Cast

Nicola O'Brien

Lead Co-ordinator - Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition

Nicola O’Brien is Lead Coordinator of the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC), part of the Asia for Animals Coalition. With more than two decades of experience campaigning and fundraising for animal protection, she now brings organizations and the public together to confront animal cruelty content online. Her work includes engaging major social media platforms and raising awareness of how exploitative content spreads and profits from animal suffering.

Sarah Kite

Activitst / Co-Founder - Action for Primates

Sarah Kite has spent over three decades working in the international animal protection and welfare field, focusing on the use of animals in research and toxicity testing. During this time, she has specialised in intelligence, undercover and investigative work, news media and campaigns, especially in relation to the global trade and use of non-human primates. In 1990, she was awarded the Lord Houghton Award for her services to animal welfare. Sarah was Director of Special projects at Cruelty Free International, and has also co-managed a sanctuary for non-human primates focusing on rescue, rehabilitation and providing life-long care for individuals.

She is currently co-founder of Action for Primates, a UK-based project advocating on behalf of non-human primates. Action for Primates has worked closely with Lady Freethinker investigating online monkey torture groups, providing information to law enforcement agencies, and was pivotal in providing evidence in a landmark case involving the prosecution of UK individuals who funded and encouraged the torture of baby monkeys.

Dr. Nedim C. Buyukmihci, V.M.D.

Veterinarian/Co-founder - Action for Primates

Dr. Nedim C. Buyukmihci, V.M.D., is a veterinarian, animal protection advocate, and co-founder and Veterinary Advisor of Action for Primates. He is Emeritus Professor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, where he specialized in veterinary ophthalmology and taught and conducted research for more than two decades. A longtime advocate for the ethical treatment of animals, Dr. Buyukmihci has been a leading critic of the use of animals in research and the exploitation of non-human primates, and has provided expert veterinary assessments of primate suffering in laboratories, the pet trade, and online animal-cruelty content.

Madeline Bernstein

SpcaLA President

Madeline Bernstein is President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles (spcaLA), where she advocates for humane treatment and respect for animals. A former prosecutor and inspector general, she is a frequent speaker and commentator on animal welfare, ethics, and law enforcement. She is also the author of Designer Dogs: An Exposé and has served as a visiting professor in animal law.

Mandala Hunter-Ishikawa

Senior Veterinary Trainer // Animals Asia

Dr. Mandala Hunter-Ishikawa has been a veterinarian for two decades, working with companion animals, large animals and wild animals. She was the Centre Director of Born Free Ethiopia’s wildlife sanctuary and Senior Vet at the Animals Asia Bear Rescue Centres in Vietnam and China. Mandala is currently the Senior Veterinary Trainer for Animals Asia’s Veterinary Welfare Training Program. With the goal of elevating veterinary welfare education in Asia, she lectures at conferences and shares practical information to vet professionals as well as pet guardians. She is a member of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association’s Global Pain Committee. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Science, a Master’s Degree in Anatomy and Neurobiology, and a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from Colorado State University. She is currently working towards a specialty
from the American College of Animal Welfare.

John Sanbonmatsu

Ph.D / Associate Professor - Warecester Polytechnic Institute

John Sanbonmatsu is Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, where he teaches courses in ethics, politics, existentialism, philosophy of technology, and other topics. Professor Sanbonmatsu is author of the book, The Omnivore's Deception: What We Get Wrong about Meat, Animals, and Ourselves (2025), and of the book, The Postmodern Prince (Monthly Review Press). In addition, he is editor of the book Critical Theory and Animal Liberation (Bloomsbury) and curator of the CleanMeat-Hoax website. His opinion essays have appeared in Christian Science Monitor, CounterPunch, Huffington Post, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch, among other places.

Emma Alleyne, PhD.

Forensic Psychologist

Emma Alleyne is a Reader in Forensic Psychology at the Centre of Research and Education in Forensic Psychology (CORE-FP), University of Kent, UK. She has produced an extensive body of scholarly and applied work spanning peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and commissioned reports, addressing areas such as gang-related violence, sexual offending, fire setting, and animal abuse.

She leads a programme of research examining offence-supportive attitudes that predispose individuals to harm nonhuman animals (i.e., animal cruelty). In addition to her research activities, she is a Registered Forensic Psychologist with experience working as a practitioner in secure settings, where she has delivered both
individual and group-based offending behaviour programmes.

Seongmo Yun

Policy Change Team Activist // KARA

Seongmo Yun is an animal rights activist with KARA’s Policy Change Team in South Korea. His work focuses on responding to animal cruelty cases, supporting stronger sentencing and enforcement, and advocating for legal reforms that better protect animals. He has represented KARA in public forums and court proceedings involving serious cruelty cases, including abuse shared through online platforms.

Melanie Joy, PhD, EdM.

Author/Psychologist

Melanie Joy, PhD, EdM, is a Harvard-educated psychologist specializing in the psychology of eating animals, social transformation, and relationships. She is widely recognized as a thought leader and is best known for her pioneering work developing her theory of carnism. Her analyses have helped explain why people engage in “nonrelational” behaviors—behaviors that harm other people, animals, the planet, and themselves—as well as how to change this pattern.

Joy is the award-winning author of six books, including the bestselling Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows. She is also an internationally recognized speaker and trainer who’s presented her work in 50 countries across six continents. Her work has been featured by media outlets around the world, including The New York Times, BBC, NPR, and ABC Australia. She is the eighth recipient of the Ahimsa Award—previously given to the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela—for her work on global nonviolence, and she also received both the Peter Singer Prize and the Empty Cages Prize for her work developing strategies to reduce the suffering of animals.

All of Joy’s work is designed to raise awareness of the obstacles preventing people from interacting in ways that create a sense of mutual connection, with human and nonhuman beings. These obstacles are both internal (psychological) and external (social), and they are a key reason why we act against our own interests and the interests of others—often without realizing that we’re doing so. With awareness, we are better able to think freely and act compassionately, to create healthier and more fulfilling relationships and a more equitable and sustainable world.

Dave Gooptar

Independent Investigator

Dave Gooptar is an independent investigator focused on uncovering animal cruelty networks that operate across digital and online spaces. He began investigating these networks after encountering monetized abuse content on YouTube featuring baby monkeys, an experience that highlighted the scale and organization behind cruelty-driven online engagement. Through digital research and documentation, he focuses on tracking exploitative content, preserving evidence, and analyzing the systems that allow abuse to spread across online ecosystems. His work centers on raising awareness about how cruelty is monetized and amplified in digital spaces, while advocating for greater accountability from both perpetrators and platforms.

Bruce Wagman

Animal Law Expert Attorney

Since 1992, Bruce Wagman has been using his legal degree to protect and save animals and assist those who care for them — forging a path for improved animal welfare and treatment that considers everyone who is potentially impacted by his work. His experience in the area of animal law is unparalleled. Bruce’s clients include numerous animal protection organizations as well as private individuals. He has worked on behalf of many animal species.

Bruce’s forte is the kind of creative lawyering it takes to fit animal interests into the legal world, and his clients regularly applaud his ability to model creative solutions and take on the toughest problems. His practice covers a broad range of animal-related legal issues, including cases involving animal cruelty, animal rescue, wildlife, and the use of animals in entertainment, biomedical research, and animal agriculture/food production. He has a long history of success in a wide range of cases constituting “impact litigation,” but he also loves to work with individuals on cases involving dog bites, animal custody disputes, and injuries to, and caused by, animals. Bruce brings an undeniable passion for each of his cases, a dedication to both his human clients and the animals involved, and he has a proven ability to turn that passion into winning arguments both in and out of the courtroom. He takes an “eyes on the prize” approach to all of his matters.

Edward Casmere

Trial Lawyer | Litigator

Independent Investigator

Edward Casmere is a trial lawyer with
decades of experience solving clients’ most difficult and sensitive problems. Ed is a true general litigator and courtroom lawyer in every
sense, known as much for his grit and grace, as for his sense of humor and professionalism.

Among his numerous professional recognitions, Ed has been named to the Crain’s Chicago Business Notable Litigators and Trial Attorneys list (multiple times); recognized as one of Chicago’s Notable Gen X Leaders in Law; and received an award for Excellence in Pro Pono Service from the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois. Ed’s experience is vast and varied including complex litigation, contract disputes, antitrust, commercial disputes, RICO, conspiracy, trade secrets, class action, consumer disputes, catastrophic injury and wrongful death, mass tort, toxic tort product liability, environmental and employment discrimination matters.

Clients have looked to Ed to wear many hats in cases across the country – trial lawyer, negotiator, high-level risk manager and strategic advisor. He is often asked to negotiate or try extraordinarily delicate and problematic claims. Ed has regularly led or joined client trial teams comprised of lawyers from law firms across the country, oftentimes joining cases mid-stream.

Lucy

Investigator / Activist

Lucy Kapetanich is an investigator and animal activist who helped expose a global monkey torture network after encountering abusive videos on YouTube. She entered online groups, preserved chat messages and videos, and provided evidence to law enforcement. Her work brought international attention to the role that social media platforms and encrypted networks can play in spreading and monetizing animal cruelty.

Melissa Amarello

Executive Director - Advocate for Snake Preservation

Melissa Amarello is a co-founder and the executive director of Advocates for Snake Preservation (ASP), a charity changing how people view and treat snakes. She draws on more than two decades of studying and living with reptiles in the southwest to show what snakes are really like through stories and videos. Melissa received her M.S. in biology at Arizona State University, where she studied rattlesnake social behavior, and together with ASP co-founder Jeff Smith, won the Jarchow Conservation Award for creative conservation and activism.