Welcome to the 27th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Mariann is joined by Matthew Strugar, who tells us about a Federal judge’s decision to declare Utah’s ag-gag law unconstitutional. The Ag Gag Law was part of a movement among agricultural states to stop undercover investigations by animal rights groups. Like other state’s ag gag laws, Utah’s made it a crime to obtain employment at …
Welcome to the 26th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Mariann is joined by Jonathan Lovvorn, Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel for Animal Protection Litigation at The Humane Society of the United States, where he has litigated extensively on behalf of animals and the environment. Jon also holds academic appointments at Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, and …
Welcome to the 25th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Mariann is joined by Collette Adkins, Senior Attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity in the Endangered Species Program, who focuses on combating exploitation and cruel treatment of rare wildlife. On this episode, Collette talks about the lawsuit against the Trump administration for repealing protections for wolves, bears, and other wildlife on Alaska’s national …
Welcome to the 24th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Mariann is joined by Jenni James, counsel for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Foundation. Through lawsuits, support for new legislation, and other legal efforts, Jenni pushes authorities to create and enforce local, state, and federal laws designed to help animals who are used and abused. On this episode we …
Welcome to the 23rd episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Mariann is joined by Gabriel Walters, Counsel and Manager of Legislative Affairs for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Foundation, where he contributes to PETA’s efforts to pass legislation and win court cases that help animals. He’ll be talking about PETA v Department of Agricultural Resources, which is currently pending in the …
Welcome to the 22nd episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Today, Mariann is joined by Matthew Liebman, Director of Litigation at the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and Adam Milasincic, trial lawyer with the Houston firm Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing P.C. Matthew and Adam update us on the case against Landry’s, or to be precise, on Landry’s case against animal activists. For over a decade, …
Welcome to the 21st episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Today, Mariann is joined by Delcianna J. Winders, currently an Academic Fellow of the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Program and a co-plaintiff in a lawsuit against the USDA. This Freedom of Information Law suit seeks to compel the USDA to replace the records, recently purged from their website, that detail violations of the Animal …
Welcome to the 20th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Today, Mariann is joined by Jamie Whitlock and Doug Ruley, who focus on environmental law at Davis & Whitlock, P.C., in Asheville, North Carolina. Jamie has litigated numerous environmental and land use cases in federal district courts nationwide, the state courts of North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Arkansas, and in local and administrative …
Welcome to the 19th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Today, Mariann is joined by attorney Bryan Pease. Bryan’s law practice focuses on government transparency and freedom of speech and assembly, as well as the protection of animals, the environment, and consumers. He’s been involved in numerous cases on behalf of activists with the Animal Protection and Rescue League, which he co-founded in …
Welcome to the 18th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Today, we are joined by Ryan Shapiro and Jeffrey Light. Ryan is a Ph.D. candidate at MIT, as well as a Research Affiliate at Harvard University, and a leading expert on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Jeffrey, who is Ryan’s lawyer, is a D.C.-based FOIA specialist attorney, who also specializes in activist defense …
Welcome to the 17th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Today, I am joined by Matthew Liebman, Chief Legal Counsel in the litigation program at the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Matthew has litigated cases including ALDF v. Otter, the first lawsuit to successfully invalidate an Ag-Gag law; and Bennett v. McDaniel, which rescued a captive bear from a small concrete cage where she …
Welcome to the 16th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Today, I am joined by Michael Jasny, Director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project at the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). Michael is a leading expert in the law and policy of ocean noise pollution. For more than a decade, he has directed high-profile litigation, lobbying efforts, science-based policy development, and public …
Welcome to the 15th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Today I am joined by Delcianna J. Winders, who is currently an Academic Fellow of the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Program and who formerly headed up the PETA Foundation‘s Captive Animal Law Enforcement Division. I could not be more excited about this episode, not only because I have known Delci …
We’re headed to Canada for Episode 14 of the Animal Law Podcast for a discussion of, yes, bestiality, and a rather surprising decision by the Canadian Supreme Court. I am joined by two superb Canadian animal law attorneys, Camille Labchuk, the executive director of Animal Justice, and Peter Sankoff, a law professor with the University of Alberta Faculty of Law. They will discuss the …
When I first heard that these chimps, who had been trapped in research facilities in the US for their whole lives, were not going to sanctuary, I was very disappointed. The sanctuary movement for chimpanzees has grown by leaps and bounds to accommodate all of these extraordinary individuals who are, at long last, emerging from hell. Then, when I heard that …
I am so excited about Episode #12 of the Animal Law Podcast! This episode features the the Humane Society of the United States’ Nick Arrivo, and he will be talking about his efforts to protect some iconic American predators, including Grizzly Bears, cougars, and bobcats, from the ravages of hunting and trapping. It’s a pretty complicated business, involving state and federal administrative …
Episode #11 of the Animal Law Podcast has hit the airwaves! This episode features the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s Lindsay Larris, who will tell us about the lawsuit, brought by a bunch of people who say they got bamboozled by Barkworks, a California pet store chain that is telling people they don’t get their puppies from puppy mills. ALDF asserts that’s not entirely …
Episode #10 of the Animal Law Podcast is up, and it’s an important one! This episode features the Animal Legal Defense Fund‘s Jessica Blome, Senior Staff Attorney, and Jeff Pierce, Litigation Fellow, and they will be telling us about their recent victory in their fight to get animals out of the Cricket Hollow Zoo, a roadside outfit in Iowa. Aside from the enormity of this …
It’s time for Episode 4 of the Animal Law Podcast, hosted by me — Mariann Sullivan! This brand new episode features Matt Penzer, who has been heading up the “check-off” litigation for HSUS. Matt will rip the lid off the machinations of the pork industry to funnel millions of dollars collected by the USDA into financing its lobbying efforts. And what …
Below is a Q&A with Animal Law professor Mariann Sullivan — co-founder of Our Hen House. In addition to teaching Animal Law at, among other law schools, Columbia Law School, Mariann is the host of the brand new Animal Law Podcast — the newest addition to the Our Hen House media landscape. ***The first episode of the Animal Law Podcast can be found …
Hi everybody. Mariann here. My birthday is April 6 and, you guessed it, I’m hoping to raise some funds for Our Hen House. We have so many thrilling projects that we’re working on, and upcoming ones too. We have put out a new podcast episode every week for 5 1/2 years… that’s every single week since January 2010! We also produce …
Over the years we’ve featured a number of articles on the connections between various religions and veganism, most recently Lauren Ng’s two articles on veganism and Christianity. Due to the overwhelmingly positive response to Lauren’s two pieces, we thought we’d bring you more on the subject for this #ThrowbackThursday! This article originally appeared on Our Hen House on February 7, 2013. If …
“To appreciate pigeons, to celebrate their lives, is to see the world in a particular way.” Wise words from our very own Mariann Sullivan, who since the publication of this #ThrowbackThursday article has lived in the company of a pigeon tattoo on her left shoulderblade. Read on to see why. This article originally appeared on Our Hen House on December 9, …
Dear Flock, Very soon the new semester begins, and I will once again be teaching animal law – this year at Columbia Law School and Cardozo Law School. Every year I am astounded at the mix of students. While there are always a few students who are motivated to take the course because they know what’s happening to animals and they …
I love “Me and Bobby McGee.” In fact, it’s one of my few karaoke songs. (Apologies to Janis. I truly am sorry.) And I’ve always been intrigued by the iconic line, “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.” “Freedom” is such a precious word for Americans, especially on the Fourth, but that line is a reminder that it gets …
At the moment, there are two kinds of people in the United States who really know what’s going on behind closed doors in animal agriculture. There’s us – the animal rights activists. We avidly read the articles about the latest undercover investigation, earnestly discuss corporate campaigns to phase out gestation crates for breeding sows, and swap stories about which website has …
Dear Mr. Kristof, We are writing to you because we are perplexed. You seem like such a nice guy. We want to like you. In fact, we admit it, we do like you. And we especially like what you do with your column over there at the New York Times. You frequently focus on issues that, if it weren’t for you, …
I’ve been a bit down in the dumps lately, so I thought I would try to think of something I’ve heard about recently that gives me hope. Once I started, I realized that it was pretty easy to come up with a whole bunch of reasons to hope, and I immediately started to feel better. If you’ve been bluish (or even …
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 …
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 …
What would you do if your job required you to get a flu shot? More to the point, if you’re vegan, would it matter to you that eggs are used to produce the vaccine? And how would you handle it? This is actually an issue that has come up in a couple of lawsuits, one filed very recently in Ohio. The …
I did it. I kind of didn’t think I would, but then I did, mildly surprising all who know me, including even Jasmin. I got a tattoo. I’ve always loved tattoos, but the fact that I had gotten to my fairly advanced age without getting one seemed to indicate that it wasn’t going to happen. I am a thinker, not a …