The Farm Animal Movement: Effective Altruism, Venture Philanthropy, & The Fight to End Factory Farming in America by Jeff Thomas Lantern Publishing & Media, P.O. Box 1350, Woodstock, NY 12498 200 pages; $19.95 paperback. www.lanternpm.org Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Former Humane Society of the United States [HSUS] policy analyst Jeff Thomas has previously been mentioned […]
Farmed animal advocate Wayne Hsiung gets 90 days; Canada gets ag gag
Likely to lose at COP28 climate conference, Big Meat agribusiness celebrates killing the messengers SANTA ROSA, California; OTTAWA, Canada––Big Meat agribusiness took a beating on the morning of November 30, 2023 in Dubai, United Emirates, at the opening of the COP28 United Nations conference on climate change. By afternoon, though, Big Meat agribusiness was celebrating […]
What Wayne Hsiung, Mercy for Animals, & others did for Thanksgiving
“Open rescues,” closed jail cells, undercover video, & two challenges to “ag gags” in Canada SANTA ROSA & LOS ANGELES, California––Mass media food sections, as always, fixated during the run-up to Thanksgiving 2023 on how best to roast turkeys. Vegan and vegetarian media comparably focused on promoting plant-based alternatives to turkey dinners Direct Action […]
Starring Miyoko Schinner in “The Decline & Fall of the Dairy Empire”
The Romans imagine they are still in charge while the Visigoths & Ostrogoths fight over the spoils of conquest SAN FRANCISCO, California––Imagine the U.S. dairy industry as the Roman empire, Miyoko Schinner as Alaric the Visigoth, who sacked Rome in 410 A.D., and the venture capitalists who ousted her from Miyoko’s Creamery in a recent […]
North Carolina “ag-gag” law fails in U.S. Court of Appeals
Two of three judges find that the North Carolina Property Protection Act violates the First Amendment RICHMOND, Virginia––A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on February 23, 2023 struck down the portions of the North Carolina ag-gag law most applicable to undercover investigations by animal advocates. The highly technical […]
UPDATE: Iowa belongs to Boss Hogg now. The stench? That’s money.
Roasting pigs alive & smothering the state in pig manure is fine for corporate farmers, says Iowa law, but errant individuals will be prosecuted. One was just convicted & sentenced. DES MOINES, Iowa––Whatever happened to Jefferson Davis “J.D.” Hogg, better known as Boss Hogg, the insatiably greedy and unscrupulous villain of the 1979-1985 television […]
Acquittal of “open rescue” activists rattles factory farms from Utah to China
Direct Action Everywhere founder Wayne Hsiung & co-defendant Paul Picklesimer were prosecuted for “stealing” two piglets left to die ST. GEORGE, Utah––Direct Action Everywhere founder Wayne Hsiung, defending himself, and co-defendant Paul Darwin Picklesimer, represented by veteran Salt Lake City lawyer Mary Corporon, were on October 8, 2022 acquitted by jury on all charges pertaining […]
Fourth attempted Iowa “ag gag” law fails on first glance by a judge
“Ag gag” falls on summary judgement DES MOINES, Iowa––U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose on September 26, 2022 struck down the latest of four attempts by the Iowa legislature to pass an “ag gag” law prohibiting activists and journalists from producing undercover video of activities inside factory farms, feedlots, and slaughterhouses. Three of the four […]
Activists who exposed pig farm abuse to be sentenced on August 26
Two of the “Excelsior Four” face up to 10 years in prison ABBOTSFORD, British Columbia, Canada––Convicted by jury on July 12, 2022 on charges of breaking and entering and mischief for their part in exposing alleged animal abuse at the Excelsior Hog Farm in Abbotsford, British Columbia in April 2019, vegan activists Nick Schafer and […]
U.S. Supreme Court to Kansas: Eat your ag-gag!
Kansas “ag-gag” was oldest in the United States WASHINGTON D.C.––The U.S. Supreme Court on April 25, 2022 rejected without comment an appeal by the State of Kansas against a January 2020 verdict by the U.S. District Court of Kansas, upheld by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in effect erased the oldest […]