Larissa Liebmann, a Senior Staff Attorney with the Animal Legal Defense Fund, joins me to discuss ALDF v Becerra, in which the plaintiffs are suing the Food and Drug Administration regarding its authorization of the use of a drug known as Experior that is being administered to cattle in spite of potential harms to the animals, the environment, and to people …
Mariann
Civil rights attorney Matthew Strugar joins me this week to talk about a case in Washington, DC, involving the rights of animal activists protesting the sale of foie gras at two prominent restaurants in that city. Our conversation will involve the controversial use of anti-stalking laws to limit protests, as well as the successful use of DC’s anti-SLAPP law to defend …
On this episode, we have something a bit different. I will be talking with Kristina Bergsten, the owner and founder of The Animal Law Firm, a Colorado law firm with a multi-state practice. For those of you who are graduating from Law School or just looking to change your career and wondering whether you can make a living doing animal law, …
Animal Law Podcast #97: The Case of the Miserable Monkeys and the Apathetic Agency
On this episode of the podcast, I will be talking, once again, with Katherine Meyer, who is the Director of Harvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Clinic, about a recent decision in a case handled by the clinic entitled New England Anti Vivisection Society (now known as Rise for Animals v Elizabeth Goldentyre). This case involves the provision of the …
Animal Law Podcast #96: What Happened to the Pigs at the Supreme Court?
If you are pleased that California’s Prop 12 (which, in a small but important way, limits the amount of suffering that can be imposed on mother pigs) survived in the Supreme Court, but you are still unclear as to exactly why and exactly who voted for what, you have come to the right place. Today I will be talking, once again, …
On this episode, I will be talking, once again, to Vanessa Shakib of the California law firm, Advancing Law for Animals. Vanessa is representing E.L., who, though you don’t know her by name, you have definitely heard about. She is the young girl whose beloved goat, Cedar, who started out as a 4H project, was brutally killed against E.L.’s wishes in …
On this episode, I will be talking, once again, with Asher Smith, Director of Litigation at the PETA Foundation, about a recent victory in the 9th Circuit in Sullivan v The University of Washington. This case involves a crucially important aspect of the Animal Welfare Act – the IACUC, or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. The Act provides, rather unfortunately, …
Animal Law Podcast #93: The Apparently Never-ending Case of Sanctuary for Chimpanzees
On today’s episode, I will be talking to Margie Robinson, an attorney with the Humane Society of the United States. Margie will be telling us about Humane Society of the United States v National Institutes of Health, the latest lawsuit in the years-long effort to relocate to sanctuary ALL the chimpanzees formerly held for research by the National Institutes of Health …
On this episode, I will be talking to Taimie Bryant, a law professor at UCLA School of Law. She will explain some of the ins and outs of a law review article she recently published in the Marquette Law Review entitled “Novel Food Ingredients: Food Safety Law, Animal Testing, and Consumer Perspectives.” This article involves the question of what the FDA …
Today I will be talking to Raffael Fasel and Sean Butler, who are the founders of the Cambridge Center for Animal Rights Law at Cambridge University in the UK. They are doing something quite special — a series of workshops in various parts of the world seeking to help law professors and lawyers, and perhaps some others, develop courses at their …
On this episode, I will be talking to Alene Anello, whose law firm, Legal Impact for Chickens, is pursuing a shareholder derivative case against Costco regarding the treatment of the poor little birds whose bodies end up being their extremely popular, and very cheap, rotisserie chickens. Essentially, in Smith v Vachris, currently pending in Superior Court in King County, Washington, Legal …
On this episode I will be discussing a case that a lot of you have no doubt heard of, and that is National Pork Producers Council v Ross, which was recently argued in the Supreme Court. This case brings into question the constitutionality of Proposition 12, something else which many of you may be familiar with, by which California set certain …
On this episode, I will be discussing State of Utah v Hsiung, the case that has everyone in the movement talking. Wayne Hsiung and Jon Frohnmeyer will be here to discuss the prosecution of Wayne, along with his co-defendant Paul Picklesimer, for burglary and theft for entering a huge Smithfield factory farm in Utah and, while there, rescuing two sick piglets. …
It’s become pretty clear that the more that meat-eating consumers find out about how the animals they eat were treated, the more temptation there is for the industry to, shall we say, fudge the truth. Thus, today I will be talking to Dije Ndreu and Brooke Dekolf of Richman Law and Policy about two cases they are currently litigating regarding the …
On this episode I will be speaking with Jessica Rubin, who is the Associate Dean of Experiential Learning and the Director of the Animal Law Clinic at the University of Connecticut School of Law. She will be discussing a Connecticut law, called Desmond’s Law, which allows law students, and lawyers, to be appointed to assist the court in certain animal cruelty cases …
On this episode I will be talking to Asher Smith, who is the Director of Litigation at the PETA Foundation, about Usler v Vital Farms, which is a class action against an egg facility which makes some very elaborate claims about how well they are treating their hens (“our girls!”) and charges their customers a hefty premium for doing so. So, …
On this episode I will be talking, once again, to Kelsey Eberly, who is now with Harvard Law School’s Animals, Law and Policy Program, as well as with Dena Jones of the Animal Welfare Institute about the deeply troubling topic of chicken slaughter. Specifically, we will be discussing Animal Welfare Institute v Vilsack, a case involving the rather confusing landscape of …
Animal Law Podcast #82: Maybe Cruelty Laws CAN Protect Farmed Animals!
On this week’s podcast I will be talking to Will Lowrey of Animal Outlook about a case that really has everyone in the animal law community talking. Several years ago Animal Outlook conducted an undercover investigation of Martin Farms, in Pennsylvania, a dairy farm that proved to be the locus of much hideous cruelty to animals. Some of that cruelty was …
Scrambled Priorities: Will the King Amendment End Farmed Animal Reform?
If you ever had any question that Big Ag has a stranglehold on legislatures across the country, including the one in Washington D.C., you can now put that question to rest. Wednesday night, the House Agriculture Committee finally passed a Farm Bill, which will now go on to the House for a full vote. Within that long overdue, complicated, incredibly important …
This past Monday, Jasmin was featured on The Huffington Post, in an interview called “Our Hen House’s Jasmin Singer and the Art of Defiance.” Her interview was part of the Meatless Monday column, written by Ellen Kanner. If Ellen’s name sounds familiar, it may be because Our Hen House’s Carrie Forrest recently interviewed her about her new book, Feeding the Hungry …
Flock Only: “The only feasible way forward is veganism.” PART II of Ellen Kanner’s Interview with Jasmin Singer
Dear Flock, Mariann here. Shocking, I know. You’re used to hearing from Jasmin in this little flock corner. Well, I’ve taken over — at least temporarily — to point your attention to an interview I hope you will read. For today’s main OHH blog entry, Ellen Kanner — who just wrote a beautiful feature for The Huffington Post about Jasmin (as …
New Vegan Pledge Campaign Provides Hands-On Mentorship, and Seeks Volunteers
If there’s one thing we love here at Our Hen House, it’s new ways to spread the word about the plight of animals, and how we can each get involved with changing the world for them. Unless each of us uses his or her own voice to let others in on the horrors of animal exploitation, and the joys of veganism, …
Mariann Gets Even Older (and Wiser?): Donate to Mariann’s Birthday Wish for Our Hen House!
My birthday is on April 6. And my birthday wish is to raise $5,000 for Our Hen House. As my foot says, I want to change the world for animals. I believe Our Hen House’s mission to mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals can help accomplish that. I would be deeply appreciative if you would donate to my …