Hope for the Animals
Longtime animal advocate, Hope Bohanec, covers a variety of farmed animal issues including the ethical, environmental, spiritual, heartbreaking and heartwarming aspects of living vegan. Hope has engaging conversations with inspiring guests focusing on critical reasons for living a vegan lifestyle and covering current topics such as the humane hoax, environmental impact, speciesism, and effective outreach advocating for chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs, goats and other farmed animals. Hope is a 35-year vegan, animal rights activist, and author. This podcast is a project of Compassionate Living.
Hope for the Animals
Farmed Animal Sanctuaries: Emotion, Connection, and Effective Advocacy with Zoe Novic
Farmed animal sanctuaries are the heart of the animal advocacy movement. Our guest today, Zoe Novic, Executive Director of CAPE (Center for Animal Protection and Education), knows this well as she grew up on a sanctuary in the Santa Cruz hills. Zoe has a diverse background that includes two years in the Peace Corps in Indonesia, a Master’s in Public Health, and leadership roles at The Humane League, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and Greener by Default, Zoe has expertise in grassroots organizing, public health policy, and advocacy.
On the podcast, Zoe discusses the significance of the human-animal connection in comprehending and understanding nonhuman animals. She talks about how sanctuaries serve as acts of resistance, providing physical spaces where we can shape the world as we envision it. She and Hope also discuss how sanctuary and rescue efforts have been devalued in recent years, with current animal advocacy funding and philanthropy philosophies moving away from funding direct animal care and how that is impacting the movement. Zoe emphasizes the importance of emotion in advocacy, highlighting how it can often prompt action more effectively than logic or reason. She further explains how sanctuaries deeply evoke emotions. Additionally, Zoe shares her public health background, underscoring the intricate connections between this sector and animal agriculture.
Resources:
CAPE: Center for Animal Protection and Education
Sonoma County VegFest, September 27, 2025
Film: Called to Rescue
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