[Speaker 1]

Welcome to the Truth Files with me, your host, Jane Velez Mitchell. We have five very exciting wins to tell you about this week. Absolutely huge victories for animals and animal rights.

 

Let’s start with the big one. The U.S. Supreme Court declines to review California’s landmark Proposition 12 animal cruelty law. This is massive.

 

Remember, California is the fourth largest economy in the world. And there it is. Petition denied.

 

The Iowa Pork Producers Association wanted the Supreme Court to basically violate the will of the people of California who voted that animals should have a right to turn around, that pigs shouldn’t be kept in crates the size of their bodies. This is a massive victory. We have an expert here to talk about it.

 

Another major piece of breaking news, the Swiss government is now, as of today, July 1st, July 2nd, I would say, 2025, mandating the disclosure on food labels of animal abuse. So the Swiss food labels must declare animal suffering starting now. This is absolutely a major breakthrough.

 

And we would certainly love to have other countries in Europe following this. Now, here’s another massive victory that we just found out. No whales will be killed in Iceland in 2025.

 

This is from Captain Paul Watson. Thanks to the incredible on the high seas direct action, Iceland has called off its whale hunt for 2025. Very big news.

 

And we have another incredible piece of news. Harvey Epstein has won the New York City Council Democratic primary, defeating Anthony Weiner’s comeback bid. Now, when you win the Democratic primary in New York City, that’s tantamount to winning the general election.

 

So now we have a vegan animal rights activist who has won and is a member of the city council. And we have finally a very fun, upbeat story to tell you about. And that is, well, Variety has a big contest, Variety Magazine.

 

It’s America’s favorite couple. And Jeff Goldblum is going to be involved. And guess who is number one in her group?

 

Currently number one, Renee King-Sonnen and her husband, Tommy. This is absolutely incredible. We’re going to tell you how to vote so that you can help her win.

 

Imagine if a vegan sanctuary couple won Variety’s best couple in America. That would be absolutely incredible. We’ve got an incredible panel of experts.

 

We’re going to start with the one and only Chris Green, who is the executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Chris, you were the one who sent out the word about this massive victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in people’s terms, because a lot of people have no idea what these terms like cert mean. In people terms, what is the victory here?

 

[Speaker 2]

Well, you know, basically, every time any court has looked at one of these challenges to Prop 12, they’ve thrown them out on their ear at the district court level, at the Court of Appeals level, and at the Supreme Court level. There were five different lawsuits challenging Prop 12 that have been filed, and three of them, this is the third time that the pork producers have tried to go to the Supreme Court to overrule the lower courts, which all said, get out of town. There’s absolutely no constitutional question here.

 

So it’s like mom says no, dad says no. Let’s go ask grandpa and see if we can get the answer we’re looking for from them. And so, you know, as you all well know, the Supreme Court.

 

So the first time was the North American Meat Institute case. Supreme Court said, nope, we’re not taking that up. They let the Ninth Circuit ruling stand, throwing that case out.

 

The second was National Pork Producer Council versus Ross. And as you all know, they surprisingly said, yes, they would take that case. It was argued in October of 22.

 

And in the spring of 23, they came back and said, absolutely, we agree with the lower court that these types of health, safety and welfare laws are constitutional, and that a court is able to make such claims, or I’m sorry, that a state is able to set these welfare standards, even if they have an impact on out-of-state producers, it’s still constitutional. What gets lost in the pork producer, the National Pork Producer Council case is that you hear it was a five to four decision, and there were a lot of concurrences and dissents, but they were all arguing over a really precise thing of this balancing test that one might do afterwards. But on the core constitutional question of whether it is constitutionally permissible for a state like California and California voters to set their own health, safety and welfare standards, it was nine zip.

 

Not a single Supreme Court justice said that it wasn’t. So the difference here with this case, this Iowa Pork Producers Association case, is that in the MPPC Ross case, they didn’t say that there was discrimination. They just said that there was an outside impact on out-of-state producers, and that’s what made it violate the Dormant Commerce Clause.

 

[Speaker 1]

Let me jump in and say, just for people who know nothing about this, Prop 12 eliminates pig gestation crates. And you’re looking at pig gestation crates right here. The proposition passed by the California voters said, this is insufferable, impermissible, horrific torture, and no product that comes from pig gestation crates can be sold in California.

 

And that’s what makes it so powerful, Chris, because California being the fourth largest economy in the world, when California says that, then it has a huge impact because all of these pork producers want to be able to sell their products in the fourth largest economy in the world. Can you elaborate a little on that?

 

[Speaker 2]

Absolutely. You know, Prop 12 actually does a bit more. So there was a previous proposition passed by California voters by 63% in 2008, Prop 2, and that basically said that for mother pigs, egg-laying hens, and calves raised for veal, they must be given enough room to stand up, lie down, turn around, and spread their limbs.

 

So that passed, and that’s the law of the land. Any producer within the state of California has to abide by those standards. California then applied that to out-of-state producers with an egg law they passed in 2010.

 

What Prop 12 did was actually put numbers to that. They said, okay, people were complaining that, you know, stand up, lie down, turn around was too vague. So they actually put specific square footage requirements to those standards.

 

So this applies to egg-laying hens. This also applies to veal calves. But because all the egg producers were already in compliance because of the 2010 egg law, the main thing you’re hearing is challenges by the pork industry.

 

And what they said here is that you still have those standards that they must stand up, lie down, turn around, spread their limbs, wings, but they said you need 24 square feet of space per mother pig. And so that’s what they were fighting about. That was the difference here.

 

And so, again, it went up. Every court that’s looked at it just said there is no constitutional question. There is no discrimination because it applies equally to both in-state producers and out-of-state producers.

 

So what’s called the dormant commerce clause gives the federal government, of course, the ability to regulate interstate commerce if there is some sort of discrimination at play. So if Florida, for example, said we’re going to just put a 25% tax on all out-of-state tomatoes sold in Florida, that would be completely impermissible. You’re not allowed to do that.

 

You’re not allowed to protect your own producers at the expense of out-of-state producers. However, in here, again, this applies equally to both in-state producers and out-of-state producers.

 

[Speaker 1]

It’s a huge victory. And first of all, Matt Rosell saying, great victory. Thanks ALDF and Coalition for defending every attempt to overthrow Prop 12 and the will of compassionate Californians.

 

Again, I cannot emphasize the importance of this decision. With California being the fourth largest economy in the world, essentially, it’s going to help. It doesn’t guarantee, but it’s certainly going to help wipe out these horrific torture devices called pig gestation crates and other confinement for egg-laying hens, et cetera.

 

Simone Reyes, what was your first reaction when you heard this news?

 

[Speaker 3]

Finally, finally, we are making strides. And doing a show like this is so important because so much of the time in activism, you know, we’re just being knocked down. And there are very few moments to celebrate and to do a show just about these wins is so important, not just for everyone to see that veganism, animal rights is on the rise.

 

We are winning. In fact, we’re doing better than winning. We are breaking the walls down, you know, one bill, one person at a time.

 

But we are also able to just take a moment and say, not only, you know, are we dealing with burnout every day as activists, but we can take a moment to celebrate and say all of our hard work is actually coming to fruition. Right. When we see things like that, we’re going to talk about today on the show, we see that we are winning.

 

We are actually winning. Animals are winning. And it’s so hard to actually believe that because there’s so many times when we’re just on the floor, you know, in a fetal position most of the time.

 

But right now we’re celebrating. And, you know, when I heard this and every single thing that we’re going to talk about on the show, I was just like, this is what we need today. We need to be able to have the shot in the arm of something amazing to keep us going.

 

[Speaker 1]

Absolutely. You are absolutely right. And people are saying this is history, which it is.

 

And we’re going to get to Renee King-Sonnen in a second because she’s got some really incredible news. Let’s do it right now. And then we’re going to get to the Switzerland.

 

The Switzerland decision is massive. But let’s tell us about your contest, Renee, and what people can do. I voted for you and Tommy last night.

 

Again, Variety is having this massive contest, America’s favorite couple. As you know, Renee King-Sonnen turned her husband’s cattle operation into a vegan sanctuary. Now she and her husband are vegan for many years.

 

So what is the significance of this contest, Renee?

 

[Speaker 4]

Oh, wow. Well, it’s, you know, it’s a contest being put on by the Gold Blums, I think it is. And it’s going to be in Variety.

 

Whoever wins is going to get a ride up in Variety. And I was strolling through Facebook and I saw America’s favorite couple. And I just started, you know, just kind of going down the list.

 

And I thought, God, you know, Tommy and I, you know, have a lot of people really gravitate to our story, even non-vegans. How cool would it be for a vegan couple to win this contest? I mean, I really do believe that this is a contest that everyone can get behind in our movement.

 

Because if a vegan couple wins, it’s a win for all of us. And God knows, especially with Prop 12 and everything happening, yes, it’s a win. But we, you know, vegans need to unite.

 

They need to get behind one another. And, you know, right now we’re number one in our group. There’s 74 people in our group.

 

And, you know, I’ve been pushing it out. You can vote every single day. So you can vote every day, one time a day and up until July 10th.

 

And then the top winners of each of the 20 groups are going to go into the second round. And I am going to, if you win, you get $20,000. And I’m going to donate that $20,000 right to our medical treatment facility to help buy that hydraulic squeeze shoe that our aging bovine need.

 

So that story is out there for all of America to see. The story of a cattle rancher going vegan. The story of, you know, how we will spend this money.

 

So, you know, go out there, vote for us, share it out. You know, it’s really time to get promoting it and sharing it. You know, I don’t really want to be America’s favorite couple.

 

Not for me and Tommy. I want it for the animals. You know, anything I can do to elevate, you know, our presence in the world of animal rights is a win for the animals.

 

[Speaker 1]

Now, last night I voted. And I’ll tell you, because Renee is one of my best friends, I put $100 personally, my own money, down on Renee, because that’s 100 votes. So I said, yes, this is activism.

 

Because if she wins this variety, she and her husband Tommy win this. First of all, we’ll never hear the end of it. But that’s fun.

 

But if they win, it would be so, yes, I think you can vote as Canadians. Somebody wants to know, yes, I think you can vote as Canadians. Go for it.

 

Variety Magazine is a global, you know, a global thing. So absolutely. What you can do is just take a photo, just take a snapshot with your phone of this.

 

And then you can write it down. And you can just, boom. Americasfavecouple.org forward slash 2025 forward slash Renee and Tommy. But it’s a lot to memorize. If you could just take a snapshot. And then at your leisure today, do it now.

 

Because we’ve only got to what, July 9th? July 10th, and then there’s the second round. Yeah, well, I think you should win.

 

I think you and Tommy are an incredible couple. Remember, he’s famous for saying what, Renee? Veganism was shoved down my throat.

 

I chewed it up, and I liked it. All right, we’re going to come back and give you that over and over again. But I want to get to some of the other really big wins today.

 

Because you’re right, Simone Reyes. Honestly, we need to celebrate our wins. Okay, we can’t just talk about the problems.

 

And we are winning if you look at it and see all these things that are accomplished. Now, this is absolutely huge. The Swiss government, okay, is mandating disclosure on food labels of some form of animal abuse.

 

Absolutely incredible. I want to read from an article Switzerland is introducing, and it’s already applying today. A new requirement for food labels to disclose whether the fabrication of products of animal origin involves specific painful processes and practices.

 

This was approved by the Swiss federal government. It covers eggs, milk, foie gras, and other animal-derived foods. So for example, the government has stated that labels must now indicate if any procedures, like castration or dehorning of cows, or castration, tail docking, or teeth clipping for pigs were performed without anesthesia or stunning.

 

Wow. I mean, Animal Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Chris Green, this is monumental. How important is this ruling?

 

[Speaker 2]

Well, it’s really important because as we’ve seen in survey after survey after survey, consumers don’t want to participate in the marketplace by buying products that cause these types of harms. I mean, that’s what we saw in the Prop 12 vote. 63% of Californians, even knowing that it was going to increase the prices for those products, they didn’t want those products sold in their state.

 

And now we see the same thing happening in Switzerland. We helped organize a global animal law conference in Hong Kong in 2018. And there, you go into a store and cigarette packets have these just grotesque images on them of all these terrible things that can happen to you from smoking.

 

And it’s what the consumer needs to know. It’s full information. So the same thing here.

 

It’s just fantastic that this hidden reality of the pain and suffering caused by these products are now going to be right there on the label.

 

[Speaker 1]

Oh, we’re getting a lot of bravo, Switzerland. Let’s celebrate the wins. Back to Renee for a second.

 

I don’t know if that’s Renee’s husband, Tommy, standing there at the top of that Swiss Alp celebrating his win in the future. But Niloufar says she just voted for you, Renee. And again, everybody can vote for you.

 

Take a snapshot of that URL and you can vote later. It’s absolutely fantastic what’s happening. And so I want to go and do a round robin about this Switzerland issue.

 

I mean, Simone, I can’t even believe it. You’re the one who told me this. You texted me, I think it was the night before last, and you were like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.

 

[Speaker 3]

Yeah, I literally had to look it up and make sure it wasn’t fake news. And I’d be like, it’s not April Fool’s. That’s literally how big it felt.

 

I got teary when I thought about it, because the truth is, you know, we rely so heavily on social media, right? In my opinion, social media and legislation are the most important things that we have in our arsenal. I have always felt that way because we’re going around mainstream media.

 

We are getting right onto the hands, literally, on our smartphones to tell people what it looks like for an animal, what it feels like for an animal, and what their dinner went through to get on their plate, right? But social media also has some limitations, right? Sometimes social media can be a bit cringe, right?

 

Sometimes it just seems like it’s just a lot of people saying, look at me, loving me, you know, or bullying. You know, there’s a lot of bullying in social media, things like that. Or even as activists, when we are showing the, you know, the look of terror in these animals’ eyes, when we are using our very graphic photographs to show throats being slit and all of this, that’s easy for people to be like, unfollow, I don’t want to see that, you know.

 

But when it’s labeling on food that they are going to see every day, when they open their freezer, when they go to their supermarket, and that’s not to say that somebody will read it at first glance, you know, and be like, oh, well, I’m not going to pick up this, you know, this carton or this, you know, this package of meat or whatever it is. But we know, science has told us, that if you feed information continuously, it can start to break through that barrier that people have up, right? We’re mirrors.

 

That’s what we are. We show people what they don’t want to know about themselves, that they’re making these decisions that are wrong, that they know in their heart is wrong. And so in order to have this in a label every day, looking at them, I can only try to have this faith in humanity, that that is going to start to chip away of all this old information that they were raised on to believe that there’s these happy farms and happy animals and they happily sacrifice themselves so that we can, you know, get heart disease and diabetes and destroy our planet, you know, with climate change. So this is huge. This is literally getting into people’s homes.

 

It’s getting into their consciousness, and they’ve broken down the wall. So I see this happening in other countries. I see it happening here.

 

I am beyond thrilled about this news.

 

[Speaker 1]

Tina Walker says, sure is, and breaking through. So I think it’s really important to talk about what we can do next with this. You know, once one, and we’ve seen this with West Hollywood, West Hollywood, Banfur, West Hollywood made plant-based their default option, and it’s spreading.

 

Once one municipality, one institution does it, and then others can follow. So Renee, what would you like to see with this Switzerland regulation now requiring, telling them whether the cows were dehorned or castrated without anesthesia, or if the pigs had their teeth cut without anesthesia? I mean, this is extraordinary.

 

[Speaker 4]

Yeah, it is. It’s monumental. I mean, it’s going to set a global precedent if animal rights activists the world over will just push this out.

 

I mean, this is a decisive action that is going to put pressure on other countries and, you know, quite frankly, our trade partners around the world, especially the EU. I mean, think about how this is going to pressure other countries to adopt similar rules. Um, I mean, this is groundbreaking news.

 

It could significantly, significantly influence the way consumers behave, like Simone put it, and how they see animals as products in the industry. I mean, if they are having to look at this day in and day out, it’s kind of like water dripping on a rock. You may drip that one time, but once that water keeps dripping, eventually the water goes through and it breaks through.

 

This is what’s happening. We are experiencing the breakthrough. This is going to happen.

 

I get goosebumps. I mean, you know, I mean, I think this law also bans the import and sale of fur products, from what I was reading, derived from, you know, the cruelty of, you know, the cruelty of all that horrible methods of hurting animals. And so, I mean, I think it’s just, it’s just unprecedented transparency.

 

This legislation directly names the suffering as a consumer facing issue. Finally, it shifts the default narrative. And if animals are harmed, you’re going to know.

 

It’s at the point of purchase. And you know how we say, you know, at the point of rescue, well, this is at the point of purchase. And everyone should see this.

 

That power gives activists like us a huge, huge leverage point.

 

[Speaker 1]

Now, I’ve often said that, and others have said it, it wasn’t just me, that we need to sort of follow the template of what made cigarettes unpopular in the United States. And it was, you know, smoking is very glamorous. And then there’s a woman smoking out of her neck.

 

And there were the warning labels on cigarette packets. Those were very effective. So I want to go to Chris Green, the Executive Director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, that does so much important work legally, legislatively.

 

Chris, what can we do here in the United States to leverage this?

 

[Speaker 2]

Again, you know, starting, the reason consumers are so important, because they are able to vote with their dollars. And there isn’t any roadblock or impediment to that, like there is sometimes with trying to get legislation passed or having to fight something in the courts. No one is preventing it.

 

You don’t need to go through an agriculture committee to decide how you want to pay for your dinner tonight. This is such an important aspect of this. And that’s why, as you’ve just heard from the other panelists, getting to that point of purchase and letting people know right when they’re about to spend that money, what exactly they’re purchasing.

 

That’s really important. But again, it helps to see how, it’s going to be great to see the effect that this has. And then we can, you know, other places, they can push to do that at the local level.

 

You know, I think you said about West Hollywood, they were the first municipality to pass declaw, a ban on declawing cats. And now you’ve seen Massachusetts just pass a law, the law in California. There’s a bill in California that looks like it’s, you know, moving forward pretty well this session that, you know, you start small and then you work your way larger.

 

So I think it would be great if someone tried to introduce some similar measures at the municipal or county level here and just see the impact that it has.

 

[Speaker 1]

I also think it would really be important to get other smaller European nations to follow up. I mean, the European Union has a lot of, I would say, more respected animal activists in governments scattered throughout various institutions in the United Kingdom. The Green Party, for example, there is an animal rights party in some countries.

 

I think we should start urging everybody to propose this. There’s an animal rights party in Australia. I think even if it loses, now that there’s a template for action, other nations can start.

 

And I always think start small. I mean, that’s what the plant-based treaty is doing. They started with some very small municipalities and now larger municipalities are adopting the plant-based treaty.

 

So before we wrap up on this subject, what should we do in response to this major breakthrough in Switzerland? Obviously, we don’t want it to remain in Switzerland. I love Switzerland.

 

I was in Zurich maybe, I don’t know, about a decade ago, maybe a little less. And there were, in fact, the world’s first Western vegetarian restaurant called Hittel is in Zurich. And it’s actually pretty much 90% vegan.

 

And so it has a history of this kind of stuff. And I think it’s great, but we’ve got to move it to the other countries. I mean, maybe Belgium, maybe Denmark, maybe Finland.

 

We have a big animal rights movement in Finland, thanks to viral vegans being based there. So what should we do, Simone?

 

[Speaker 3]

Well, first of all, I think we need to flood social media with this news and not stop. We need to be flooding social media and get to know your legislators, being part of social compassion and legislation, and literally being able to make appointments with your assembly people, with talking to, sending emails to the mayor, tagging them on social media. It’s so important because at the end of the day, they need us.

 

They need our vote. They want to know their constituents. They want to know the people that are going to be voting for them.

 

So to constantly be telling them, listen, this just happened in Switzerland. Wouldn’t it be great if this happened here? And look at all these people that want it to happen.

 

And look at our social media and look how many people are spreading this. That’s what they need to know. And so those are the two things that I would say.

 

Flood social media with it. Tag every person in government that you think can be helpful and even the ones that can’t and let them know that our voting voice is strong. So if they want to get elected, they need to put animals in their campaigns and let us know how if we vote for them, how animals are going to vote.

 

[Speaker 1]

I want to go to one of our other big wins. This was shot this morning in New York City. The winner of the Democratic primary in the New York City council race in the East Village, essentially, even though it’s not the general election, it’s tantamount to winning the general election.

 

The gentleman’s name is Harvey Epstein. And here’s what he had to say today.

 

[Speaker 3]

So we’re here at the first annual vegan hot dog giveaway with all of these plant based hot dogs and assembly member Harvey Epstein, who happens to be a vegan and recently won his New York City Council Democratic primary.

 

[Speaker 2]

Thank you. And we’re here really to talk about how important it is for people who have plant based diets have alternatives here for food. I really want to thank New York for all the work that they do to advance a plant based diet.

 

Really something that we need to talk more about and all the issues of animal rights in New York City. Really proud to be here. And I hope that people come down and enjoy the holidays, enjoy the holidays that work for them and their values and their beliefs.

 

[Speaker 3]

And let’s see that vegan dog. Wow. How about you take the first bite?

 

Yeah. How is it? Very good.

 

[Speaker 1]

Thank you.

 

[Speaker 3]

And now we’re here with Humane Long Island, who helped us organize this.

 

[Speaker 1]

There you go. Just sent to us minutes ago from New York City. So our last round, Robin, what is the significance of having people who represent our values, who are vegan, who are animal rights activists in local government?

 

Obviously, New York City, extremely important because that’s perhaps the most famous city in the world. Chris Green, you want to take a shot at that?

 

[Speaker 2]

Well, yeah. Just because there’s so many important decisions, as you talked about the economic impact of California earlier, New York City has a massive economic impact in both things, especially with things that it pays for, procurement. As you’ve seen recently with all the work that’s been done to include plant-based options in hospitals and in schools, where you see not only people being more satisfied, eating healthier and more humanely, but it actually saving the city money.

 

It’s cheaper for them to provide these better plant-based meals than it is for them to buy meat that a lot of people didn’t want to eat. So having someone on the city council who can bring that perspective to each of those decisions and help push those things forward is immensely important.

 

[Speaker 1]

All right. Well, I agree with you there. We’ve just got to really, I think, not just celebrate the victory, but as Simone Reyes said, move into action.

 

In my mind, I’m going to contact the head of Viral Vegans, Benjamin Pithikin, who is from Finland. He’s known as the most famous vegan in Finland. And let’s see if their group wants to get started on doing something like this in Finland.

 

Renee, what are your thoughts?

 

[Speaker 4]

Well, I mean, having vegans in our local governments, it sends a big message because most of our government is entrenched in animal agriculture, quite frankly, from subsidies to how they treat all the dietary guidelines. So having a vegan or, you know, people that really represent animals are going to disrupt the narrative that says that, you know, you know, we’re going to say we don’t build policy. We got to stop building policies on suffering.

 

I mean, for God’s sake, there’s another way. And so and I think it’s just time to stop the gas line, to stop it all. And we need vegans, animal rights activists in power.

 

We need to to have them in power because they’re going to be more likely to advocate for all the things that we want, like animal rights legislation, you know, not just better welfare, even though that’s good. We want to freaking free animals. We all know that.

 

And we want to support on we want to support bans on factory farms and push for climate smart food policies. And, you know, we can do all of this if vegans would get involved more in their local government. I’ve said it.

 

I say it all the time to everyone I meet. If you want to change the system, go become a staffer in Congress. Go become a vegan lobbyist.

 

My gosh, if we don’t do that, we are never, ever, ever going to see the kind of wins we deserve to because the policy is being shaped and shifted by animal ag.

 

[Speaker 1]

All right. Well said. Simone, you get the final word.

 

[Speaker 3]

Not much I can say on top of what Rene just said. I mean, it’s obvious, right? We need people in power that are vegan and have animal rights on their agenda.

 

And that power ultimately lies in us. We vote. We are the ones that can tag our officials either on a positive note or on a not so positive note to say this is where you are right now on these issues.

 

And this is where you need to be. So I think we just have to really express on social media and in our personal relationships to each other, we are the ones with the power. It feels so much that, you know, government has the power.

 

It’s not true. The people have the power because we are the ones that have the vote. So if we just continue to use social media to the animal’s advantage, continue to tag and send private messages and send public messages and open letters any way that we can to government officials, they do listen.

 

They do not like any press that is not good press. They don’t want to have to, you know, have, oh, let’s all today, you know, tag this person and tell them what they’re doing wrong. That is not good for them.

 

It is not good for them to get elected or reelected. So just continue to use social media to the animal’s advantage. Continue to speak to your elected officials.

 

You can make appointments with them. Don’t be shy. The animals need you to speak out and to never be silent.

 

[Speaker 1]

You’re making some key points. And just this morning, I got an email asking me to email a particular senator who basically refused to talk about bird flu when an activist tried to talk and it was all caught on tape, free from harm, sent an email. I took the four or five minutes that it took, even though I was busy, I was racing to get ready for this, but I stopped and I said, I know I’m not going to do this later.

 

If I don’t get to it now, it’s going to go way down. I did it. And those are those microactivisms that are so powerful that we all have to do.

 

By the way, we got some good news here. Renee Nilofar has, where is she there? She’s done something for you.

 

I know she said she did 50. Here it is. We got it.

 

I chipped in $50 and it said 50 votes have been applied to Renee and Tommy. All right. And I know, Chris, you want to say something very important about the whole Prop 12 issue before we go.

 

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. Following up on what you both just said on the power of people and also the power of contacting your legislators. So this was the last Hail Mary that the pork industry had at the courts.

 

This is a third attempt. It was denied. But I just need to underscore to everybody that the fight is not over.

 

That just means there’s going to be more pressure on industry to try and nullify and overturn Prop 12 and Question 3 through the U.S. Congress by adding it to the Farm Bill. There’s a piece of legislation called the EATS Act that was introduced that we did such a great job as a community in opposing that they had to change the name because we turned the EATS Act into a four-letter word. So now they’ve reintroduced it as the Food Security and Farm Protection Act.

 

So there’s no way a bill like this could pass on its own. The only shot they have is to get it added to something like the Farm Bill that has to go through. We’re now getting close to two years late on a Farm Bill, and Congress obviously has a lot of other stuff going on.

 

But when you hear from one of these groups asking you to contact your legislator about opposing the EATS Act or opposing this piece of legislation and keeping it out of the Farm Bill Act, and the last point I’ll make is just the animal protection community is as collaborative as I’ve ever experienced it in 25 years of doing this work. Just the effectiveness of coalitions and collaboration. And this recent win of the Supreme Court is a classic example of that.

 

From coalescing to pass Question 3 and Prop 12 in the first place, to then defending them in court, and then keeping them from being overturned in Congress, Humane World for Animals really took the lead on all of that. But they put together a large coalition, my organization, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Animal Equality, the Humane League, Farm Sanctuary, Compassion in World Farming, and Animal Outlook were all part of the legal brief that opposed the Supreme Court granting certainness, and that’s what helped win. So again, Prop 12 has been such a great vehicle for all these organizations, because as animal advocates, we’re like the Lilliputians, right?

 

We’re up against these multi-billion dollar industries. The only way we’re going to have any chance of winning is to coalesce and collaborate, and I’m just so proud of our movement right now and how great it’s been in that regard.

 

[Speaker 1]

I, from your mouth to God’s ear or whatever your belief system is, I couldn’t agree with you more. We need to unite. We absolutely need to unite, and that’s why I try, whenever I’m asked to do something, whatever organization, I say, absolutely.

 

Unless I absolutely can’t because I’m out of town or whatever, I will do it, because we’ve got to unite. It’s not about, oh, which organization is better. We’re in a planetary crisis.

 

We’re in an environmental crisis. We’re in a moral crisis, killing 90 billion animals every year. We’re in a health crisis, and all of it can be solved with compassionate animals, but we’ve got to stick together.

 

Principles above personalities. It doesn’t matter who gets the credit. We got to get this done.

 

I want to thank my incredible panel. I’m going to have to have you back real soon. Meanwhile, please download Unchained TV.

 

We are a nonprofit streaming network to promote the plant-based lifestyle. You can download us on your phone, through your app store. Go to unchainedtv.com, and on any TV, if you’ve got one of these streaming devices, or if you’ve got a Samsung or an LG TV, it’s just right there. Go to your app store on your TV and download us.

 

[Speaker 4]

So it’s a vegan Netflix. Okay, that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.

 

[Speaker 3]

I love Unchained TV.

 

[Speaker 1]

Unchained. Unchained TV. Your life will change.

 

It’s just that easy.

 

[Speaker 3]

Unchained TV has all sorts of content for everybody. Unchained TV changed my life. Unchained TV is crushing it.

 

I love Unchained TV. Unchained TV is my go-to. Unchained TV.

 

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