This episode of the Our Hen House interview features Thomas “Richie” Manandhar Richardson — AI Impact Director at Vegan Hacktivists and former Director of Research at Bryant Research — in a wide-ranging conversation about two urgent frontiers for the animal movement: financial activism targeting factory farming and the growing role of artificial intelligence in animal advocacy. Richie breaks down why divestment campaigns largely fail to cut off funding for factory farming (and the rare exceptions where they can work), how international development banks in the Global South represent a more promising pressure point, and what it means to stigmatize an industry financially— the way coal has been stigmatized. He then shifts to AI, covering how animal organizations can leverage tools like ChatGPT and Claude for research, communications, and even building software — and why those who are producing pro-animal content online may literally be shaping the values of the next generation of AI models.

• Financial activism and its limits — Divestment campaigns rarely cut off funding because capital simply flows elsewhere; Richie cites research suggesting 85% of US wealth would need to divest from fossil fuels before companies feel real impact, with similar dynamics in factory farming.
• Where financial pressure can work — International development banks (like the World Bank’s IFC) are a more viable target in lower- and middle-income countries, because if they cancel a loan, no commercial bank typically steps in — a tactic that successfully blocked a $200 million loan to Brazilian beef giant Marfrig.
• Stigmatizing factory farming as a risky investment — Framing factory farming risks (disease outbreaks, insurance costs, stranded assets) in financial terms — as outlets like FAIRR and the Financial Times already do — can shift how investors perceive the industry over the long term, similar to what happened with coal.
• AI as a force multiplier for animal advocates — AI tools can help under-resourced organizations and grassroots activists produce research, build websites, analyze data, and run campaigns at a scale previously impossible; Vegan Hacktivists’ free Amplify for Animals AI course is returning soon.
• Shaping the AI models of the future — Publishing pro-animal content on blogs, Substacks, and YouTube may influence how future AI models are trained, and organizations like Sentient Futures and CAML are actively working with AI labs to build benchmarks that increase AI compassion toward animals.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Thomas Manandhar-Richardson, also known as Richie, is the AI Impact Director at Vegan Hacktivists. There, he builds AI automations and provides AI education and consulting for organizations to help them have more impact for animals. Previously, he was the Director of Research at Bryant Research, where he conducted research primarily on the economics and finance of factory farming, as well as food security and alternative proteins.

• Bryant Research
• Vegan Hacktivists
• Stop Financing Factory Farming
• Bank for Nature
• Richie’s Substack

_____________________________________________

Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. Contributions of any amount are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content!

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review!

Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series.

Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, or Bluesky.

The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

This episode of The Hen Report celebrates two major animal rights victories — the closure of the notorious Ridglan dog testing facility and Philadelphia’s ban on horse-drawn carriages — then pivots to the next big fight. Hosts Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan are joined by animal advocate and poet Gretchen Primack and Sexy Fit Vegan founder Ella Magers to announce an ambitious 200-mile march from Albany, NY to Marshall BioResources (September 12–26), the largest animal experimentation breeding facility in the country, with over 20,000 animals.

• Ridglan Farms closes for good — after years of activism, protests, and open rescues, the notorious beagle-breeding lab is shutting down and sending all dogs to rescue, marking a landmark win for the animal rights movement
• Philadelphia bans horse-drawn carriages — Revolution Philadelphia’s years-long campaign pays off, with advocates now setting their sights on New York City
• Albany to Marshall March announced — Gretchen Primack and Ella Magers are organizing a 15-mile-per-day, two-week march from Albany to Marshall BioResources (September 12–26) to demand an end to animal experimentation
• How to get involved — join as a marcher (full or partial), volunteer on a logistics/outreach committee, or follow updates at savethedogs.io; contact Gretchen (@gretchenprimack) or Ella (@sexyfitvegan) on Instagram
• Marshall BioResources is next — with 20,000+ dogs, pigs, ferrets, and cats, this facility dwarfs Ridglan and is now the movement’s primary target as momentum builds post-Ridglan

RESOURCES

• • • • • Hundreds of dogs to be sent to rescue as US beagle research facility shuts down
        • Philadelphia Just Banned Horse-Drawn Carriages
        • Now let’s get 20,000+ beagles out of Marshall.
        • Sexy Fit Vegan website
        • Gretchen Primack’s website
  •  We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.

_____________________________________________

Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today.

Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content!

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review!

Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series.

Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Bluesky.

The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

This week on Rising Anxieties, Mariann covers the EU’s ongoing (and apparently never-ending) effort to strip plant-based foods of their meat-adjacent vocabulary, the Oregon ballot initiative that has the animal agriculture industry writing fever-dream op-eds, and a Russian company claiming it’s wiring dairy cows’ brains for remote-controlled lactation — which is either the future or a war crime, possibly both. Also: the Save Our Bacon Act is losing sponsors, India’s dairy industry is built on a quiet lie, and America’s dairy farmers can’t find anyone willing to take over their farms. 

• EU plant-based food labeling ban: After years of deliberation, the European Parliament banned dozens of meat-adjacent terms for vegan and vegetarian products — while somehow allowing “burger” and “nuggets” — and is now eyeing restrictions on pro-plant-based NGOs
• Oregon IP 28: The anti-animal-cruelty ballot initiative would effectively end livestock slaughter, hunting, and fishing in Oregon — and opponents are so scared they’re lying about what it actually does
• Save Our Bacon Act update: Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas dropped his co-sponsorship of the farm bill amendment targeting California’s Prop 12, a small but real win for animal welfare advocates
• India’s dairy truth: A new report reveals India — widely assumed to protect cows on religious grounds — is actually the world’s single largest beef exporter, thanks to legal loopholes that reclassify most bovines as not-cows
• Brain chips for dairy cows: A Russian neurotech company claims to have implanted electrodes into cows’ brains to trigger lactation on demand, because apparently the industry hadn’t yet hit rock bottom

We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.

_____________________________________________

Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. 

Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content!

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review!

Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series.

Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, or Bluesky.

The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

In this episode of the Our Hen House interview, Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan speak with Liliana Pacheco and Gregg Tully, co-founders of the newly launched nonprofit Animals Unbound — an organization working at the intersection of animal crisis intervention, capacity building, and fundraising to support animals and the local groups that protect them in some of the most under-resourced and dangerous places on earth.

• Ukraine crisis response: The organization has delivered over 1,200 tons of food and coordinated nearly 10,000 spay/neuter surgeries for abandoned pets left behind by the war.
• Local-first model: Animals Unbound prioritizes empowering on-the-ground organizations — from a wildlife sanctuary in Zimbabwe to an animal hospital in India — because local groups provide the sustainable, long-term presence that international organizations cannot.
• Broad species scope: Their work spans domestic animals, farmed animals, and wildlife, including chimpanzees at the Second Chance Chimpanzee Refuge in Liberia and anti-octopus-farming campaigns in the US.

• Strategic capacity building: Beyond emergency relief, Animals Unbound helps animal organizations develop multi-year plans, run effective advocacy campaigns, and measure the real-world impact of their programs.

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Gregg Tully is the CEO and founder of Animals Unbound, where he builds the capacity of animal protection organizations by helping them develop strategic plans, strengthen leadership, and implement practical solutions to the most pressing threats facing animals worldwide. A Ph.D. biologist and seasoned nonprofit leader, he previously served as CEO of PASA (Pan African Sanctuary Alliance) and Soi Dog Foundation, growing both organizations significantly during his tenure. He has also coordinated donations of more than 1,200 tons of food for dogs and cats in Ukraine and facilitated spay/neuter surgeries for nearly 10,000 animals there.

Liliana Pacheco is a licensed psychologist with master’s degrees in primatology and gender violence who brings 20 years of nonprofit leadership to the work of empowering animal protection organizations worldwide — from community development to wildlife conservation. She is the head of a wildlife sanctuary in Guinea, West Africa for animals confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade, and previously spent a decade as founding Director of the Jane Goodall Institute in Senegal and Guinea, where she led chimpanzee conservation research, launched community development projects, helped establish a Nature Reserve, and worked to combat wildlife trafficking through WARA, a member of the EAGLE Network.

We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.

_____________________________________________

Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. Contributions of any amount are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content!

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review!

Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series.

Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, or Bluesky.

The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

This is a week packed with animal rights wins and sobering setbacks. Jasmin & Mariann open with a review of The Sheep Detectives, a fun animated film with some meaningful (if imperfect) animal messaging, then dive into a string of legislative victories: Portland’s foie gras sales ban, New York State’s octopus farming ban headed to the governor, and promising momentum around the Save Our Bacon Act, which would protect state-level farmed animal welfare laws from federal override. They also report on a damning follow-up undercover investigation at Cooke Aquaculture in Maine—exposing broken promises by the company’s CEO—alongside disturbing revelations about the University of Wisconsin’s purchase of Ridglan beagles for research, and yet another carriage horse collapse in New York City, prompting renewed calls for Rider’s Law.

• Legislative wins for animals: Portland bans foie gras sales, New York State passes an octopus farming ban, and the Save Our Bacon Act—protecting Prop 12-style state laws banning gestation crates—shows strong momentum in the Farm Bill fight.
• Corporate accountability in animal agriculture: A follow-up undercover investigation at Cooke Aquaculture reveals ongoing fish cruelty despite a public apology, underscoring why animal agriculture companies cannot be trusted to self-regulate.
• University of Wisconsin & the Ridglan beagles: Records reveal UW-Madison purchased beagles from the recently exposed Ridglan Farms for invasive research, and the university is now under fire for investigating the student animal advocacy club that publicized the rescue.
• NYC carriage horses & Rider’s Law: Another horse collapses and dies on New York City streets, reigniting calls to pass Rider’s Law, legislation that would retire carriage horses and transition the industry away from animal use.
• Know your rights as an animal activist: A highlight from the Grassroots Animal Rights Summit—a YouTube talk by lawyers Chris Carraway and Darius Fulmer—offers practical guidance on protest rights and legal protections for activists.

RESOURCES

• • • • • Portland City Council Narrowly Passes Foie Gras Ban
        • Octopus Farming Ban Passes New York Assembly
        • Michael Storer’s Wikipedia
        • Warning for Senate Republicans: MAHA voters oppose Save Our Bacon Act
        • Meat companies keep promising to do better. They almost never do.
        • School Investigates Student Organization Connected to Ridglan Farms Beagle Rescue
        • Records show Ridglan beagles at UW-Madison were injected with blue dye, then euthanized and dissected
        • UW-Madison details anesthesia study involving dogs sourced from Ridglan Farms
        • Another Carriage Horse Collapses and Dies in New York City
        • House Committee Includes Horse Slaughter Ban in Transportation Bill
        • Know Your Rights w/ Chris Carraway and Darius Fullmer /// Grassroots Animal Rights Summit 2026
  •  We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.

_____________________________________________

Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today.

Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content!

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review!

Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series.

Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Bluesky.

The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

The meat industry is having a week — and not the good kind. Screwworm has officially crossed the U.S. border into Texas, turning what was once a theoretical threat into a two-case-and-counting reality, while your tax dollars are already being mobilized to save an industry that created the conditions for this mess. Meanwhile, Oregon is inching toward a ballot initiative that could criminalize the industry’s most cherished “management practices,” the TSA is cheerleading for rotisserie chicken carry-ons (yes, really), and animal ag’s drone panic is revealing exactly how worried the industry is about people simply looking at their facilities.

• Screwworm arrives in the U.S. — Two confirmed cases in Texas, a government response already in overdrive, and the industry insisting there’s “no food safety risk” (translation: please keep buying beef)
• Oregon’s PEAC ballot initiative could criminalize dehorning, castration, artificial insemination, and — oh yes — slaughter, sending shockwaves through an industry that somehow thought Prop 12 was the worst thing that could happen
• The TSA declared war on your senses by encouraging passengers to bring rotisserie chickens aboard flights, prompting the National Chicken Council to formally thank them “for their service”
• UK poultry industry vs. planning regulations — factory farm operators are furious over strict permitting laws that are slowing their expansion, threatening to import even-worse-welfare chicken if they don’t get their way
• Drones are the new undercover investigators, and Big Ag is losing sleep over “misleading narratives” — also known as footage of their facilities

We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.

_____________________________________________

Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. 

Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content!

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review!

Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series.

Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, or Bluesky.

The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

This week, Jasmin and Mariann welcome back Dr. Liz Tyson, Director of Animal Welfare and Advocacy at Born Free USA, for a wide-ranging and eye-opening conversation about the reality of animal captivity in zoos — including the “best” ones. Using the recent death of Happy the Elephant at the Bronx Zoo as a launching point, they dig into Born Free’s ongoing investigation of AZA-accredited zoos, the debunked myths of zoo conservation and education, the pipeline that moves animals from “top” zoos to roadside facilities, and why community-led conservation is the only path forward for truly protecting wildlife.

• Happy the Elephant & Nonhuman Rights: Dr. Tyson breaks down Happy’s nearly 50 years of captivity at the Bronx Zoo, her landmark self-recognition mirror test, and the Nonhuman Rights Project’s groundbreaking — though unsuccessful — legal effort to grant her personhood and freedom.
• Born Free’s Zoo Investigation: Born Free USA has already released reports on the Bronx Zoo, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and Audubon Zoo as part of a two-year investigation of 10 top AZA-accredited zoos, finding that so-called “elite” zoos fail animals in the same fundamental ways as roadside zoos.
• The Conservation and Education Myths: Dr. Tyson dismantles zoos’ core justifications — insurance populations, species preservation, and educational value — with data showing the vast majority of zoo animals are not threatened in the wild, and that visitors spend an average of 69 seconds at enclosures.
• Deceptive Zoo Architecture: From moats disguised as open savannahs to trees wired off from the animals they appear to offer, Dr. Tyson explains how modern zoo design is engineered to make visitors feel good while masking the reality of confinement.

• Sanctuaries vs. Zoos & the Path Forward: Dr. Tyson contrasts true sanctuary care — including Born Free’s own 208-resident primate sanctuary in Texas — with zoo operations, and argues that community-based, locally led conservation is the only approach that can actually protect wildlife in the wild.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Dr. Liz Tyson is Director of Animal Welfare and Advocacy at Born Free USA, where she leads both the organization’s advocacy work and its primate sanctuary in Texas — home to 208 rescued monkeys. Over the course of her career, she has helped animals across the globe: establishing the first locally run sterilization program for street dogs in the Middle East, partnering with indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon to end the hunting of wild primates, running a UK charity dedicated to ending animal exploitation in circuses and zoos, and helping design a rehabilitation complex for rescued monkeys at Ensessa Kotteh, Born Free’s sanctuary in Ethiopia. In 2018, she earned her doctorate in animal welfare law, and in 2020 published Licensing Laws and Animal Welfare: The Legal Protection of Wild Animals with Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature — to date the most comprehensive study of the legal protection of wild animals in English zoos.

We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.

_____________________________________________

Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. Contributions of any amount are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content!

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review!

Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series.

Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, or Bluesky.

The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

In this week’s Hen Report, Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan cover a lively mix of animal advocacy news, pop culture, and vegan messaging. They discuss Sangamithra Iyer’s new memoir Governing Bodies and its LA Times review, celebrate vegan powerlifter Katya Gorbacheva’s post-partum championship win, and unpack Angela Davis’s shout-out to animal rights at a college commencement. The episode also digs into a Faunalytics study showing that simply asking people to take an animal’s perspective can meaningfully shift their dietary choices — and closes with the ongoing good news out of Ridglan Farms, where another 135 beagles are being rescued.

• Sangamithra Iyer’s Governing Bodies: The Our Hen House alum’s new memoir earns a glowing LA Times review for weaving veganism, nonviolence, and animal rights into a personal and political narrative
• Vegan athlete spotlight: Russian powerlifter Katya Gorbacheva wins Best Lifter at Moscow Lights just eight months postpartum — proof that plant-based eating builds elite strength
• Angela Davis on animal rights: The iconic activist used her Pitzer College commencement address to endorse PETA’s dining-hall memorial campaign and call out the “absolute horrific treatment of animals”
• The power of perspective-taking: A Faunalytics study finds that asking people to view footage from the animal’s point of view produces a reduction in meat consumption
• Ridglan Farms rescue update: 135 more beagles are being freed, adding to the 1,500 already released — and Mariann urges advocates to channel this momentum toward all animals, not just dogs

RESOURCES

• • • • • Losing Our Cruelty
        • The Lines We Draw Kindle Edition
        • Vegan Strong Powerlifter Wins ‘Best Lifter’ 8 Months After Giving Birth
        • Angela Davis’s Pitzer College Commencement Speech
        • New Film Highlights The ‘Hidden Human Cost’ Of The Meat Industry
        • This Netflix Film About An Octopus Could Make You Rethink Seafood
        • ‘Smoky, rich and umami-filled’: the best supermarket veggie burgers, tasted and rated
        • Reducing Prejudice Can Lead To Dietary Changes
        • Another 135 dogs are getting out of Ridglan this week.
  •  We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.

_____________________________________________

Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today.

Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content!

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review!

Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series.

Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Bluesky.

The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

This week on Rising Anxieties, we’re covering the full spectrum of animal agriculture chaos — from the political circus surrounding James Talarico’s (alleged) veganism to the unsurprising news that living next to a factory farm might be slowly killing you. Plus, a meat industry columnist accidentally makes the case for abolishing animal agriculture, and the screw worm is getting uncomfortably close to Texas. Business as usual, folks.

• Trump vs. Veganism: The President and Texas AG Ken Paxton are using “vegan” as a slur against Senate candidate James Talarico — who, in turn, distances himself from salad with uncomfortable enthusiasm.
• Better Chicken = Worse Planet: A meat industry writer lays out exactly why the Better Chicken Commitment is environmentally unsustainable — and somehow doesn’t connect those dots to the obvious conclusion that factory farming itself has to go.
• Factory Farming Causes Cancer: A Yale study confirms that living near a CAFO significantly raises cancer risk, which is bad news for literally everyone, including vegans.
• “Factory Farm” Is Just a Word: The Farm Babe does not like the term “factory farm” and would prefer you say CAFO, a phrase no one understands and that is presumably the point.
• Screw Worm Watch: The New World screw worm is now 52 miles from the US border, active cases in Mexico are surging, and the USDA is releasing sterile insects into the void and hoping for the best.

We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.

_____________________________________________

Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today. 

Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content!

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review!

Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series.

Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, or Bluesky.

The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

In this episode of the Animal Law Podcast, host Mariann Sullivan speaks with Amal Bouhabib, senior staff attorney at FarmSTAND, about a landmark federal lawsuit involving three young men from Guatemala who were recruited to the U.S. on J-1 cultural exchange visas and subjected to dangerous working conditions, fraudulent promises, substandard housing, and coercive threats at an industrial swine operation in Nebraska. The conversation reveals how the very legal structure meant to facilitate international exchange is being weaponized to exploit vulnerable workers — and why this should matter deeply to the animal law community.

• J-1 visa fraud and labor trafficking in animal agriculture: Three Guatemalan agronomists were recruited under false pretenses to work at a Nebraska hog farm, facing a classic bait-and-switch scheme involving unpaid training, unsafe conditions, and threats of deportation — conduct that FarmSTAND argues meets the legal standard for forced labor under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA).
• The intersection of worker exploitation and animal suffering: Without proper training, workers were forced to perform procedures on pigs — including tail docking, oxytocin administration, and farrowing assistance — resulting in animal deaths and injuries, illustrating how the mistreatment of workers and animals in industrial agriculture are deeply intertwined.
• RICO claims and systemic fraud: The lawsuit names the recruiting agency (Worldwide Farmers Exchange), the farm (LEI/Livingston Enterprises), and individual defendants under the RICO Act, arguing they conspired to commit visa fraud and underpay workers for mutual financial gain — with the U.S. State Department identified as an “unwitting” participant.
• The broader crisis of temporary agricultural visas: The episode examines how industrial animal agriculture deliberately targets TPS holders, refugees, and J-1 participants as a legally compliant but deeply exploitative labor pipeline, and what the potential expansion of H-2A visas to dairy and hog operations could mean for workers, animals, and food system accountability.
• Why animal lawyers should engage with farmworker justice: Improving conditions and wages for farmworkers directly pressures industrial animal agriculture to slow down, reform and absorb the costs of appropriate working conditions — making labor rights litigation a powerful, complementary tool for the animal law movement.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Amal Bouhabib is a Senior Staff Attorney at FarmSTAND, where she engages in strategic litigation to combat and expose forced labor, discrimination, and other workplace abuses impacting workers in the industrial animal agricultural system. Amal’s practice centers on holding powerful industry actors accountable while elevating the experiences of frontline food workers. Prior to joining FarmSTAND, Amal was the Managing Director of Southern Migrant Legal Services in Nashville, where she fought for the rights of migrant farmworkers.

We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.

**********

You can listen to the Animal Law Podcast directly on our website (at the top of this page) or you can listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher. Also, if you like what you hear, please rate it on Apple Podcasts, and don’t forget to leave us a friendly comment! Of course, we would be thrilled if you would consider making a donation or becoming a member of our flock (especially if you’re a regular listener). Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content!

Don’t forget to also listen to the award-winning,  weekly signature OHH podcast — now in its fifteenth glorious year!

On this week’s Hen Report, Jasmin and Mariann cover a packed week of animal rights news, kicking off with a cringe-worthy DM urging a vegan to accept “happy” backyard eggs — and why you don’t owe anyone a debate. They explore the theory that the meat industry, like Big Oil, is seeing the writing on the wall and quietly trying to squeeze out its final profits before a plant-based future arrives. The conversation ranges from joyful to hopeful to legally fraught. They also unpack mixed news on fur at Milan Fashion Week, the eternal frustration of the foie gras ban battles, and a genuinely exciting development: Oregon’s IP28, a sweeping ballot initiative that could eliminate all exemptions to the state’s animal cruelty laws and effectively make Oregon a sanctuary state for animals.

• Animal activism strategy: Why vegans don’t owe anyone a debate — and how to decide when engaging is worth your energy
• Meat industry decline: The case that beef and other animal ag are following Big Oil’s playbook, fighting a rearguard action against an inevitable plant-based shift
• Ridglan & open rescue: Wayne Hsiung, Aditya Aswani, Michelle Lunsky, & Dean Wyrzykowski face up to 31 years in prison after new charges in the landmark Ridglan Farms case
• Fur & foie gras policy: Milan Fashion Week issues voluntary (not mandatory) anti-fur guidelines; New York’s foie gras ban faces a governor-led appeal, while Colorado activists push a new ballot initiative
• Oregon IP28: The most ambitious animal rights ballot initiative in U.S. history nears the signature threshold — and could ban hunting, fishing, and slaughter statewide

RESOURCES

• • • • • NoPalm Ingredients Shortlisted for World’s Largest Environmental Food Prize
        • Attorney Faces Felony Burglary Charges After an ‘Open Rescue’ Action to Save Beagles At Ridglan Farms
        • Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade
        • Voters for Animal Rights on Bluesky
        • BREAKING: New Footage Captured At Hudson Valley Reveals Ducks Force-Fed With Metal Tubes, Living In Filth
        • Yes on IP28
        • 3 Day Vigil Event.
  •  We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.

_____________________________________________

Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today.

Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content!

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review!

Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series.

Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Bluesky.

The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.