Henry Mance

Henry Mance is chief features writer at the Financial Times and author of How to Love Animals (Jonathan Cape).

Top dog: how have animals captured politics?

From our UK edition

34 min listen

On this week's episode: should animal lives be considered as valuable as human lives? It’s often said that Britain is a country of animal lovers, but have we taken it too far? Pen Farthing’s evacuation has shown how some people value animal lives more than human lives. William Moore writes our cover piece this week, arguing that the public outcry is emblematic of our faith-like approach to animal rights in Britain. He joins the podcast together with the FT's Henry Mance, author of How to Love Animals. Plus, will the government’s proposed tax reforms solve the crisis in social care? In this week’s issue, Kate Andrews argues that instead of solving the crisis in care, the plans will only worsen intergenerational inequality.

A vegan’s defence of field sports

From our UK edition

In modern Britain, the quickest way to prove that you’re a good person is to show that you love animals. People share cat videos and pose with dogs in pictures for dating websites. Anyone who is seen to hurt animals — like the Danish zoo that culled a giraffe or the lawyer who clubbed a fox — is sent to a special circle of social media hell. Those who participate in field sports reside in this inferno: the men and women who shoot, stalk or hunt. They are killers in a society that doesn’t like to see death. When polled, around 85 per cent of the British public are in favour of keeping New Labour’s hunting ban, and a majority want to extend the ban to shooting and stalking. I consider myself an animal lover.