Our Hen House: Vegan & Animal Rights Movement | Stories from the Frontlines of Animal Liberation Fur is Dead!: How Local Advocates Are Ending Fur Sales Across America with Kara Holmquist, Max Broad, and Conor Lamkin
This episode reveals the winning strategies behind successful fur ban legislation, featuring advocates who have convinced communities to ditch cruel fashion! From Massachusetts towns passing bans unanimously to a creative campaign strategies in Washington DC, our guests share how grassroots advocacy, coalition-building, and strategic planning are creating a domino effect of animal protection laws across the country.
This episode explores:
- How Massachusetts advocates built an unstoppable fur sales ban movement that spread from town to town with overwhelming support
- The creative DC campaign that included a sustainable fashion show featuring alternatives to animal fur
- Why fur bans are the perfect “gateway” animal protection legislation that builds momentum for bigger changes
- How coalitions between national organizations and local advocates create the perfect recipe for legislative success
- The economic collapse of the fur industry and why now is the perfect time to push for these bans
ABOUT OUR GUESTS
Conor Lamkin is the Assistant Policy Counsel on the Public Policy team at The Humane League. Conor provides legal and policy research, legislative drafting, and strategy development for the Animal Policy Alliance, focusing on state and federal policies.
Max Broad is the Founder and Executive Director of DC Voters for Animals. As a long-time climate advocate, Max saw how influential a small group of passionate citizens can be in the policy process. He has worked on successful legislation to ban ivory and rhino horn in DC, to require DC buildings to use bird-safe building materials that prevent collisions, to prohibit cat declawing, breed restriction in housing, and pet store sales of animals, and food procurement standards to support climate-forward dining in DC schools, jail, and more. With a master’s in environmental science and management from UC Santa Barbara, Max has worked at the National Wildlife Federation, as a contractor at the US Department of Energy, and AmeriCorps NCCC.
Kara is the Director of Advocacy at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA). She has a law degree from Suffolk University Law School. She has held leadership positions in the Massachusetts Animal Coalition, the Mass. Bar Association’s Animal Law Practice Group and the Link Up Education Network (a group that addresses the link between animal cruelty and human violence). She has worked to pass a wide range of legislation in Massachusetts that protects companion animals, animals used in food production and farming, wildlife, wild animals used in traveling acts, and animals used in research. She also has worked with advocates across the state to pass local measures to ban the sale of animals in pet shops, prevent the use of wild animals in traveling acts, restrict the use of anticoagulant rodenticides, and prohibit the sale of fur. She has also worked on three ballot questions (wildlife trapping, greyhound racing, and the 2016 “Question 3” on the confinement of farmed animals).
RESOURCES
- ALP 188: The Case of the Cows, the Gas, & the Money
- WXXI Environmental Connections: Hot topics — the climate issues affecting Rochesterians today
- WXXI Environmental Connections: Climate action in the face of governmental opposition
- Revolution Philadelphia’s Instagram coverage of SNL
- Cory Booker on Animal Rights, Veganism, and How to Change the World
- Woodstock Farm Sanctuary on Bluesky
- This little-known company is a major funder of right-wing politics. You’ve probably eaten their chicken.
- Trump Uses Taxpayer Money to Fund the Torture of Billions of Animals
- The Flawed Ideology That Unites Grass-Fed Beef Fans and Anti-Vaxxers
- Can Climate-Resilient Chickens Help Fight Poverty?
- Want To Save The Bees? Focus On Habitat, Not Honey Bees
- DC Voters for Animals website
- DC Voters for Animals on Instagram
- DC Voters for Animals on Facebook
- DC Voters for Animals on Bluesky
- DC Voters for Animals on LinkedIn
- MSPCA Advocate for Animals website
- MSPCA on Instagram
- MSPCA on Facebook
- MSPCA Animal Action team on Threads
- Animal Policy Alliance website
- The Humane League website
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview._____________________________________________
The Animal Policy Alliance, established by The Humane League, is a powerful collective of local and state-level animal advocacy groups throughout the United States. We serve as a trusted resource, providing knowledge, strategies, connection opportunities, and grants to our member organizations. We lead with purpose, empowering alliance members to build toward our shared vision of a world without animal abuse.
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