Genesis Butler: Hope is Empathy and Action for Animals

The Jane Goodall Hopecast

Genesis Butler is a climate change activist, animal rights advocate, and founder of Genesis for Animals, a rescue and sanctuary organization. And she’s just 13 years old. In this episode, Dr. Jane Goodall talks with Genesis about her own beginnings as a young environmentalist, with both activists sharing parallel stories from the same early age, albeit seven decades apart. With empathetic hearts, curious minds, and supportive mothers, both young activists found themselves drawn to a life of advocating on behalf of people, the planet and other animals. The conversation explores what being an animal and environmental advocate means today, ways to get younger generations involved through programs like Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots, and how Genesis finds hope in opening the minds and hearts of people who come to understand the profound likeness we share with other animals, and their innate value. As Dr. Goodall has shared, “We are not the only beings with personalities, rational thought and emotions. There is no sharp line dividing us from the rest of the animal kingdom. It is a very blurry line, and it gets more blurry every day.”

At the End of the Rainbow: Stay to the end of the episode to hear a rare archival clip of Jane’s mother Vanne, her greatest support in life, telling the story of a young Jane’s disappearance as a four year old to discover where eggs come from.

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