Litigate What You Love - Alene Anello - Episode # 010

Solo de Facto

For so many people, work is just a source of income and the idea of starting your own business, let alone a non-profit, seems like a terrifying prospect. Not so for Alene Anello, the founder of Legal Impact for Chickens, a non-profit that aims to take on the unethical and unthinkable treatment of chickens by the meat and egg industries. Alene had an easy track laid out for her after graduating from Harvard Law School and clerking for a federal judge, but she decided to follow her passion and stick up for our feathered friends. Alene joins host Emily LaRusch to discuss the finer points of starting a legal practice and what’s next in the ongoing fight for better living conditions for chickens.

Takeaways

• Legal Impact for Chickens is Hiring! Just checkout this link to view open positions: https://www.legalimpactforchickens.org/were-hiring
• As a non-profit doing interact litigation, the firm is able to design the lawsuit they want to bring and then find a client who would fit the design of the lawsuit. Therefore the goal is not to take the client’s money, but to accomplish an ethical goal.
• As a nonprofit, it's important to have 501 c3 status, so that you can get tax deductible donations and you yourself don't have to pay taxes.
• To help chickens as a consumer, you should do what feels right to you in terms of activism. One way to help chickens is to eat vegan chicken alternatives, such as Gardein, Beyond Meat, or Tofurky.
• To advocate for better treatment of chickens, look for groups like The Humane League, the Animal Legal Defense Fund or the Humane Society of the United States. Links included below.
• The packaging of eggs and chicken meat can be very misleading. “Cage Free” means the birds are kept in a giant warehouse and never go outside, but they are not kept in cramped individual cages. “Free Range” is conceptually the same but there may be a few small holes which some birds may be able to fit through to go outside, but most are kept in the giant warehouse regardless. “Pasture Raised” is a huge step up and means the birds are actually outside. Try to use an online guide when deciding.
• The government does not check when companies say their chicken processes are “humane.”

Links:

• Twitter: @ChickensLegal
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LegalImpactforChickens
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleneanello/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/legal-impact-for-chickens/
• Website: https://www.legalimpactforchickens.org/

Shout Outs:

• The Humane League: thehumaneleague.org
• Animal legal Defense Fund: aldf.org
• Humane Society of the United States: humanesociety.org

Ways to Tune in:

• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/923f06e0-f8e6-4cb3-9472-5b4f460c496b/solo-de-facto
• Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/solo-de-facto/id1586010951
• Spotify - ​​https://open.spotify.com/show/6uooFxN96HtKCoFuI3LJ3w?si=ImsDozpARi2_7J4_oWLqDg&dl_branch=1
• Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/solo-de-facto
• YouTube - https://youtu.be/caHycx4lpR8