Mariann Sullivan

I can honestly say that I never know where I’ll end up when I set out to write about something interesting that someone is doing on behalf of animals. But, in fact, it’s the Our Hen House commitment to go wherever anyone is doing anything to change the world for animals, so I do my best to be intrepid. In light …

If you know anything about me and Jasmin, you know that we love to find things that others have thrown away, and make them into something wonderful (well, we think they’re wonderful). Whether it’s just shopping at the thrift store, or making scarves out of old t-shirts, or creating wallets out of soy-milk containers — we’re suckers for saving things from the …

The veggie burger — what’s not to love? They have all the advantages of the burger — compactness, ease of consumption, an open invitation to imaginative toppings — with none of the problems (cruelty, death, despair). And, while the simple veggie burger used to be somewhat standard fare, they have diversified in startling ways. High end veggie burgers have caught the …

One of the hardest things to take when you are vegan for the animals is when people who love — truly love — dogs and cats eat other animals. We all know it happens all the time. We all know that some of these dog- and cat-lovers literally devote their lives to saving animals. So how can they not get it? …

Recently, Moby held a contest to produce the official video for a song from his latest album, “Innocents.” The song, “Almost Home,” with vocals by Damien Jurado, is beautiful. And the lyrics are open to a variety of interpretations. For anyone who cares about animals, though, just the words alone — “Almost Home” — can’t help but bring up thoughts of …

Crowdfunding is the fundraising innovation of the decade. Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc., etc., have enabled all sorts of people to get the money to do some very cool things. Crowdfunding works, it gets people involved, and — given the right project — it can change the world. And the exciting news is that, now, there is a site specifically dedicated to crowdfunding for …

This is a grant that becomes available each year and it is truly such an amazing opportunity that we try to let you know about it each time. Basically, it can provide you with money to let you pursue your education and do cutting edge work for animals at the same time. Offered by the Animal Welfare Trust, the Student Internship …

The world of online entertainment is a nut just waiting to be cracked by imaginative, animal-friendly gamesters and animators. It’s so perfect. You can create your own world (isn’t that what all of us animal activists want to do?). You can populate it with animals who are winning the fight against the abusers (of course). And you can engage kids (and …

One of the best things that can happen to a law student who wants to use his or her law career to help animals is to participate in (even better, win!) one of the National Animal Law Competitions. Presented by the Center for Animal Law Studies in collaboration with the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the competitions will take place this year …

Another holiday? We’re in! In our household, we mark the beginning of the holiday season by Jasmin’s birthday on October 30 (there’s still time, barely, to check out her birthday fundraiser if you feel so inclined). That is always immediately followed by Halloween, of course, which is a holiday that is near and dear to our hearts. (It involves dressing up …

The most brilliant ideas are the ones that when you hear about them, you immediately think, “Why didn’t I think of that?!?” That’s exactly what I felt when I heard about Planteaters, a new free iPhone app from David and Tracy Hersh. The idea behind Planteaters is that, when people go out to eat, they are planning on eating a meal, …

The short answer? They’re all in movies that could change the world for animals. Huge cultural shifts are needed if we’re going to stop exploiting and abusing animals. We all know that. And one of the best tools for shifting attitudes, changing social consciousness, and getting past people’s defenses, are the movies. So it’s exciting to see that there are some …

October 2. Does it mean anything to you? Even for people who care about animals a whole lot, sometimes World Day for Farmed Animals takes them by surprise. Maybe in the past, you yourself found out about it right before the day. Or, even worse, perhaps you found out about it on the day itself and figured it was too late to do anything. But …

Two appearances on the evening news, talking about factory farming, cruelty, food sustainability, (the myth of) “humane” meat?!?  Who could have guessed we would have such an amazing opportunity? During our recent trip to Virginia to speak at Vegan Night Out (an inspiring and wonderful event, I might add, which we will talk about on an upcoming podcast episode), we were …

When lawyers ask me how to get started in animal rights, one of things I tell them is to consider joining their local or state bar association and either joining, or founding, an animal law committee. Or, they can join the American Bar Association’s TIPS Animal Law Committee, which I used to chair. My local bar association, the New York City …

Almost everyone who cares about animals is confused, intimidated, and pissed off by the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. People  are uncertain about what it really means (and that includes lawyers), and what it means about what animal activists can and can’t do to stay within the law. And that’s exactly the problem. It has long been recognized that laws that “chill” …

Maybe you saw the news story: “Animal activists take over Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard,” declared the Jerusalem Post. Needless to say, it’s inspiring to learn that these activists had a wildly successful animal rights demo in Israel. We’ve heard  that animal rights and veganism have really taken off there (and we’re looking forward to talking about that with Israeli activist Yossi Wolfson …

Anyone who cares about animals ends up seeing a lot of them on facebook. It just never stops — the unending stream of animals with no homes to go to, desperately needing to catch someone’s eye. While these posts on facebook are, undoubtedly, enormously beneficial to animals, there’s no question that for many people, compassion fatigue can set in. And sometimes it …

I am pretty pleased with myself. The new issue of the Animal Law Review, which is published at Lewis & Clark Law School (where I taught Animal Law and Animals in Agriculture last year), is out, and it has an introduction, and I wrote it! The issue grew in part out of last year’s Animal Law Review Symposium, which was all about …

There are, of course, many wildly successful vegan food blogs that don’t depend on specific gimmicks to draw an audience; they simply (or not so simply) present great recipes accompanied by fresh insights and a warm personal touch. A few that come to mind are Oh She Glows, Plant-Powered Kitchen, and one of our personal favorites from Our Hen House board …

This is very exciting! The very prestigious Equal Justice Works Fellowships Program is offering one of its amazing sponsored fellowship opportunities to someone who wants to work in animal law, which means that one very fortunate lawyer will get paid for two years to do cutting edge legal work to help animals. The program provides financial and other forms of support to …

The possibilities for those who want to write about animal issues seem to be expanding everyday. Academic, as well as not-so-academic, publications are hungry for content. So, if writing is your thing, consider dusting off your pencil and facing that blank piece of paper. The animals need your voice. And even if these ideas aren’t of interest to you, please remember …

Many of us who care about animals haven’t actually studied animal science in school and don’t necessarily have a lot of expertise on the current state of research about animals. We just know enough to recognize cruelty and injustice when we see it — it doesn’t take a PhD to know that putting a pig in a gestation crate causes horrific …

You know how there are all those famous chefs out there whom you’ve never really heard of because, after all, who wants to watch some dope slice and dice a formerly living creature? Well, prepare to spend some time catching up on your culinary celebrities. All you have to do is dial into the YouTube channel known as (Accidentally) Vegan TV. …

The attitude of most mainstream religions to animals has always perplexed me. Many give lip service to the idea that we should not be cruel to animals, but then not only fail to object to specific instances of cruelty, but participate in it, and even sometimes promote it. While this may make many people feel that animal advocates should just throw …

Animal rights activists, like everyone else, like to talk to people they agree with, and read the writings of AR heroes, thinkers and pundits. We all like to sharpen our knowledge, confirm our beliefs, and pick up some messaging tools from the pros. But sometimes, it’s really useful to hear from people that you don’t agree with. And that’s not always …