Young Filipina Advocates to Look Out For

I’m Julia. I’m an editor, an independent researcher, and an animal advocate. Outside AEP, I help run Guinea Pig Shelter PH, a private foster home that provides temporary shelter for guinea pigs looking for forever families and advocates #AdoptDontShop.

Why do you think it’s important to advocate for farmed animals?

It’s important to advocate for farmed animals and other nonhuman animals because they are our kapwa, i.e., we share the world with them. Another reason we must advocate for farmed animals is because their suffering is intricately linked to our existential possibilities. Animal agriculture is one of the leading drivers of climate change, and eating meat has always been linked to a number of diseases. To advocate the liberation of farmed animals is one of the most urgent moral imperatives today.

What farmed animal advocacy or plant-based initiatives are you currently doing or planning to do? 

I am currently writing on animal ethics. My main goal in publishing this essay is to invite the Philippine philosophical community to reflect on the question of the nonhuman being. I am hoping that philosophy keeps up with the current ethical issues challenging our times and lives today.

If you could share with us, like one story in your farmed animal advocacy journey that has touched you so well and you still remember, please share here. Feel free to add links, photos, a video, etc.

Esther the Wonder Pig was one of the reasons I advocate for farmed animals. It was in 2015 when I stumbled upon Esther's account on Instagram. Esther changed the way I see farmed animals so that in 2016, my New Year's Resolution was to stop eating red and white meat. She clarified to me what my values are, and I'm forever grateful to her for deeply changing my life. When she passed, I vowed that for the rest of my life, I will honor and celebrate her life by telling her story in the hope that people will finally see farmed animals as individuals with dignity.