back.

'Cause the males do roam.

- Now, he can't get back. - He can't?

And the reason he can't get back because he has to

go through a hundred miles of palm oil.

Kind of explain to me the Oil Find Nursery

and what you guys do here.

So, pretty much the Oil Find Nursery

is where we receive the orangutan orphans.

We usually get 'em from the forestry police,

or locals as well.

And, most of these orangutans are orphans because they have

killed their mothers and they've left the babies

either to be kept as pets, or to be sold as pets.

- As pets? - Yeah.

We care for them, and then hopefully one day,

they'll be back in the wild.

I think it's really important for these NGOs

to really work with the community

and the plantation owners to really bring them up to speed

on conservation and the value of these species.

It's a huge asset for Indonesia and the planet.

Let's hope they realize that before it's all gone.

The sad truth is much of the world does not share

my belief that all sentient beings have just as much a right

to a part of this planet,

and when you look at those animals,

and you interact with them,

you see how magnificent and special they are.

As a child, I grew up on the wild coast of South Africa,

where some of the most abundant sea life you could imagine

came by my shores every year.

My connection with sharks started when I was six.

I went to the sharks board where they collect

all the dead sharks out of the nets.

And I remember walking through this freezer room

piled with these magnificent blue sharks and Mako sharks,

and something inside of my heart said this is very wrong.

I don't believe there's any animal on the planet

that has ever been wiped out in such significant

numbers as sharks have.

Less than ten percent of sharks are left.

If we don't save them while we have big numbers,

I don't believe that they'll be on this planet much longer.

The smell of those dead animals, and the loss of that life

set me on a path that I would return to later in life.

And that became a primary mission for me.

I am a cinematographer, photographer,

but more than anything, I am I'm a conservationist.

If we don't take a stand and draw the line

on these animals, nothing in the ocean's sacred.

But sharks is this beautiful creature responsible

for maintaining the balance and health of our oceans.

Although sharks are probably safer

than every other animal on the planet,

that doesn't get into the news at all.

We need to swim in that ocean and feel that water

and see these animals grace our presence and realize that these

are beautiful, magnificent and sentient beings

that were put on this earth long before us,

and that they play just as an important role in the system,

but they have a right to be here just like us.

I believe the best thing that I can do for conservation

is to connect people, in a very profound way,

with sharks so that they can see their true nature

as a majestic sentient creature

that you can easily fall in love with

and therefore, be compelled to spend the rest of your life

fighting for the conservation of the species.

Eco-tourism is the fastest growing segment

of the travel industry.

And what once was a world where you went out

and hunted animals for sport,

we're not seeing a transition away

for people to go out and they hunt with cameras

and their eyes and they leave the animals to grow and thrive.

In South Africa, unfortunately there's

a big lack of regulations on illegal fisheries here,

and quantification of just how many prey species

of wild sharks have been removed,

and we do believe that's happening at an alarming rate.

You know, you've got a resource swimming

along the coast line that a very poor family can feed, you know,

themselves for over a month, let's say.

And so, for example, in a restaurant in Cape Town,

it would be very likely to see Shark Fin Soup on a menu.

Ethically, it's just disgusting.

Alison, take us through what we're about to experience here.

Well, you're probably in one of the most remarkable locations

in the world for marine life, as you're aware.

And, what's really special about this part that

we're walking down to now, in terms of a harbor,

is it's one of the most accessible locations

on the planet for seeing Great White Sharks.

The eco-tourism, you know, it's keeping this animal alive,

and that's why we, yeah, we feel so strongly about it.

For your safety, please take your seats

and remain seated until we remove anchor.

Remember to keep one hand on the boat and one hand to yourself.

If you need any assistance at all, please draw attention...

What we do on every trip is have a qualified biologist

on board to identify every single shark that comes around.

- Which is you. - Which today is me.

Which is you.

What a, yeah, what an amazing opportunity.

So, umm yeah, each Great White we see,

we log down characteristics on it.

We take photographs of the dorsal fin, and--

in order to see if we can identify the animal.

We have an extensive backlog back on land, umm,

with thousands and thousands of fin photos, so we can actually

get a good gauge who's visiting at what time of the year.

I think a lot of people don't realize how

highly transient and migratory Great Whites are.

White sharks having their protective

legislation around them, you know, there are sightings

appendix, two species that are listed on CMS.

So, throughout their distribution they are,

you know, they're pretty much, um, protected,

but they problem is, we get a lot of lack of enforcement.

Cage diving eco-tourism was initiated in order to,

you know, non-consumptively utilize the animal.

Umm, and it obviously provided its, uh, it's cause.

It's showed that it's a very viable outlet for tourism,

for education, and for monitoring.

Eco-tourism is critically important

because that is where people see, wow,

this animal is actually a beautiful animal,

see how it moves.

It's not trying to jump on the boat.

It's not trying to do this.

It's never going to try and eat me.

A live animal is worth a lot more than a dead animal.

Why not, uh, just enjoy looking at it?

And enjoy future generations to look at it?

And, umm, we can all enjoy what's on the planet

and leave something for somebody else coming along the way.

When you're taking the life of an animal,

you are directly affecting the world around you

in a negative way.

And the perpetuation of that negative affect

is a ripple effect that you might not know how large

and vast that ripple affect really is.

We need to understand that our future, and the future

of the natural world are inextricably tied.

And that everything we are doing to hurt the oceans,

hurting the nature, hurting the forest is going to hurt us.

So, that fundamentally comes from a connection

that all species play a critical role

in a thriving marine and terrestrial eco-system.

These elephants are juveniles,

and so that means that, you know,

they've been through the trauma

of seeing their whole families, their mothers, poached.

Oh my gosh. Hi.

Every single one of these animals is here

as a result of either human wildlife culprits or poaching.

- Greed. Money. - Or trophy hunting.

Whatever it may be that's left these poor orphans on their own.

And it's you know, it's wonderful

and it's essential this is happening.

But, what's just as important, is that we prevent it

from happening in the first place.

I'm Dan Richardson.

I'm an actor and I'm an animal conservationist.

And, for as long as I can remember,

throughout my entire life,

love for animals, compassion towards animals,

has been an inherent part of who I am and what matters to me.

- Hi. - Dan.

Pleased to meet you.

What, what drives you? What is your... why this?

Wonderful.

You're right.

People who are here in Kenya,

who dedicate their lives to this, for very little reward...

they're there to protect an animal that will

never know they're there being protected.

They'll never know that that person was fighting

the fight for them.

If it was a war-veteran coming home,

they'd be awarded a medal for their bravery.

These are front-line heroes doing this.

They can sense, it's energy, so they can sense

bad intention and good intention.

Well, I want to shake your hand.

God bless you for all of your work.

It's so important. We're with you

and we, uh, we wanna save

- these animals as much as you. - Thank you.

I think, you know, elephants are an iconic species.

They represent Africa in so many ways.

The orphans, especially, are such great

ambassadors for the cause.

I'm a pilot with David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

So, we've sort of been able to identify,

to create a safe habitat for those elephants

to be re-released into the wild.

We started sending out teams,

which were protecting the area so that there was

a safe habitat for the elephants to go back to.

Of course.

There's a real importance to protect what we do have left,

and I think raising awareness of that is paramount.

So we are headed to

the care for wilds, uh, rhino orphanage.

The largest rhino orphanage in the world.

And Petronel's the founder, the owner.

She's got an incredible team that helps her, uh,

rescue, rehab and take in these baby rhinos that,

uh, that we're about to see.

These baby rhinos are sadly, very valuable.

Somebody cut the fence and they got into

the Solia Reserve... they were gonna kill

some of the rhinos for their horns.

And, uh, the anti-poaching units found the guy, and thank God

they shot the poacher before he could shoot one of these rhinos.

As we know, there's not many left.

Poaching rhino horn is the third biggest revenue generator

of any criminal enterprise in the world.

Goes all the way to the demand.

This ridiculous myth in the far east,

that a material the same as hair and fingernails

can have magical healing properties.

So, wildlife crime isn't a group of specialists,

it's the same people who are trafficking in narcotics.

They're using the same routes.

They're using the same middle-men

and the same corrupt customs officials.

It's now a move recently, in the case of rhino horn,

from health to wealth.

So, where the medicinal properties of rhino horn

were shown to be nonsense,

it's moved from that to a status symbol.

And, that's a really, really difficult idea to eradicate.

Rhinos. They're going to be on the brink of extinction

if we don't have more facilities like this.

More Petronals to, uh, literally dedicate

their lives to saving these animals.

There's Petronal, I think.

- I think so. - I hope that's her.

- Oh my God. - Hi.

Hi, how are you?

You are, obviously their voice,

but you are reversing all of the damage that has been done

to these animals as a result of greed and money and evil.

That's it? There's only four-thousand black rhinos?

So, this is baby Summer. I've heard a lot about her.

I've seen a lot of videos, and, uh... tell me.

How did you find her?

Look at the babies! Hello.

These are the... oh I'm holding this one? Okay.

Oh my gosh. These are the black rhinos.

Yep. You have to.

These are ones that are going to be released?

Okay. How many?

Are these the white rhinos?

I see.

This is very serious.

This isn't just, like you said, running a farm with some rhinos.

This is saving the last of a species

that the rest of the world may not see.

The jungle land teaches observation and awareness.

Policing is as much a fundamental part

of the--

a holistic conservation approach

as education in an African school.

And as long as we all fight together

and we are shining a light on these issues

and changing them, we can win.

And it's absolutely crucial we do so.

It's incredibly tragic.

I can't explain the feeling.

How meaningful is this place to you

and your colleagues, the team that work here?

On one hand,

it's a testament to all the work we do.

Sure, these are animals that have been poached.

You know, populations are growing and it's quite a--

it's a great place for us to come and just remember.

You know, that this is what it's taken

because sometimes you forget

and it's particularly sad now because of Sudan, you know.

He's the last male northern white rhino

on the planet and there he is.

What he did more powerfully

than anything else I've ever seen

was underlined the damage we've done.

He emphasized the damage we've done as a species

to his species and others.

It's the sixth extinction.

The whole thing, extinction means extinction

based on human impact.

And it's happening now.

Some people don't believe it's happening,

but we can clearly see it happening with Sudan

and all the negative human impact

based on greed, money,

the illegal black-market trade of this species

for something that has no real medicinal purpose.

Animal conservation is my purpose in life.

And without it, animals like these--

And incredibly, we're talking

about the last two of a species in this case

that I wanna stand up and fight for.

So, it's almost impossible to comprehend, isn't it?

We're literally looking

at the two last existing individuals

- of an entire species. - It's shocking.

Do you think that in-vitro fertilization

will work with possibly

the southern female white rhino?

Right here, the surrogate?

In getting the eggs out,

fertilizing the eggs, creating embryos

is one part of the problem that has to be solved.

The next part is gonna be re-implanting

those northern white rhino embryos

back into surrogate southern white rhino females

because the two living northern whites

can't carry the calf, can't get pregnant.

I think for the most part, people need to fight

battles close to home.

So, whether it's legislation

or pressuring politicians

in their local areas to protect, you know,

maintain the integrity of protected areas.

I actually consider this capital,

the state capital of California,

the epicenter of progress in this country.

And frankly, I think it's a fulcrum

where we can put a lever and actually start

to change global economics around...

this brutal trade

that is on the verge of extincting

some of our most iconic species on the planet.

Trophy hunting for these iconic

endangered African species

is not only brutal,

but it is anachronistic,

some false show of masculinity

that people wanna go out there

and act tough...

...by slaughtering lions,

rhinos, giraffes.

This has to end.

This bill, the SB 1487

could actually preserve the last remaining

iconic endangered species on this planet.

The fight for our own humanity

is wrapped up in the future of these species.

Even though they say, "Well, what does this

have to do with people?

You're not helping people here."

I say that "This is the most powerful thing

we can do to restore the dignity and humanity

of the human race and not just make ourselves

exploiters and consumers, but stewards."

We're putting our flag down here in California today

saying "We know where we stand."

We stand with the species of this planet,

and that the ultimate test

of a civilization's morality

is how they treat those who can't protect themselves.

Do you like to fight and do you like to fight

with ethics and the law on your side?

And that's why I'm here, I'm a nice guy,

but I don't like to be pushed around.

I don't like bullies.

We have firsthand experience

on witnessing the two last female

northern white rhinos left on the planet.

Lions, cheetahs, elephants.

All of these species are facing extinction.

And we support this bill 100%.

And we ask for your support

to save these animals before they go extinct

in our lifetime, thank you so much.

They've been on this planet for millions of years.

And in the last 120 years,

we've been wiping them out.

A dead elephant is one hunting fee

to usually a dictator.

It never gets to the people.

Trophy hunting is the worst.

It's strictly done to see

who's got the biggest elephant head

or whatever they're looking for.

I feel humans should know better.

If you ever get down to a point

where you've lost all of your wild populations,

you only have animals left

which have been kept in zoo conditions

for long periods, then your chances of recovering

that species are going to be extremely small.

We have the power to reverse it

and it used to be led by governments

and I think we're beginning to see that happen.

If we can change rules,

regulations, government laws,

the way that the fishing quotas

do this to that, then we should do it.

The SB 1487

could actually be what turns the tide

in the fight to preserve the last remaining

iconic endangered African species.

The SB 1487 does that by prohibiting

the possession of body parts

of 11 iconic African endangered species.

Conservation strategy

need not adopt a policy

of poaching and of killing to actually achieve its ends.

How do we wanna be remembered on this planet as people?

Those who left nothing else behind

and just were extracting this planet

and vanquishing species and torturing animals?

The motion is to pass to the Committee on Judiciary.

- Eduardo Garcia? - Aye.

Garcia, aye.

- Gallagher? - No.

- Curiel? - Aye.

Curiel, aye.

The order that actually heal this planet.

And I think right now is that moment.

The bill is out eight to four.

I think, you know, in the entertainment business,

I'm always getting makeup on my face

and I wanna make sure

that the animals didn't suffer unnecessarily.

That, to me, is the most cruel.

Science has evolved past bunnies in a box.

So now that we have these human-relevant models

that are actually closer to keeping humans safe,

more efficient, and cheaper, we can use them.

I just wanna say how proud I am to be a principal co-author

of SB 1249 to protect animals from cosmetic testing.

And look, we know that for more than 50 years,

unfortunately, animals have been used

in painful tests

to assess the safety of chemicals

used in cosmetic products.

Not only is this practice inhumane,

but unnecessary where lab alternatives exist.

Please join me in supporting SB 1249.

Such an important legislation for those

that do not have a voice to speak up for themselves.

Thank you so much for being here.

Today is critically important

to save the lives of hundreds of thousands

of animals every year

that get tortured for vanity and fashion.

And I always strive to ask everybody

to go cruelty-free and always look for the leaping bunny.

And if it does not say cruelty-free,

they usually test on animals.

As an actress,

every makeup chair that I sit in,

I try to make sure that the cosmetics being used on me

were not tested on animals.

But the burden is on us.

It is on the consumer.

And it shouldn't be that way.

And it isn't that way in the EU

and many other countries.

After getting resounding bipartisan support

in the Senate with Democrats and Republicans coming together

to vote in favor of it,

SB 1249 now faces

an important vote on the assembly floor.

You know, what are we doing? It's completely archaic.

It's fiscally irresponsible.

We have the numbers on that as well.

So, it would be great if California,

as progressive as it is, would be the first to do this.

In very privileged countries like the United States,

we tend to be very centered on self.

All of the things that involve cruelty and chemicals

and everything else they're putting in your cosmetics

is bad for you.

So, if you're centered on self,

you wanna make better decisions for your body,

your health, the environment, the planet

that you're leaving for your children.

These are the decisions.

They still allow testing to occur in China.

So, SB 1249 would get rid of that exemption.

So even if you were to test it in China,

you wouldn't be able to sell it in California.

Which is a huge step forward.

Once they introduce the bill, then I have to,

and my team, we have to knock on every office,

every legislator's office,

talk to them about the bill,

tell them why it's important,

and get them to vote for it.

One of the reasons why we asked John to come today

is because he is an entrepreneur.

And since his stardom

as a basketball player,

he's embraced a vegan lifestyle,

compassion, entrepreneur.

So, he's really a star to us

in this realm.

And we're so honored to have him with us today.

So let me ask you, have you heard anything

about SB 1249 yet?

The California Cruelty Free Cosmetics Act?

Because the existing testing

is still killing and torturing

over 400,000 animals a year.

We've done a lot of things in the past

because we didn't know better, but now we do.

When they ask, they say, "Don't you wanna

go up on the hill, man, and shake some fences

and get some people to pay attention?"

I just think it's a cool thing. It is.

And if I could go

and see things in sports,

it's not gonna change anybody's life, right?

And guys will sit around and they argue

on ESPN all day about it.

This changes not just our lives.

That means we save, like, 54,000,000

land animals a year, everybody.

And another thing,

you make sure you get that vote.

We're rolling on that, right?

With advocates like this, I'm very pleased to sign on

as a co-sponsor of this legislation

and looking forward to working with the group.

Thank you.

I understand you're a vegan, right?

My brother does--

He's, like-- he had-- for a while,

he was doing, like, MMA fighting

that he was big and all that.

And he's a vegan too.

He was the one who told me that.

When I first came in elite, my first year,

I was eating a cheeseburger and fries

and a shake before playing against the Milwaukee Bucks,

and I'm still knocked out

and I was the slowest I ever was.

And he said, "How's that cheeseburger treating you?"

And then from that point on, from 1986,

I started paying attention to what food he does.

Oprah put out a thing with Deepak Chopra in 1993,

you should not eat with people you don't like,

because your body, your psyche

does certain things on that food.

So, if you eat something that's dead,

something that has been murdered,

something that has been afraid to be murdered,

and you get that in your spirit, you now have that.

You ever see these biggest guys are always jumpy?

That's that cow.

Are you an aye vote?

I'm totally against animal testing, too.

So-- and I have been throughout my career.

- Here we go. - Wait a second.

And my friend started a thing called Mixed Chicks for hair.

She's half white, half black, and her hair was mixed.

So, she had it for hair

and she literally made it cruelty-free

before she put it out.

And if she can do that in the thought process,

and they asked me to come be involved,

I said, "Yeah, no problem."

I'm an animal lover.

So I am an-- I can commit to that

and I'm an animal lover.

So I'm all about...

being humane and humanity

and making sure that we do things right.

And so, I find that interesting

and would be a great way to be able to go back

and find some data and some pathway so that we can help

guide the committee in making the right decision.

Can I have a picture?

So just in case you do it wrong I can say--

I have a picture.

I'd like to start by telling you

what your yes vote means today.

Over half a million animals will no longer be tortured

for tests that have been scientifically proven

to be unnecessary to show safety.

You will save these animals from being tortured

while they are alive and then thrown into the trash

left to suffocate while writhing in pain.

Because corporations decided that the cost and time

to euthanize them

would negatively affect their bottom line.

It's quite clear to me that this will not only save

the lives of tens of thousands of animals,

but it will also save

torture of so many more.

I think it's time that we added ourselves

to the list of nations that have gone cruelty-free.

So, I'm pleased

to be supporting this legislation today

and would just respectfully ask

to be added as a coauthor.

Thank you very much.

- Stone? - Aye.

Stone, aye. Cunningham?

- Aye. - Cunningham, aye.

Chau? Chu? Holden?

- Chara? - Aye.

- Chara aye. Reyes? - Aye.

- Reyes, aye. Gabriel. - Aye.

Thank you.

That bill is out. Thank you.

Yeah, the good thing about doing good things

is that it becomes infectious.

And I think our future as a civilization

and as a species is directly intertwined

with our willingness to preserve biodiversity.

I started the International Anti-poaching Foundation

in 2009 after traveling around southern Africa,

seeing what was happening with indicator species

like elephant and rhino and what we're doing to them.

And the thing that makes me feel the best

is being able to help rangers to protect the animals,

being able to speak out on behalf of animals.

Being able to be a voice for the voiceless.

One of the programs that we run in Zimbabwe

is called Akashinga,

which translates into "the brave ones."

And it's an all-female

anti-poaching or conservation model.

It's the only nature reserve in the world

to be completely managed and protected by women.

I saw other industries progressing.

I thought, "Well, if conservation can't have

that opportunity, maybe we can't progress either."

Clear.

We're involved with protecting the environment

and protecting animals, that's what we do.

Okay, the meat industry is the greatest negative impact

against both of those things.

One less step to being able to fight.

There's two types of conservationists.

There's vegans, and there's those

that don't like to take their work home.

And I'm happy to say that that's cost them

a lot of funding, the truth isn't for sale

and it never will be.

Living at a plant-based lifestyle,

the first thing that I cut out was dairy.

The leading cause of environmental pollution.

And I also knew that these cows were enslaved.

Listen, the cow has to give birth to give milk.

So, there are some dairies that are pumping out

hundreds of calves per day.

A lot of those calves are male.

And where do those calves go now?

Because there isn't

a monster veal industry anymore.

Those calves are going for dog food.

My name is Cuoto.

I'm the founder and lead investigator of ARM,

Animal Recovery Mission.

We're based in Miami Beach, Florida.

What we're doing in the field,

rescuing animals,

delivering undercover footage,

exposing really the truth of the worst cases

of animal cruelty.

It is an extremely sad,

heartbreaking job to look at animals

while you're in the field undercover

and see them boiled alive, butchered alive,

disassembled alive, beaten to death.

And remember, as an undercover investigator,

you're the bad guy.

So, you have to laugh

and be one of the crowd

as this is taking place.

This is a small percentage of our gear.

You know, the drone.

Extremely important to the investigator.

Undercover camera.

Without the undercover camera,

we would get absolutely nothing done

and absolutely no footage whatsoever.

People who are working in slaughterhouses

and factory farm,

they have violent, violent pasts.

They have been convicted of serious crimes in the past.

But also, we're undercover right now

in farms that

hard narcotics are being used and dealt.

You know, it's important for people

to understand the true reality

of what takes place

in factory farms

where you think you're getting your meat

from a good, wholesome place.

And it's actually coming from a place that's dirty,

inhumane, and just uncared for.

We just arrived at this hunting preserve in Florida.

And, so, tell me about this-- this place.

There are several locations here in central Florida

that provide people the opportunity

to come out here and pay to hunt several different types

of species of animals and endangered species

that are raised here on these properties.

And then people pay large amounts of money

up to 20, 30 thousand dollars to come out here and hunt.

People don't really even know that this is even available.

And to be honest, I didn't even know that this

- was available until recently. - Wow!

You can feel there's, like, some kind of--

There's a fear.

Anybody who says that they care for their animals

and that their animals are happy,

they're not happy.

Animals that are free are happy.

Animals that are contained and enslaved,

they're not happy.

These people, I think that they feel like they're

not doing anything wrong and they feel like,

this is a way for them to profit and make money

off of killing animals.

There is something wrong with people that can feel okay

with killing an animal and then putting a trophy

on their wall or a rug on the floor.

Yeah, pretty much.

I mean, it just doesn't really make sense.

So, the only saving of the animal

that takes place is by us.

The outside world is the one who needs to come in

and save those animals.

And, you know, you say, "Oh, I can't go in there

and do those investigations,"

which I've met plenty of people who have said that

that they can't go in there. "I can't believe you do that"

or, "I can't, I could never do what you do."

But the reality is that those individuals,

they can help and they can help in a drastic way

just by not consuming that product.

Who's this?

- This is the one. - Mm-hmm, the one and only.

So, this is Secretariat's--

Great great-grandson, basically.

- Oh, my gosh! Wow! - Yeah.

- He's so beautiful. - So here is

a really interesting story, though.

He's the whole reason why I'm started.

Basically, as a three-year-old,

he was in one of his few races.

He hadn't started much.

And as you can see on his leg,

he's got five-pin marks.

So, he got clipped by another horse,

which pretty much shattered his, like, leg.

Like, almost broke it all.

And then they decided he had no use.

So, they took him to a slaughter farm

and that's where he was gonna become

a part of the black-market horse meat trade.

And that's when Cuoto first found out about

the black-market horse meat trade.

And as a redemption to freedoms,

was like, "I'm gonna expose it

and bust it and then get back to my life."

Well, he soon found out

that illegal animal slaughter farms

is, like, the underground belly

where everything, all of the illegal

and horrible animal cruelty operations

just, you know, network out of.

So, everything from animal fighting and--

Started with rescuing a horse

from an illegal slaughterhouse in Miami, Florida.

But that is really what made me break out of my bubble.

It's what made me give up

my profitable life

monetarily to switch and make the leap.

And I can tell you from a person

who was so profit-driven

that I'm much more happy and accomplished

in my life now than I was then.

And that's little Cuoto.

That's one of the first pigs at the back.

He, Cuoto, actually rescued him off

in the middle of the night of a slaughter farm in Miami.

And he actually had an axe hole

in his-- top of his head.

Still has it. He has a scar.

- No! - So Cuoto took him in,

he's very cool, very quiet and calm.

When you meet farm animals in the sanctuary setting,

you start to see how they are all very different.

You know, like, each pig is so different

and their likes and dislikes and the way they behave

and interact with people.

And so, I think, you know, it's just a misconception

that is put out there for a reason

because we couldn't possibly eat them if we knew them.

Whoo! Come on, cows!

Calvin! Come on! Come here!

And Calvin with the white stripe,

his mother died giving birth to him.

So, he's been here with us.

Brownie, the big one with the horns,

he's one of the few

owner relinquishments that we took.

And then we'll see who else comes over.

We still like cats.

Here in the States, we don't need dogs,

we don't need cats.

And we've put up this wall in between them

and all of the other animals.

If you come out to a sanctuary

and you meet these guys and you look them in the eyes,

you'll see that they're not different than your dog.

They're not different than your cat.

Just like you wouldn't eat a dog,

you're not gonna eat a pig once you make that connection.

They've come to say it.

A lot of different farm animals

have the awareness, the intelligence,

the emotional intelligence of a three-year-old child.

It's a critical thing to understand this dichotomy

of ingesting the very thing

that we would care for in any other situation.

My name is David Verburg.

I'm a 2016 Olympic gold medalist,

plant-based athlete, and animal advocate.

Basically, the whole reason

why I became vegan was because I grew

up on a farm with probably 25

different types of animals,

from chickens to goats, sheep, peacocks.

Somebody came up to me and we were talking

and I had the-- I had, you know, bottle-fed the calf.

And, like, was, "So you must be vegan?"

And I was like "No, no."

"Well, like, why not?"

And I didn't have a good answer at the time.

Like, I really couldn't tell them why I wasn't vegan.

And that's when I slowly started my transition

to a full plant-based lifestyle.

It went with steak first and chicken and then fish.

And then kind of just slowly, slowly, slowly

started cutting out dairy from my diet,

and people looking at me

like "He's running a little bit better.

He's smiling, he's happy.

His energy, like, what is he doing?"

And then, that's when I'm like "Oh, well, you know,

I switched to a plant-based diet."

And that's when the questions start.

Like "Okay, well, how? What did you do?"

And then I was like "Oh, well, let me show you."

And that's how you kinda, like, take them by the hand

and you kinda help in that direction.

When you want people to make changes,

significant changes in their diet,

that's a huge thing for them, you know what I mean?

And it's terrifying. We do monthly vegan potlucks.

- Yeah. - You know?

Got all kinds of things going on, so...

When you have great alternatives

like hamburger,

I think it helps, like, lessen that fear.

I am a junk food vegan.

I eat vegan macaroni and cheese,

and vegan cheeseburgers,

and vegan burritos, and vegan pizza.

And all of those things that other people eat.

I'm just eating vegan versions of it.

And so, I don't care if you're doing it for your health

or the environment or the animals.

At the end of the day,

the animals benefit from us making that decision.

I've got a 200-mile-an-hour billboard

promoting the vegan diet.

When you've got 7.6 billion people

on the planet making day-to-day decisions,

you know, we need to be making conscious ones

or we're gonna not only destroy the planet

and our environment, we're gonna take out humanity,

but we're gonna take out

so many amazing species with us.

And three times a day, we all sit down for a meal

and it doesn't cost extra money to leave meat

and dairy products off of your plate.

In fact, it will save you money and health care

because you're gonna be healthier.

I can go to the store right now and pick up,

a variety of different kinds of vegan ice creams,

and vegan macaroni and cheeses, and vegan pizzas.

So, this excuse that it's a hard thing to do,

I just-- I don't buy it.

My motto is,

never underestimate a vegan hippie chick

with a race car.

There's not a lot of hippies in racing.

There's not a lot of vegans in racing.

There's not a lot of girls in racing.

So that, kind of, summarized all of the things

that made me the oddball out

in the garage in one sentence.

Every time the track announcer talks

about the vegan food on TV during

the NASCAR broadcast, to me is a win,

because I know that's echoing on to,

you know, millions of ears.

And that is what my primary goal was.

Thank you very much for joining us again.

I'm Nancy Skinner, senator from the East Bay,

and I am carrying the bill SB 1138.

It requires hospitals, prisons...

...to provide a plant-based meal option.

I think that we should expand this

to every other state, not just California.

And I think this is just the beginning

of much to come with leading in this plant-based movement.

So, thank you so much for being here.

This bill would empower individuals

to make healthier choices,

both in and out of the hospital setting.

It would have a far-reaching effect

in terms of health care costs.

It will also pave the way for other states

to adopt similar measures and to potentially change

the face of health care in the United States.

Thank you.

Going plant-based is our passion,

our love for the people or the animals,

the beings, the lives we're fighting for.

When you consider the impact

of a plant-based diet on the oceans,

it's almost unimaginable.

You would eliminate all of the destructive fisheries,

the gillnets, the long lines,

the, the bomb fishing,

all of those industries right now

that are literally wholesale destroying

an entire ecosystem for our palates.

It would be probably the single most important thing

we could do today to save the oceans.

We're wasting so much land and water

just in livestock production

that could be going to crops

that people could actually eat themselves.

Just from a practical standpoint,

eating meat doesn't--

On a grand scale like this, does not make sense.

Consume less and be conscious

of how that food ended up on your plate

and think about that and really try

to work with the planet.

When I was very young,

physician friend of my dad's

came over and we were eating a big pot roast,

you know, with all kinds of carrots and things around it.

And this physician just said,

"We shouldn't be eating all this."

My name is Janell Palacio Butler,

and these are my two children, Zion and Genesis.

In July 2016, I was admitted to Long Beach Memorial Hospital

to give birth to my fourth child.

Before labor, I informed the hospital

that I was vegan for ethical reasons.

My first meal after giving birth

is a white bread with iceberg lettuce,

a slice of tomato with cheese on it.

Not only did the sandwich have cheese,

but I can tell it had meat

and they had just taken the meat off.

I told them "I'm sorry." And I was very polite.

Gave it back to them.

They sent me chicken broth next.

Told them chicken broth is not vegan.

They said, "Well, there's no chicken in the soup."

And at the end of this ordeal,

I was told by the hospital administrator,

and I quote, "We don't give vegan meals.

People who aren't vegan just cave in and they eat

what we give them."

We're not a fringe thing. We're not crazy.

It's-- this is just a compassionate lifestyle.

Is all it is.

And I think when you put it towards people that way,

you can't really argue with doing less harm.

Item number nine SB 1138 do passes

Amended Appropriations Call of members, please.

- Hernandez? - Aye.

Hernandez, aye.?

- Mitchell? - Aye.

- Morning? - Aye.

Currently, we have six, enough to get out

and we're gonna place that bill on call,

we do have some half-sum members.

Yeah, I suppose the most enlightening thing

or apparent thing for me is the realization

of the important things in life are not things,

they're actions and deciding that

my life is not gonna be about me anymore

and what I can make and take but what about what I can do.

Being able to speak out on behalf of animals,

being able to be a voice for the voiceless.

And knowing that we maybe can't change

the entire world as an individual,

but we can change the world for many individuals.

Mother nature, that feminine energy

needs to rise again.

Because it is only that energy, I believe,

that will give us space to let other beings

share this world with us.

And that's where we need to turn the tide and support

an ecosystem that not only strives for nature,

but helps protect our livelihoods and our future.

The more people that just spend time in nature,

I think it's a win for themselves, spiritually,

personally, and on a global level.

It's people really need to slow down

and think about what we're doing

and how we're co-existing with this amazing planet.

We have to place more value on life.

And I think that goes with all animals.

I think there's more people

that are getting interested

in the well-being of animals.

I think it's just general intelligence.

Mankind is tough on the planet.

Changing your way of looking at animals

as saving the planet.