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 birthday fundraiser. Please read on…
It’s been an absolutely incredible year for me, and also an incredible one for Our Hen House, which is absolutely because of your generosity, support, and enthusiasm for changing the world for animals. Since I last had a birthday, here are a few of the things that went on both with Our Hen House and with Jasmin and me personally:
- Our Hen House expanded to become an online magazine! Thanks to all of you who donated last year on my birthday, and thanks to a few incredibly wonderful foundations and donors, our dream of making Our Hen House even bigger and better was realized in December 2012. Because of that expansion, we are now able to offer significantly more content, including feature articles, columns by some of the best thinkers and doers out there, a breaking news ticker to alert you about current events from the world of animal rights (this is also known as my baby), a “This Animal On This Day” section which allows you to share photos of animals in your lives, or animals you have encountered, a bustling blog, and — excitingly — an exclusive “flock” membership with its own heap of content and videos, for our dearest supporters. I think you will find that the new site is fun, user-friendly, and packed with literally thousands of articles on how to change the world for animals.
- Our podcast is going strong. Jasmin won’t let me miss a week, and as I type this, we have produced a 1 hour+ episode every single week since we began in January 2010, putting us at Episode 165. (SOMEBODY HELP ME!)
- Our Hen House now has 4 new staff members (who work largely on a volunteer level), including an editor, an outreach coordinator, a publications coordinator, and a tech guy. We also have a family of regular columnists and reviewers. Jasmin and I are truly humbled to be in the company of these fierce and fabulous activists.
- This past year, I was lucky enough to be a visiting professor of Animal Law and Animals in Agriculture at Lewis & Clark Law School’s Center for Animal Law Studies in Portland, OR. It was an experience of a lifetime. Because we brought our pit bull, Rose, Jasmin and I drove both ways, documenting our trips through videos and podcast episodes. (We even randomly found a 100% vegan microbrewery and restaurant in rural Illinois. Oh, and we fell in love with Bisbee, Arizona!)
- We are back in NYC and this semester I am teaching Animal Law at Columbia Law School and Cardozo Law School, and co-teaching Farmed Animal Law (with David Wolfson) at NYU Law School. Last year I also taught at Brooklyn Law School.
- Jasmin and I have continued to tour around giving talks about veganism, activism, and animal law. Some of our favorite appearances have been at the National Animal Law Conference, The Seed, and VegFests, including those in Niagara, Portland, and Connecticut.
- On a personal note, I got my first tattoo. Of a pigeon! Here’s why: The brilliant Sue Coe — one of my heroes — designed it. And I was lucky enough to get the talented Brian Wilson of the all-vegan tattoo shop, Scapegoat, to do it. I love it, and I even wrote about its significance for my column in OHH.
- Also on a personal note, most recently, Jasmin and I got married! In February, we decided to tie the knot, City Hall style. Afterwards, we walked around Chinatown, bought cherries, and then had lunch at Buddha Bodai on Mott Street. It was dreamy. (Oh, and the next day, I got another tattoo, this time on my foot. It says “change the world for animals,” and Jasmin got a matching one. I swear that was my last one.)
As you can see, I’m keeping busy, but I’m loving every second of it (though there aren’t enough seconds in the day). And this year we hope to expand OHH even more, because we are trying to mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, and that is no small feat. We have some very creative projects up our sleeve which will incorporate the arts even more into our advocacy efforts, and we are aiming to greatly expand the listenership of our show into the mainstream. Each week our guests get better and better, and I am given more and more hope that the change we are seeking is indeed attainable.
So I hope you’ll help support our efforts and make a donation to Our Hen House. My birthday is on April 6, and there is nothing in the world I want more than to have Our Hen House grow, so that it can reach more people and, indeed, change the world for animals.
Thank you in advance for anything you can give. You inspire me. 