Undercover investigator Pete Paxton and attorney Cailen LaBarge from Strategies for Ethical and Environmental Development (SEED) discuss their groundbreaking investigation of livestock auctions across America. After infiltrating 17 auctions in 10 states, they reveal how these largely overlooked facilities serve as crucial links in industrial animal agriculture while fostering systematic abuse. The conversation explores how cultural dynamics perpetuate cruelty, SEED’s innovative environmental litigation strategy against factory farms, and the importance of understanding rural communities in creating lasting change.

This episode explores:

Pete Paxton, Director of Investigations at SEED, has conducted groundbreaking undercover investigations exposing animal cruelty across multiple countries since 2001. His work, featured in HBO documentaries “Dealing Dogs” and “Death on a Factory Farm,” has unveiled abuse in puppy mills, factory farms, slaughterhouses, and beyond. A recipient of the US Attorney’s Office Coin of Excellence and co-author of “Rescue Dogs,” Paxton’s investigations have not only exposed animal cruelty but also highlighted the exploitation of undocumented workers in industrial agriculture.

Cailen LaBarge is an attorney, animal activist, and founder of Strategies for Ethical and Environmental Development (SEED), where she works at the intersection of animal protection, environmental justice, and human rights. A member of Sentient’s Board of Directors and admitted to practice law in New York and Massachusetts, LaBarge focuses on challenging industrial animal agriculture’s impact on animals, people, and the planet through legal advocacy and strategic development.

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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.  Between now and December 31, all donations will be TRIPLED up to $20,000! 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 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.

Vegan pioneer Victoria Moran discusses her new book “Age Like a Yogi” and explores how yoga’s principle of non-violence (ahimsa) connects with animal advocacy. Drawing from 40 years of activism, Victoria shares how spiritual practices can sustain long-term advocacy while preventing burnout.

Key topics include:

Victoria also updates us on Main Street Vegan Academy’s advocate training program and her groundbreaking vegan podcast. Pre-order “Age Like a Yogi” (releasing January 2025) for exclusive access to Victoria’s activism webinar and plant-based cookbook at victoriamoran.com.

Victoria Moran, featured twice on Oprah and named among VegNews Magazine’s “Top 10 Living Vegetarian Authors,” has authored fourteen groundbreaking books including “Creating a Charmed Life,” “Main Street Vegan,” and her latest, “Age Like a Yogi.” A pioneering voice in veganism since authoring the first traditionally published book on vegan philosophy in 1985, she founded Main Street Vegan Academy and hosts the Main Street Vegan Podcast. Recently inducted into the Vegan Hall of Fame (2023), Victoria is currently co-writing “Miss Liberty,” a feature film about a cow’s escape from a slaughterhouse, and lives in New York City with Thunder, her rescued visually impaired pigeon companion.

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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.  Between now and December 31, all donations will be TRIPLED up to $20,000! 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 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.

Join Our Hen House for an illuminating conversation with Benny Andersson, CEO of Project 1882 (aka Djurens Rätt), Sweden’s largest animal rights organization. Learn how this groundbreaking organization combines grassroots vegan activism with corporate outreach and legislative advocacy to create meaningful change for animals across Europe.

Benny Andersson is the CEO of Project 1882, an animal rights organization based in Sweden. He became involved in the animal rights movement in the late 1990s and joined Project 1882 as a volunteer in 1997. After more than a decade of working with campaigns, vegan outreach, digital communication, and fundraising, he became the CEO of Project 1882 in 2010.

Before joining Project 1882, Benny worked within the banking sector and moved to Gothenburg, Sweden, the melodic death metal capital of the world, to study history. That’s where he and a dedicated team began to reform an old and somewhat dysfunctional organization to align with the new millennium. Project 1882 has since 2013 doubled its number of donors and staff. He’s also currently on the boards of Eurogroup for Animals and World Federation for Animals.

Fun or not, but a fact; he daily macrodoses coffee and energy drinks and eats vegan tacos every Friday.

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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.  Between now and December 31, all donations will be TRIPLED up to $20,000! 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 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.

We are thrilled to present this very special holiday episode of Sanctuary: A Radio Play, an annual Thanksgiving tradition at Our Hen House! This special performance marks the world premiere of John Yunker’s Sanctuary at New York City’s Symphony Space during the Culture & Animals Foundation’s Compassion Arts Festival.

A dark comedy by John Yunker, Sanctuary tells the story of Richard (John Frusciante) and Lisa (Mariann Sullivan), a happily married couple whose blissful retirement to small-town Oregon is thrown into disarray when Lisa suddenly decides to go vegan and insists on celebrating Thanksgiving without a turkey AND alongside her new friend and animal activist, Meg (Jasmin Singer). Husband Richard invites his unsuspecting buddy Charley (Michael Harren), who also happens to be the local exterminator, in the hopes of forcing Lisa to stick with the traditional meal. The resulting tensions soon push relationships over the edge. Sanctuary tells the story behind the struggles and joys of navigating vegan ethics around loved ones who don’t quite understand. (Sound effects are by Emmy winner Eric Milano.)

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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.  Between now and December 31, all donations will be TRIPLED up to $20,000! 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 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 X (formerly Twitter).

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

Misinformation, disinformation, fake news, outright lies. When it comes to the horrific harms caused by factory farms, the truth can be hard to come by. This week, we are joined by Robbie Lockie to discuss The Freedom Food Alliance, which is helping both consumers and policymakers get the real story.

Robbie Lockie is the founder and CEO of The Freedom Food Alliance, which spearheads initiatives to combat misinformation in the food system. Through the Alliance’s flagship platform, foodfacts.org, the volunteer-led team empowers consumers with fact-checked insights on nutrition, environmental sustainability, and ethics, countering deceptive narratives in both social and mainstream media. Robbie is also the co-founder of Plant Based News, one of the most influential platforms for plant-based and sustainable living, with a community of nearly 4 million followers across social platforms and a monthly reach of 85 million people, and has also been one of the hosts of the Plant Based News Podcast.

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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.  Between now and December 31, all donations will be TRIPLED up to $20,000! 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 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 X (formerly Twitter).

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

Is the key to reaching more people with a vegan message to stop talking about the horrors that we want to end and start talking more about what we want to create? That’s what Matthew Halteman is aiming for with his new book Hungry, Beautiful Animals, and he joins us this week to discuss details of the book and his theory of change.

Matthew C. Halteman is professor of philosophy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and fellow in the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, UK. He is the author of the just-released Hungry Beautiful Animals: The Joyful Case for Going Vegan, as well as Compassionate Eating as Care of Creation, and the co-editor of Philosophy Comes to Dinner: Arguments About the Ethics of Eating. He lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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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.  Between now and December 31, all donations will be TRIPLED up to $20,000! 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 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 X (formerly Twitter).

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

From unmasking fake “rescues” on social media to getting stories placed in major media outlets, the work of Lady Freethinker tells people all over the world about some of the worst things that are happening to animals and, crucially, what they can do about it. This week, we are joined by Nina Jackel to hear about her work publicizing and fighting to shut down cruelty to animals.

Nina Jackel is a global activist and journalist effecting change for animals through her nonprofit media organization, Lady Freethinker, which has published thousands of news articles and petitions against animal cruelty. Nina’s work has been covered in major media outlets, including The New York Times, People, Newsweek, National Geographic, The Guardian, Salon, The Daily Mail, and many others. She believes that humans can evolve for the better through reason and compassion and feels that animal protection is among the most important social justice issues of our time.

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The Veganic Summit is a free online event from November 8th to 10th, 2024. You’ll learn how plant foods can be grown using techniques that are both vegan and organic, without any chemical fertilizers or any animal byproducts like manure or bonemeal. If you’d like to start your own veganic garden or learn about sustainable plant-based farming, sign up for the Veganic Summit today at https://veganicsummit.com/

_____________________________________________

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.  Between now and December 31, all donations will be TRIPLED up to $20,000! 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 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 X (formerly Twitter).

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

Join us this week as Jasmin and Mariann discuss the latest news from the world of animal rights. Plus, we share Jasmin’s keynote address to the Rochester UN as a special treat.

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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.  Between now and December 31, all donations will be TRIPLED up to $20,000! 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 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 X (formerly Twitter).

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

Turning a goat dairy farm into a goat sanctuary isn’t something that happens every day. But that’s exactly what just happened in Bloomington, Indiana, and Nicole Schonemann is here to share the whole beautiful story.

Nicole Schonemann is one of the four original founders of the Goat Conspiracy, a former goat dairy farm in Bloomington, Indiana, that is now a goat sanctuary. She began this journey with a very naive understanding of dairy, and, as a result, she learned that dairy, even when done as well as possible, leaves sustainability and animal welfare gaps that are impossible to close.  She and her partner thus began their own journey towards veganism, away from dairy farming, and helped to start the Goat Conspiracy Sanctuary.  In the fall of 2023, they started Planted Bloomington (a plant-based food truck and catering biz) and are now immersed in their current project of converting the former creamery into a vegan commercial kitchen.

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The Veganic Summit is a free online event from November 8th to 10th, 2024. You’ll learn how plant foods can be grown using techniques that are both vegan and organic, without any chemical fertilizers or any animal byproducts like manure or bonemeal. If you’d like to start your own veganic garden or learn about sustainable plant-based farming, sign up for the Veganic Summit today at https://veganicsummit.com/

_____________________________________________

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.

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts 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 X (formerly Twitter).

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

More vegan options for everybody? Yes, please!!! Britty Mann of Planted Society joins us to tell us about their Plant Based for the Planet Initiative, which encourages local restaurants to put delicious plant-based options on the menu.

Britty Mann is the Founder & Executive Director of Planted Society, a nonprofit whose mission is making plant-based eating more accessible to ensure a better future for the planet and all living beings. Planted Society manages the Plant Based for the Planet initiative, which works closely with climate offices, small businesses, and local governments to help cities reduce their environmental impact. Britty believes that we all have the capacity to help improve the food system, starting with fostering change in our own small networks and local communities, and affirming our instinctive connection with animals.

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The Veganic Summit is a free online event from November 8th to 10th, 2024. You’ll learn how plant foods can be grown using techniques that are both vegan and organic, without any chemical fertilizers or any animal byproducts like manure or bonemeal. If you’d like to start your own veganic garden or learn about sustainable plant-based farming, sign up for the Veganic Summit today at https://veganicsummit.com/

_____________________________________________

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.

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts 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 X (formerly Twitter).

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