Indefatigably positive, accessible, and entertaining
Jessica Mahady
Jasmin Singer is the executive director and co-founder of Our Hen House, a central clearinghouse for all kinds of ideas and opportunities to create change for animals. "With a daily blog, weekly podcast, and video page, we identify possibilities, report on successful activists and enterprises, and brainstorm ideas ranging from the brilliant (if we do say so ourselves) to the farfetched," she explains. Singer founded Our Hen House in January 2010 with her partner, Mariann Sullivan, a lawyer "heavily involved" with animal law. Prior to starting Our Hen House, Singer was the campaigns manager for Farm Sanctuary and still serves an a consultant for them. You may also be familiar with Jasmin through the writing she does for VegNews.
"When I'm not doing all of that," she adds, "I am a performer. I live in NYC with Mariann and our precious pit bull, Rose, who is perfection."
url="http://planetgreen.discovery.com/videos/g-word-keep-it-vegan.html"]WATCH VIDEO: G Word: Keep it Vegan[/url]
Jasmin Singer Talks With Dosa Man
My Conversation With Jasmin Singer
Planet Green: What led you to leave the Farm Sanctuary and do your own thing?
Jasmin Singer: I wanted to fully invest myself in two things specifically: multimedia, and the arts—both as a means to create change for animals. And thus, Our Hen House was born. Mariann and I joke that we gave birth to our "brainchild." We're thinking about throwing Our Hen House a shower, maybe registering at The Apple Store.
PG: There seems to be no shortage of graphic information on the cruelty of animal food production (and other forms of animal exploitation). How can this awareness translate into action and change?
JS: We feel a mass movement is needed that reaches into the homes and working lives of vast numbers of individuals. Currently, the work of animal advocacy organizations deals primarily with educating people about the conditions within which animals exist, encouraging followers to make individual dietary and other lifestyle changes, and providing opportunities for involvement, primarily for top-down organizational campaigns based in legislative proposals and policy initiatives. Our Hen House builds on the work being done by those advocacy groups to truly catalyze a mass movement in which individuals do not merely follow the leadership of animal advocacy organizations, but also take personal responsibility for leading the way to a new world in which the exploitation of animals is recognized as no longer necessary for human progress and must come to an end. It does this by being an indefatigably positive, accessible, and entertaining resource for those who are becoming aware of the conditions within which animals currently exist and want to be part of this new world.
PG: Can you give us an idea of the kind of work Our Hen House does?
JS: Our Hen House identifies and disseminates information about opportunities for individuals to create change, including academic resources to facilitate both research and classroom work; legal resources, particularly relating to lawsuits based in tort; informational resources, including ways to take full advantage of online as well as traditional ways to disseminate information; artistic resources; and for-profit resources, focusing in particular on enabling the vast shift that must occur in food production, preparation and dissemination necessary to replace the current animal-centric diet with a plant-based diet. With our primary goal being to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, we showcase opportunities for individuals who already care about animals to start changing the world.
PG: How can Planet Green readers get involved?
JS: To get further involved with Our Hen House, people can visit our website, and look around at the categories that are of interest to them. There are endless ways to get involved with changing the world, and quite frequently, you don't need to change all that much in your life to begin. Activism can be as simple as baking vegan cupcakes for your office party and providing people with the recipe, to writing one letter to the editor in support of animal issues each week. You don't need to have protest signs and a megaphone to be an activist, though if that's your thing, there's room for that too. There is no one right way, and there is no such thing as a cookie-cutter activist.
PG: What words of advice can offer those seeking to become more active activists?
JS: There has never been a more important time to be vegan than right now, nor has it ever been more accessible and delicious than it is right now. Ten billion land animals are killed each year in this country alone. These are animals who are born into lives of complete misery and killed as babies. From an animal rights perspective, as well as from the perspective of saving our planet (even the UN says we have to go vegan or our planet will not survive), being vegan is our moral imperative. Talking tactics for a moment, that's where Our Hen House will come into use for you. We have something for everybody. You can use the talent, skills, and interests you already have to change the world. No learning curve necessary.
