The Animal Law Podcast

On this episode of the Animal Law Podcast, Mariann will be speaking with three educators from Harvard’s Animal Law & Policy Program. Faculty Director Kristen Stilt, Executive Director Chris Green, and Policy Director Jonathan Lovvorn. They take Mariann on a deep dive into all the aspects of this fascinating program. You’ll hear about the various classes offered in animal law, how&#...

On this episode of the Animal Law Podcast,  Mariann will be speaking once again with Steven Wise, who heads up the Nonhuman Rights Project, and who was last on the podcast on Episodes 1 and 2 to tell us about the litigation brought in New York State trying to free several chimpanzees living in New York. Today, Steve will be updating…

Welcome to the 31st episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Mariann is joined once again by Delcianna Winders, PETA’s Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement, to discuss PETA v Miami Seaquarium, which she just argued in the 11th Circuit. The case involves an animal with whom you are probably also familiar. Lolita is an orca who, in spite…

Welcome to the 30th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Mariann is joined by Matthew Strugar of the Law Office of Matthew Strugar, who returns to the Animal Law Podcast to discuss a suit recently filed on behalf of the White Coat Waste Project against the Greater Richmond Transit Company for refusing to run White Coat Waste’s advertisement criticizing deadly and invasive dog…

Welcome to the 29th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Mariann is joined by Kelsey Eberly of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, who returns to the Animal Law Podcast to discuss the 9th Circuit’s recent decision in Association des Éleveurs de Canards et D’oies du Quebec v Becerra.  The battle to ban the force-feeding of ducks and geese and the sale of its…

Welcome to the 28th episode of the Animal Law Podcast! Mariann is joined by Laura Friend to discuss a recently decided case in which The Humane Society of the United States, along with the Conservation Council of Hawaii, the Center for Biological Diversity, and multiple individual plaintiffs, sued the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources for failing to comply with the Hawaii…

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 em...

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, a...

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 w...

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 curren...

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. F...

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 admini...

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-fou...

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…

Great news! For Episode 9 of the Animal Law Podcast, I will be joined by the brilliant Eric Glitzenstein of Meyer, Glitzenstein and Eubanks in Washington, DC. Eric is a highly experienced environmental and animal attorney and what he has to say about the wind industry (yup) and animals may surprise you. He’ll be discussing some recent successful litigation brought to…