Beagles, Bacon Bans, and Bad Policy: Animal Advocacy’s Wild Week | Rising Anxieties

Mariann Sullivan is in her feelings — and honestly, same. This week on Rising Anxieties, she unpacks the emotional rollercoaster of the Ridglan beagle rescue, where activists risked arrest to free dogs from a Wisconsin testing facility, and then pivots to the slower-motion disasters unfolding in legislatures and regulatory agencies across the country.

• Ridglan Farms rescue – 22 beagles freed, 8 activists arrested, and 2,000 dogs still waiting. The legal win that wasn’t quite a win.
• Maryland declares Meat Out Day – Governor Wes Moore took on the Farm Bureau and didn’t blink. Is the political calculus on animal issues finally shifting?
• North Carolina’s toothless complaint system – A decade of litigation produced a CAFO oversight system so underfunded and watered-down it barely functions. Shocker.
• EU’s plant-based label crackdown – “Burger” is fine. “Bacon” will get you in trouble. The EU bans meaty words on plant-based products while quietly subsidizing animal agriculture to the tune of €39 billion.
• Republican Farm Bill targets Prop 12 – Colorado’s humane slaughter bill dies, kill line speeds go up, and the Save Our Bacon Act hitches a ride on the Farm Bill. It’s a great week to be a factory farm.

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