Welcome to Our Hen House. This is Jasmine Singer, and this is Marianne Sullivan. And on this week's show, Joan Schapner and Raj Reddy, both prominent scholars of animal law, will be here to tell us about the Convention on Animal Protection,

a new proposed treaty which has been devised as a starting point for dealing with the issues of animal abuse on an international level,

and also as a reaction to the revelations that are increasingly coming to light about the connections

between animal exploitation and human disease, including the pandemic. I'm so glad that we are going

there because this is something that I find, you know, so incredibly absent from the discussion

about the pandemic. And I sometimes struggle

with how to talk about it, to be honest. I mean, I think as they say in the interview,

it was because of the obvious connections in the cause of the pandemic that they kind of like, you know,

started, well, not started this idea, but, but it propelled the idea forward a lot.

And yet we do see that we're the only people who seem to notice that, like everything

to do with animals.

This is a really great effort.

And one of the things I have been becoming somewhat more familiar with recently is how much

is going on internationally about animals and how different countries are taking different

approaches and just how important keeping an eye on what's going on internationally, because

we are definitely not in the forefront of how to deal with animals.

I mean, in some ways we are, because, you know, well, actually, I don't think in any ways we are.

But we are wealthier than a lot of other countries.

So there is more possibility for us to do more.

But there's a lot of going on internationally that's pretty exciting.

So, yeah, this may sound a little dry to people.

Don't think it is. It's really, really interesting. Well, also, I just want to say, too, that Joe,

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