Our Hen House: Vegan & Animal Rights Movement | Stories from the Frontlines of Animal Liberation

In this episode of The Animal Law Podcast, Mariann Sullivan speaks with Rebecca Cary and Melissa Alpert, attorneys at Humane World for Animals, about the federal government’s unprecedented lawsuits challenging California’s Proposition 12 and Michigan’s cage-free egg law. The government argues that the Egg Products Inspection Act — a 1970 statute about inspecting liquid and dried egg products for adulteration —…

In this episode of The Hen Report, Jasmin and Mariann cover a packed slate of animal advocacy news and community stories. Jasmin shares highlights from emceeing a fundraiser for My Dog Is My Home—an organization helping people experiencing houselessness keep their companion animals—and reflects on the passage of New York City’s horse carriage ban. The hosts discuss Animal Rising’s Free Luna…

This week, we cover a parasitic worm inching through Texas via a dead elk on a game ranch, ChatGPT’s suspicious habit of painting factory farms as pastoral paradises, a Tyson mobile barn designed to gaslight children, the UK’s surprising willingness to ditch meat for food security, and a New York Post columnist who thinks banning carriage horses is socialism. Also: factory…

In this episode of the Our Hen House interview, Jasmin and Mariann sit down with animal lawyer, rescuer, and activist Michelle Lerner to discuss her new book A Series of Opinionated Animals (Bancroft Press). Michelle shares how a childhood bond with a rescue horse named Shire set her on the path to Harvard Law School, where she co-founded the Student Animal…

In this episode of The Hen Report from Our Hen House, Jasmin and Mariann cover major developments in animal welfare and the vegan movement, including the Ridglan Farms beagle rescue court updates, Wyoming becoming the sixth no-kill state, the Trump administration’s animal welfare agenda (and its exclusion of farm animals), the upcoming free Veganic Summit, and a heartwarming story of a…

This week, Mariann finds herself in a suspiciously good mood despite a roster of horrors: ag-friendly lawmakers are departing Washington, Western states are busy “euthanizing” wolves in the most creative misuse of that word yet, and 2,400 pigs died in a barn fire that somehow produced “no injuries.” On the bright side, Gen Z is apparently ghosting pork, the hog market…

In this episode of Our Hen House, Mariann Sullivan speaks with Cat Phipps of Southampton Animal Action about their remarkable grassroots campaign that convinced Brittany Ferries to end live animal exports between Ireland and France. Cat breaks down the history of live export protests in the UK, how a small local group used consistent, legal, and disruptive tactics over more than…

In this episode of The Hen Report, Jasmin and Mariann discuss groundbreaking news: New York City’s horse-drawn carriage industry may finally be coming to an end under Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration. They trace the decades-long grassroots fight to ban carriage horses in NYC—from protest carols at Columbus Circle to the strategic political organizing that made this moment possible—while highlighting the activists…

In this episode of Our Hen House, Mariann and Jasmin sit down with Alex Bury, Vice President of Development at Vegan Outreach, and Stacy Shepanek, Director of Communications at Vegan Outreach and co-lead of Knox Vegan, to talk about grassroots vegan activism that works. They dig into Vegan Outreach’s massive leafleting legacy (22 million booklets and counting), their 10 Weeks to…

In this episode of The Hen Report from Our Hen House, Jasmin and Mariann dig into the tension within the animal protection movement over anti-factory farming messaging that stops short of asking people to eat fewer animals. Inspired by Mariann’s Substack piece Expanding the Tent and Jasmin’s experience at an op-ed writing workshop, the two trace this strategic issue through historical…

Mariann Sullivan breaks down why the meat industry is panicking about animal rights groups making common cause with small farmers, how dairy operations turned their unwanted male calves into a billion-dollar beef sideline (20% of the US beef supply and counting), and why the H-2A visa program is a legal nightmare for an industry that runs on exploited labor. Plus: Colorado…

Award-winning undercover investigator Lindsay Oliver joins Jasmin and Mariann to discuss her groundbreaking work inside a national primate research center and her new memoir, Marshmallows Are Their Favorite: Undercover at a Primate Lab. Over a two-decade career spanning more than 100 investigations across factory farms, research labs, zoos, and circuses, Lindsay shares what it’s really like to go undercover in facilities…

In this episode of The Hen Report, Jasmin and Mariann sit down with Gretchen Primack and Ella Magers to debrief the historic March to Abolish Animal Testing (MAAT) — a 207-mile trek from Albany to Marshall Bioresources, the country’s largest breeder of dogs for animal experimentation. The organizers share what it took to mobilize over 1,000 people in just three and…

Marshall BioResources is big mad about Our Hen House, the Animal Agriculture Alliance thinks animal activists are secretly swimming in a billion dollars, and a UK newspaper is very upset that PETA has the audacity to care about sheep. Meanwhile, a Smithfield plant worker becomes the fourth death on the job, a rancher writes a whole essay pretending climate change isn’t…

In this episode of The Animal Law Podcast, Mariann Sullivan speaks with Eric Glitzenstein, Director of Litigation at the Center for Biological Diversity, about what he calls the most extreme attack on the Endangered Species Act in its history. They break down two unprecedented actions by the Trump administration: the elimination of the long-standing regulatory definition of “harm” that protected endangered…

In this episode of The Hen Report from Our Hen House, hosts Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan unpack the growing differences in approaches within the animal protection movement between some large organizations and some grassroots activists. They examine how some major groups are currently framing their “end factory farming” missions — often without naming a clear end state or using the…

This week, Mariann Sullivan is in a mood — and who can blame her? A fashion industry executive body-slams PETA protesters at a runway show, and The New York Post wants you to feel bad about a foie gras ban. The FAA is investigating the drone pilots who keep catching ranchers in the act of abusing animals. Plus: screwworm makes a…

Marie Gibbons, co-founder and CEO of VeriBark, joins Our Hen House to explain how her AI-powered app analyzes over 130 dog body signals and vocalizations to help pet parents understand what their dogs are really communicating. The conversation digs into the science behind animal body language, the ethics of using AI in animal advocacy, and VeriBark’s ambitious roadmap to expand beyond…

This week on The Hen Report, we talk with poet and activist Gretchen Primack and Sexy Fit Vegan founder Ella Magers about the March to Abolish Animal Testing — a 207-mile trek across upstate New York from Albany to Marshall BioResources, the country’s largest breeder of dogs, cats, ferrets, and pigs for animal experimentation. They dig into the logistics of supporting…

Rising Anxieties digs into the pork lobby’s freshly inflated “$1.07 billion animal rights conspiracy” report , the Gallup poll agribusiness loves to misquote, and a meat-trade columnist practically begging Big Beef to invent lab-grown protein before someone beats them to it. The $1.07 billion “animal rights” funding illusion Prop 12 fallout and the 2026 Farm Bill — why California’s cage-free law…