Approximately 30 animal advocates disrupted the Humane Society of New York (HSNY) when actress Bernadette Peters brought the shelter’s animal trainer onto the stage during Broadway Barks, a star-studded adoption event in NYC’s theater district. The trainer, Bill Berloni, has close relationships with many actors and actresses, including Peters, because he provides them with animals for their shows, films and commercials.

During the three months leading up to Broadway Barks, activists sent hand-written letters to Peters, explaining that animals were being warehoused at the prominent shelter and pleading with her to call on HSNY to send the animals to adoption centers that are open or to foster homes. Peters did not acknowledge the letters or social media posts in which she was tagged.

Of the dozens of media outlets that reported on the protest against the Humane Society at Broadway Barks, only Vanity Fair explained why.

In what appeared to be an effort to discredit the activists during the protest, Peters falsely stated twice that HSNY is “open for tours,” the implication being that people can visit the shelter and see for themselves that the animals are not being warehoused. Berloni, who works at HSNY, did not correct her, despite the fact that he remained on stage during the disruption.

As activists protest the warehousing of animals at the Humane Society of New York during a star-studded adoption event, actress Bernadette Peters tells audience that “anybody can take a tour of the Humane Society” despite the fact that the building has been closed to the public for 27 months. Pictured to her left is Bill Berloni, the Humane Society of New York’s animal trainer, who supplies Broadway shows with animals.

As anticipated by the protesters, several of the Broadway Barks attendees tore their posters, pushed them out of the audience and asserted that the disruption did nothing to help their cause. 

“We were not there to make friends or allies,” said Bonnie Tischler, one of the protesters who served as HSNY’s Adoption Director for 22 years before retiring in 2020. “We were there to sound the alarm about the plight of animals living indefinitely at the Humane Society of New York after being ignored for months by stakeholders in the shelter community, including Bernadette Peters.  For over two years, they have prohibited adopters from entering the building to meet the animals, all of whom deserve to find forever, loving homes.”

Online reviews and comments posted by people who attempted to rescue animals from the Humane Society of New York

Animal rights activists launched a campaign to help the animals at HSNY in October 2022 when Donny Moss of TheirTurn posted the findings of an investigation he and other advocates conducted that corroborated whistleblower allegations of animal warehousing at the prominent Manhattan shelter.  The investigation found that HSNY ignores adoption applications; lists just 14 animals on its website, despite having dozens more; does virtually no adoption promotion on social media; has no Adoption Director; and keeps the building closed to the public under false pretenses. Sandra DeFeo, the Executive Director, claims to refuse entry to outsiders due to COVID.  However, a lawyer retained by TheirTurn investigated and has determined that that HSNY cannot reopen because of ongoing violations of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) which have never been addressed; HSNY is not wheelchair accessible and has already settled one ADA lawsuit based on this violation.  If it reopens, HSNY would subject itself to another ADA lawsuit.  Notably, HSNY has not taken any steps to make the shelter accessible.

During Broadway Barks, activists distributed handouts that provided context for the protest.

In December 2021, activists began sending letters to members of the board of the Humane Society of New York to inform them of their concerns and to ask them to intervene.  James Gregorio, a board member who practices law in North Carolina, told Tischler that he would ask Sandra DeFeo for proof of adoptions. Two weeks later, he resigned from the board without providing the documentation he promised. A second attorney who received the activists’ letters, C. Jones Perry, also resigned.  

In April 2022, the activists began protesting at the home of Alexandra Rowley, another board member who also failed to deliver on her promise to provide proof that adoptions “have continued all along” despite the closure of the building to adopters.  After two protests, Rowley also resigned from the board and informed Tischler by text that she was “no longer affiliated with HSNY.”  The activists have staged three protests at her home since then.  According to Tischler, “her decision to resign did nothing to help the animals she left behind and who were warehoused on her watch for two years.”

When the the protests and the letter writing campaigns failed to have an impact, the activists knew they had to escalate their efforts on behalf of the animals. “We didn’t want to disrupt Broadway Barks, but we had to sound the alarm in a venue where the shelter leaders and supporters who had been ignoring us would be forced to listen,” said Donny Moss of TheirTurn, an organizer of the protest. “The celebrities, event attendees and those who read about the protests in the media are now aware of and talking about the issue.”

The Humane Society of New York has been closed to the public for 27 months and under false pretenses. It’s not closed because of COVID, as HSNY claims. It is  closed due to ADA violations.

For their part, the activists say they will continue to advocate on behalf of the animals with or without the assistance of people who have the power to help.

“While HSNY puts up roadblocks at every turn to prevent people from adopting, the animals continue to languish in cages,” said Matthew Schwartz, an organizer of the protest whose own adoption application was ignored by HSNY. “HSNY must send them to foster homes or shelters that are open to adopters. Until it does, the protests will continue.”

Animal rights activists have protested Humane Society of New York Board member Alexandra Rowley over the warehousing of animals

What happens when a country music singer and a TV news journalist receive a phone call about two pigs who will be killed if they’re not rescued within the next 24 hours? Pig Little Lies, a new reality show on UnChainedTV, documents the chaotic – and at times funny – rescue of a bonded pair of potbelly pigs and the bittersweet surprise that transformed the lives of the motley crew of human animals who are caring for them.

Pig Little Lies, a new TV series on UnChainedTV, is the first animal rights themed reality show

Pig Little Lies, the first animal rights-themed reality TV show, stars Los Angeles-based country singer Simone Reyes, TV journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell, wildlife rehabilitation expert Cindy Brady, and Dante and Beatrice, the two pigs who were abandoned at a high kill animal shelter in Southern California. When Reyes received the fateful call about Dante and Beatrice, Velez-Mitchell, who was with her at the time filming another project, decided to turn her attention – and the camera – to what she knew would be a dramatic rescue.

UnchainedTV is a free network with animal rights and vegan content that can be streamed on smart TVs, smart phones, tablets, Amazon’s Fire Stick, AppleTV and Roku.

Pig Little Lies is first original series produced by UnChainedTV. Launched in 2022, UnChained TV is free streaming platform with hundreds of animal rights and vegan-themed documentaries, cooking shows, travelogues, talk shows and music videos. Velez-Mitchell, who founded the platform, describes it as “a portal to a healthier, more environmentally sustainable, and more compassionate lifestyle.”

Several mainstream media news outlets, including Variety, have reported on UnChainedTV’s release of Pig Little Lies.

Several mainstream media news outlets, including Variety, have reported on the release of Pig Little Lies, the first original series produced by the new streaming network UnChainedTV

For Velez-Mitchell, Pig Little Lies is the perfect series for her burgeoning network because it uses an entertaining reality show format to provide viewers with life-saving information that they aren’t getting elsewhere. “Heart disease is a leading killer often caused by cholesterol in pork and animal products,” says Velez-Mitchell. “Do doctors inform you of that? Do they tell you that the World Health Organization warns that processed meat, like hot dogs and bacon, cause cancer?” Velez-Mitchell and Reyes are aiming to help the viewers connect the dots between the animal-based foods on their plate and the diseases that are caused by eating them. They are also hoping to help viewers connect the dots between their pork-based meals and the lovable pigs who they get to know in the series. “Pigs are intelligent, social and gentle animals who value their independence and love their families just like us,” said Reyes. “This UnChainedTV series gives Dante and Beatrice an opportunity to showcase their personalities and introduce themselves to people who would normally eat them.”

A few of the stars of UnChainedTV’s reality show Pig Little Lies

UnChained TV is also a platform for filmmakers and animal rights activists to feature their work addressing climate change, filling in a major gap left by the mainstream environmental movement, which has largely avoided addressing the impact of animal agriculture on the planet. “You have a few influential climate activists, like Greta Thunberg, promoting an eco-friendly plant-based diet, but the largest environmental groups have dropped the ball on animal agriculture,” said Velez-Mitchell. “In addition to being one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, animal agriculture contributes to habitat destruction, wildlife extinction, world hunger, drought, ocean dead zones and widespread water pollution.”

Jane Velez-Mitchell and Simone Reyes star in UnChainedTV’s new reality show, Pig Little Lies

Velez-Mitchell hopes that Pig Little Lies will be the first of many original series produced by UnChainedTV.  Next up — a mini-series about a chicken named Hope who lives with a family in Southern California and who rules the house!

The Executive Producers of Pig Little Lies are Jim Greenbaum, Cindy Landon, Dr. Sailesh Rao, Eamonn McCrystal and Jane Velez-Mitchell. The show is directed by Emmy-winning Eamonn McCrystal of Inspired. LLC.

UnchainedTV is a free network that can be streamed on smart TVs, smart phones, tablets, Amazon’s Fire Stick, AppleTV and Roku.

Angered by Nike’s refusal to stop slaughtering wild kangaroos for their skin, dozens of animal rights activists disrupted business at the company’s store in New York City’s Flatiron District. During the protest, which took place on June 5th, the activists educated pedestrians about kangaroo slaughter and encouraged Nike customers to purchase cruelty-free alternatives to skin. The protest was organized by the animal rights groups NYCLASS, TheirTurn and The Center for A Humane Economy, a Washington-D.C.-based advocacy group leading the #KangaroosAreNotShoes campaign, a global effort to end the use of kangaroo skin for shoe leather.

The massacre of kangaroos in Australia represents the largest slaughter of land-based wildlife in the world. According to the Center for a Humane Economy, 70% of the approximately two million kangaroos killed each year for commercial purposes are used to make soccer shoes for sportswear companies like Nike.

Nike and other sportswear companies hire hunters to slaughter wild kangaroos for their skin, which they use to make soccer shoes.

The Australian National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Commercial Purposes governs the industry and sanctions this cruelty. An estimated 40% of kangaroos are shot in the neck or body instead of the head, in violation of the federal code, resulting in wounding and non-instantaneous death. Those who escape die slowly from their gunshot wounds. 

Some of the females who are shot have babies (joeys) in their pouches or by their sides. Code dictates that hunters either decapitate or bludgeon to death the joeys who are in the pouches. The joeys who are not in their mother’s pouch often die slowly from exposure and predation. Each year, an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 joeys die during the nightly kangaroo hunt.

According to the Center for a Humane Economy, approximately 70% of the kangaroos who are hunted for commercial purposes are used to make soccer shoes for companies like Nike

The Center for a Humane Economy says that Nike rationalizes the mass slaughter of wild kangaroos by engaging in green washing and humane washing. According to Nike, “Suppliers must source animal skins from processors that use sound animal husbandry and humane animal treatment/slaughtering practices.” Activists say that hunting down wild animals who want to live in peace with their families is inherently inhumane.

Animal rights activists are calling on Nike to use cruelty-free alternatives to kangaroo skin

The Kangaroo Protection Act, federal legislation introduced in 2021, would ban the importation of kangaroo products into the United States. Several retailers, including Nordstrom, Gucci, Prada, and Versace, have already stopped selling kangaroo skin products. The sale of kangaroo parts is banned in California.

Animal rights activists in the U.S. and Australia are campaigning to end the use of kangaroo skin as shoe leather

New York City is one of many U.S. and Australian cities participating in the #KangaroosAreNotShoes campaign.  On June 4th, activists in Los Angeles staged a disruption inside of the Nike store in Santa Monica, and activists in Portland protested in front of a sports stadium.

Animal rights activists in Portland, where Nike is headquartered, and Los Angeles protest the company’s use of kangaroo skin in its soccer shoes

Alexandra Rowley has resigned from the Board of Directors of the Humane Society of New York (HSNY) amid protests against animal warehousing at the prominent Manhattan shelter. Her resignation comes five days after animal rights activists staged a second protest at her home on the East Side of Manhattan. She is the third board member to resign since March 2022.

TapInto Sutton Place/Lenox Hill reports that Alexandra Rowley resigned from the Board of Directors of the Humane Society of New York

Between March and May, 348 animal advocates sent letters to Rowley and several of her colleagues on HSNY’s board, calling on them to re-open the building to the public or send the animals to foster homes or other adoption centers. Instead of addressing the concerns raised in the letters, Rowley asked Bonnie Tischler, HSNY’s former Adoption Director of 22 years, to use her influence with the advocates to shut down the letter writing campaign. Tischler said she would comply if Rowley provided proof of adoptions since HSNY closed the building to the public in April 2020. After committing to provide Tischler with that information, Rowley stopped communicating with her.

On April 16th and May 2nd, dozens of animal rights activists staged protests at Rowley’s home, hoping that she would listen if they delivered their message through a bullhorn. During the protests, activists had discussions with and distributed information to dozens of people who live in her building and on her block. While some of Rowley’s neighbors expressed frustration about the noise, others thanked the advocates for speaking out against animal cruelty.

Three members of the Board of Directors of the Humane Society of New York have resigned amid protests against animal warehousing at the prominent Manhattan shelter. (From top to bottom: James Gregorio, C. Jones Perry, Alexandra Rowley)

Given the close proximity of Rowley’s home to HSNY, several of her neighbors told the protesters that they are aware that HSNY is closed to the public because they see people congregating in front of the building, which houses a low-cost vet clinic in addition to the shelter. Unlike adopters, who can meet animals at other shelters, many of the vet clinic clients have no choice but to use HSNY. Some of the neighbors acknowledged that HSNY’s continued use of COVID as an excuse to keep the building closed to the public makes no sense. 

TapInto Sutton Place/Lenox Hill, an local media outlet, has reported on the animal warehousing protests at the home of Humane Society of New York board member Alexandra Rowley

One pedestrian who came upon the protest told Tischler, the former Adoption Director, that she attempted to adopt a cat from HSNY but was told she couldn’t enter the building to find one that would be a good match for her. She said the protest validated her concern that the animals aren’t being seen by potential adopters. 

In response to an Instagram post about a protest at her NYC home, Humane Society of New York board member Alexandra Rowley describes activists as “bullies” and suggests that they have ulterior motives

In an apparent effort to shut down the protests, Rowley’s husband, Stephen Wallis, came outside to speak to Tischler. During their exchange, which was caught on camera, Wallis asked Tischler if she believed the protests were “right,” as in appropriate. Tischler responded by telling Wallis to urge his wife to “open the building,” which has been closed for more than two years, so that adopters could meet the animals. 

Stephen Wallis, the husband of Humane Society of New York (HSNY) board member Alexandra Rowley, confronts Bonnie Tischler, HSNY’s former Adoption Director, about the protest in front of his building

On May 7th, five days after the protest, Rowley sent a one sentence text message to Tischler, stating, “I am no longer affiliated with the HSNY.” The news did not appease Tischler and the other activists. Her decision to resign, Tischler says, “does nothing to help the animals who she left behind and who were warehoused on her watch.”

From March to May 2022, 348 people sent letters to Alexandra Rowley and several of her colleagues on the board of the Humane Society of New York calling on them to re-open the building to adopters or send the animals to adoption centers that are open to the public.

Activists launched the campaign to help the warehoused animals in October 2021, after TheirTurn corroborated whistleblower allegations that the shelter was closed to the public under false pretenses; that adoptions had come to a virtual standstill; and that the animals were being warehoused. The Executive Director of the shelter, Sandra DeFeo, has denied the allegations, telling Donny Moss of TheirTurn that HSNY has been “doing adoptions all along” since closing the building to the public. When Moss suggested that she send the animals to foster homes until she re-opens the building, DeFeo told him that “HSNY is their foster home” and that the animals are “well taken care of” in their cages, which she described as “apartments.”

Animal rights activists call on Humane Society of New York board member Alexandra Rowley to stop warehousing animals at the prominent Manhattan shelter

The activists say they intend to continue protesting at Alexandra Rowley’s building until she issues a statement that denounces the animal warehousing and calls on HSNY to either re-open the building to adopters or send the animals to other adoption facilities. The activists are also demanding that HSNY post all photos and bios of their animals online so that people know they exist.

On Saturday, April 30th, dozens of activists with the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) staged a rally at the Bronx Zoo to demand that the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which manages the zoo, release a 51 year old Asian elephant named Happy to a sanctuary after holding her captive in a small enclosure since 1977.

Happy was kidnapped from a forest in Thailand in 1971, and she has lived at the Bronx Zoo for 45 years. Despite the fact that elephants are highly social animals who travel long distances with their herds each day, Happy lives by herself and splits her time between on a one acre plot of land and a windowless, concrete room. 

Happy, who lives alone, splits her time between a windowless concrete room and a one acre plot of land at the Bronx Zoo.

NhRP, a nonprofit legal group that represents captive animals, staged the event in advance of Happy’s upcoming hearing at the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court. During the hearing, lawyers with NhRP will argue that the Bronx Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society “have unlawfully deprived Happy of her freedom, imprisoning her alone in an exhibit that is too small to meet the needs of Happy or any elephant.” If NhRP wins the case at the Court of Appeals, then the WCS would be forced to send her to one of the two elephant sanctuaries in the United States. 

The Atlantic describes the Nonhuman Rights Project’s right to bodily liberty case on behalf of Happy “the most important animal rights case of the 21st century.”

Happy’s case advanced to the Court of Appeals after being heard in two lower courts. According to The Atlantic, it is “the most important animal-rights case of the 21st century.”

New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, will be hearing oral arguments in the Nonhuman Right Project’s case to grant bodily liberty to Happy, an elephant held captive at the Bronx Zoo.

Both of the elephant sanctuaries in the United States, the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and the Performing Animal Welfare Society in California, have agreed to take Happy at no cost to the Bronx Zoo, but the WCS has refused to let her go. “The Wildlife Conservation Society acknowledged in 2006 that keeping Happy alone would be inhumane, so we don’t understand why they won’t release her from captivity,” said Kevin Schneider, the Executive Director of NhRP. “They either don’t want to acknowledge that Happy’s captivity and solitary confinement are cruel, or they don’t want to cave into pressure from animal rights advocates.”

The Atlantic called the Nonhuman Rights Project’s Case on behalf of Happy the “most important animal rights case of the 21st century.”

In 2018, the NnRP filed a petition for a common law writ of habeas corpus in New York Supreme Court demanding recognition of Happy’s legal personhood and her fundamental right to bodily liberty. Happy is first elephant in the world to have a habeas corpus hearing to determine the lawfulness of her imprisonment.

As litigation has proceeded in recent years, public support for Happy’s freedom has grown. In 2019, two elected officials made public statements encouraging the WCS to free Happy. Corey Johnson, the Speaker of the New York City Council at the time, wrote, “Happy and all elephants need more space and resources than the zoo can provide, plain and simple. I urge the Bronx Zoo, which first planned to close the elephant exhibit back in 2006, to finally transfer Happy to one of two recommended sanctuaries so that she can enjoy the company of other elephants and the benefits afforded to a facility specifically designed to meet her needs.” In a tweet, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has voiced her opposition to solitary confinement for prison inmates, said that “The team and I are looking into what we can do” to free Happy.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a U.S. Congress  Member who represents the Bronx, offers her support to the Nonhuman Rights Project in its efforts to liberate Happy, an Asian elephant, from the Bronx Zoo

In 2021, the animal advocacy group In Defense of Animals ranked the Bronx Zoo the fifth worst zoo in the United States for elephants. “There are no good zoos for elephants. All zoos restrain these giant, complex animals through a lack of space and freedom of choice that all far-roaming animals require for their mental and physical health. Even zoos deemed to be the very best are failing elephants’ bodies, minds, and spirits.”

Dozens of animal rights activists participated in a rally organized by the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) calling on the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to release Happy, an Asian elephant, to a sanctuary.

Before NhRP’s rally, the Bronx Zoo shut down the entrance where the activists convened.  The closure appeared to be an effort to reduce the number of zoo visitors who would learn about Happy’s plight. The zoo also sent an employee to document the protest. As lawyers with NhRP delivered remarks to rally participants, this employee approached the group’s unattended bags. TheirTurn caught her in the act and confronted her on camera. NhRP staff members at the rally knew that she was employed by the zoo because they have seen her at court hearings.

A Change.org petition demanding an end to Happy’s solitary confinement has garnered over 1.4 million signatures. The petition targets to James Breheny, the Director of the Bronx Zoo.