I got to know the incredible attorney Steffen Seitz when I had the privilege of serving on Wayne Hsiung's legal team during his trial for organizing mass open rescues of animals in Sonoma County, California. Steffen was fresh out of Yale Law School and there to be of assistance in any way he could. And his positive impact was immediately felt, by myself and the whole team. What I found in Steffen was someone extraordinarily bright, insightful and generous. Beyond his enormous help to the team, I will never forget the late nights when I was scrambling to finish something up for court the next day and Steffen staying up late to help me with this thing or that thing when he didn't have to. Steffen is the person who completed what I consider a crazily improbable hail mary pass in getting a special prosecutor appointed to look into beagle breeder Ridglan Farms. At that point, Ridglan had just dropped charges that had been pending on Wayne and his two co-defendants for rescuing dogs from that place, and a petition was filed to appoint a special prosecutor to finally do something about Ridglan. Steffen's successful petition ultimately led to the agreement reached between Tim Gruenke and Ridglan to give up their state breeders license, a massive win, but a win tempered by the refusal by authorities to do anything for the beagles still remaining there, a problem that remains unresolved to this day.Steffen's work, along with his colleagues at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, is one of the true godsends for the animal rights movement. I hope you enjoy our chat as much as I did.This conversation is also available on YouTube.Links:AALDPAALDP IGAALDP LinkedInVoluntary Prosecution and the Case of Animal RescueConspiracy and Social Movements"This is an Uprising" bookSign up for the April 19 RescueWatch EarthlingsWatch Dominion

I've wanted to have Jeremy Beckham on my podcast for awhile to talk about his deep research into how beagles became the dogs used as lab experiments. Now with there being so much focus on beagle breeder Ridglan Farms due to a March 15 open rescue that got 22 dogs to safety, it's the perfect time to speak with him and look at the big picture. It was likely Jeremy himself who largely put Ridglan under a microscope years ago when, while living in Madison, he happened to learn of a secretive dog breeder nearby that was at that time the 3rd largest breeder of beagles for research in America.Jeremy documented in his harrowing research paper "Radioactive Beagles" how the Cold War-era focus on atomic energy and weapons prompted a surge in studies about how radiation affects the human body. But, as he documents, through a series of decisions of convenience, the beagle was chosen to conduct that research, costing many thousands of dogs a life of suffering which continues to this day. In this episode you'll hear Jeremy's take on what's happening at Ridglan Farms, animal testing and the animal rights movement over his decades advocating for animals, whether with Beagle Freedom Project, PETA, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, or any other of the many roles he's played. I hope you enjoy this insightful conversation as much as I did.This episode is also available on YouTube.Links:Radioactive BeaglesJeremy's LinkedIn"Animal Liberation Now"John Gluck bookJeremy on Wayne's podcastJoin the April 19th Riglan rescueWatch DominionWatch Earthlings

Matthew Zirbel is one of the lead researchers on a newly released interactive website map of factory farms in California called Factory Farm Watch. Matthew is an organizer with the grassroots animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) and it's through them that I've gotten to know him. For a while, Matthew was just someone who I'd often see at demonstrations. After getting to know him some, I got to see how competend and pleasant he was to work with. As I mentioned in the podcast, I feel like a huge perk of being in the animal rights movement is getting to meet amazing people, and Matthew is definitely one of those people.I hope you'll enjoy this conversation and check out the website. Also, a day after we did our interview, Vox's Marine Bolotnikova published an excellent feature on a DxE investigation that Matthew was talking about at Grimmius Cattle Company. I've linked to both of those items below and highly recommend them. This conversation is also available on YouTube, and it may be more suitable for viewing the map.Links:FactoryFarmWatch.orgThe Vox storyDirect Action EverywhereWatch DominionWatch EarthlingsMatthew's Book RecsPeter Singer"Moral Ambition""Thinking Fast and Slow"