Today we’d like to introduce you to Hillary Hendrickson.
Hillary, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m originally from Montana, and I was lucky to grow up surrounded by animals and felt connected to them early on.
I went vegetarian at a young age, but I wasn’t aware of all the reasons why many people do so. I pursued a career in mental health counseling. I graduated with a master’s degree, worked with children and adults with autism for several years, and absolutely loved that work. Then I learned more about factory farming and veganism, and everything changed. I knew that few people worked on the issue of factory farming and that I needed to do something urgently to address it. I was drawn to veganism because I cared about animals, but the more I learned, the more I realized how awful factory farming also is for the environment, public health, and worker safety.
I’m influenced by nonprofits like 80,000 Hours, whose key idea is that you have about 80,000 hours in your career. I want to use that time to make the biggest impact I can.
The scope of the problem and the number of animals suffering in factory farms are so immense—in the United States alone, 9 billion chickens and hundreds of millions of cows, pigs, and turkeys—that I knew my time and energy would be best spent trying to dismantle this enormous industry.
I was drawn to Mercy For Animals because we focus on animals used for food—animals who suffer some of the cruelest treatment, in the greatest numbers, but whose plight is most neglected. These animals are so similar to the cats and dogs we all love, and they deserve the same protections.
Has it been a smooth road?
Working on behalf of animals has plenty of challenges, but it’s incredibly gratifying. Animal advocates have made significant strides, and Mercy For Animals has been a crucial part of many positive changes for farmed animals.
The successes we’ve seen in the past couple of years alone make me even more motivated and confident that the future will be much better for animals. For example, in November of 2018, Prop 12 passed in California, banning the production and sale of meat and eggs from animals intensively confined in crates and cages. Just last month, Governor Newsom signed a law banning the sale of fur in California—the first state to do so. And last week, New York City banned foie gras, following California’s lead.
Just look at all the major fast-food chains adding plant-based items to their menus, and with great success. White Castle’s been serving the Impossible Burger for more than a year now, and other huge chains have quickly followed suit to stay relevant and appeal to consumers in a changing market. In Los Angeles, a vegan paradise, you’ll find a plant-based version of just about any meal you can think of (the vegan fried chicken at Doomie’s will impress anyone), and people are constantly exposed to delicious new food and learning additional reasons to reduce or eliminate their meat consumption.
We will certainly continue to face obstacles. States have passed “ag-gag” laws that criminalize whistle blowers for recording what happens in factory farms. And the meat industry is pushing legislation in some states to prohibit certain terms on labels for plant-based products. But we have plenty of reasons to remain hopeful. Consumers are eating more plant-based foods than ever and are becoming more informed about factory farming. Documentaries like The Game Changers are available on Netflix, and more and more companies are adopting meaningful welfare policies while also adding plant-based items to their menus.
We’d love to hear more about your organization.
Mercy For Animals is one of the largest international farmed animal protection organizations. Our mission is to construct a compassionate food system by reducing suffering and ending exploitation of animals for food. We focus on investigations, legal advocacy, corporate engagement, volunteer engagement, and raising public awareness.
We recently celebrated our 20th anniversary! Over the past two decades, Mercy For Animals has conducted 70 undercover investigations, secured hundreds of corporate commitments, and helped pass numerous laws to ban cages for farmed animals. Our public presence has grown significantly, with celebrities and mainstream media outlets frequently sharing our videos and articles. This year, we published our ambitious three-year strategic plan, which explains more about our work, our mission and vision, and our goals.
I work in corporate engagement, as the corporate relations manager for the United States and Canada. Our team works with major food companies to adopt and implement meaningful animal welfare policies.
A major focus of my team is improving the welfare of chickens raised for meat. Nine billion chickens are killed for their meat every year in the United States alone. It’s hard—perhaps impossible—for people to comprehend a number so large. More chickens are raised and killed in the United States every year than there are people on the planet. Most of these birds have been bred to grow so large so quickly that they often suffer debilitating health problems. Many can’t even walk. They’re slaughtered at about 47 days old when they’re still juveniles.
Chickens are intelligent, sensitive animals, just like the dogs or cats you may know and love. They demonstrate empathy and self-awareness and are more cognitively advanced than many people recognize. Yet typical factory farms cram chickens by the tens of thousands into dark, barren warehouses, and they’re killed in truly brutal waysbecause the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act does not apply to poultry — effectively denying the most basic protections to 98 percent of the farmed animals in the country.
Despite the overwhelming scope of the problem, animal advocates have made significant progress on this issue in the past few years, and we have good reason to believe we’ll soon see far-reaching reform.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Countless animal advocates throughout history have paved the way for animal rights and animal welfare to be the mainstream topics they are today. The movement has become bigger, stronger, and more varied. Some advocates work on education and informing the public about factory farms, while others use the law to help animals. So many incredibly talented and passionate people from all walks of life are using their skills and resources to create a better world for animals, including journalists, food scientists, investigators, teachers, and philanthropists. The future is bright.
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