EA - AMA: Emma Slawinski, the RSPCA's Director of Policy, Prevention and Campaigns. by tobytrem

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Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: AMA: Emma Slawinski, the RSPCA's Director of Policy, Prevention and Campaigns., published by tobytrem on January 24, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.I'll be interviewing Emma Slawinski for anaudio AMA on the 1st of February. Ask your questions here, and we will cover them in the interview! The interview will be published as a podcast and transcript."Factory-farmed chickens live absolutely horrible lives; their suffering is the single biggest animal welfare issue facing the country at present [my emphasis]" ~ Emma SlawinskiEmma Slawinski is the Director of Policy, Prevention and Campaigns for theRSPCA (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). She has over a decade of experience in animal welfare campaigning. Previously, she worked for organisations such asCompassion in World Farming, where she worked on theEnd The Cage Age campaign, andWorld Animal Protection.At the RSPCA, she has:Worked on the#CutTheChase campaign to end greyhound racing in the UK, and theKept Animals Bill Campaign.Made speeches in front of parliament in favour of banning live export of livestock.Spoken against no-stun slaughter on GB news.Been quoted in BBC articles on issues such ashorse racing reform andbadger culling.Promoted the annualAnimal Kindness Index, which shows how discordant the British public's views on animal welfare are.What is the RSPCA?The RSPCA is a charity with along history. It was the first charity in the world to be primarily focused on preventing animal suffering. In 2021, it received £151 million in funding, making it one of the largest charities in the UK.The RSPCA'scampaigns cover everything frombanning disposable vapes andchanging firework laws, toending cages for farm animals.I was especially interested in doing an AMA with someone from the RSPCA because ofthis article, which focused on the plight of chickens in the UK. In Emma's words:"We slaughter about a billion chickens in the UK every year - an extraordinary number. It is very difficult to envisage the scale of that."Yet we never see these creatures, despite their vast numbers, because they are locked into incredibly cramped spaces. They are also genetically selected to grow incredibly quickly. We get through them at an extraordinary rate because they are bred to produce the maximum amount of meat in the fastest possible time."Factory-farmed chickens live absolutely horrible lives; their suffering is the single biggest animal welfare issue facing the country at present [my emphasis]"Here are some themes that I will be focusing on in my questions:The RSPCA's most effective campaigns, and how they measure the impact they have through public messaging.How the RSPCA prioritises amongst its various causes.What challenges it faces because of its size.Whether it has ways to influence policy that smaller and newer charities do not.You can use these as a jumping off point, but don't feel constrained by them. Ask anything!Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org