The Simpsons and animal rights- what do The Simpsons have to do with animal rights? ---Sam Simon, The Simpsons and animal rights--- Sam Simon, the co-creator of The Simpsons, announced his vow to donate most of his fortune to animal rights organizations, after being diagnosed with colon cancer.The issue of Animal rights also came up in his successful series that was one of the first to display vegetarians in a positive light on TV . Sam Simon is indeed one of the most creative writers in his field. He is mainly known as a co-creator of The Simpsons but he took part in other successful sitcoms, like Friends, Cheers and The Drew Carey Show. After finding out he has colon cancer more than a year ago, he announced his intention to donate his fortune to charity in a WTF podcast interview. Despite his illness Simon showed an optimistic and cheerful point of view, talking much about how fulfilling, creative and cheerful his life is and that he leaves this world knowing that he has done his best to support the goals he believes in. Simon is already donating large amounts of money in favor of Animal rights and their protection - among other things he funded a new ship (which is named after him) to Sea Shepherd - a non-profit organization that fights illegal hunting of whales and dolphins. The Sam Simon Foundation runs a dog shelter in his mansion and rehabilitate injured dogs, mostly dogs rescued from circus or other acts. Simon is also a big supporter of Veganism, and his foundation also runs a network of vegan soup kitchens for the poor. ---The Simpsons and Animal Rights--- Sam Simon was not the only vegetarian among the creators of The Simpsons. One of the famous vegetarians of the team is the voice actor Dan Castellaneta which plays the role of Homer Simpson - ironically, a character that loves eating meat. The sitcom dealt with Animal Rights issues from time to time, especially through the experiences of Lisa which became vegetarian on season 7 in an episode that was dedicated to Lisas decision to stop eating meat. This episode was written by David X Cohen (Futurama) which later said that it was his best contribution to the series. In that episode Lisa is visiting a petting zoo with very cute lambs, and later when offered a lamb steak she makes the connection between the cute lambs she had met and the lamb-meat on her plate - a well known experience of many vegans and vegetarians. Her family, especially her father, shows no support for her decision. In her school (where she refuses to participate in animal dissection) she is facing an environment extremely hostile to her decision. Eventually she receives an unexpected support from Apu, the owner of the grocery store, which turns out to be vegan. He shows her how to live in peace with her family around the dinner table, despite their moral differences. Paul and Linda McCartney (known as animal rights activists) were the guest stars on this episode, and only agreed to participate after being promised Lisa wont phase out of being vegetarian. Lisa is still a vegetarian :)
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 22:06:57 +0000
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