minthin

• minthin 31 Dec 2025 11:46 UTC

  2 points

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  in reply to: plex’s comment on: Don’t Sell Stock to Donate

  Good to know about Every, I just signed up for my org.

• minthin 9 Dec 2025 3:19 UTC

  2 points

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  on: High-im­pact & ur­gent fund­ing op­por­tu­nity—Ro­dent fer­til­ity control

  Hey Nitin! I’m so glad you are investing in this!! Such an important topic and I’m grateful for your work to marry conservation and welfare. There are few people who could do that, so I’m glad you have made strides already.

  You may be interested to know we have a campaign in DC to manage rat populations without the use of poisons DCratsolutions.com

  I read about the interest in creating a new contraceptive via a convening of experts/​funders and a prize. That sounds cool to target it toward island species to make it focused on conservation with a humane approach. Do you have a sense of how it can incorporate established R&D on contraceptives so as to not be duplicative?

• minthin 19 Nov 2025 18:46 UTC

  1 point

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  in reply to: Cat Kerr’s comment on: Fund­ing pri­ori­ties for Wild An­i­mal Ini­ti­a­tive in 2026

  Agreed, there are still questions to be addressed about the existing field of contraceptives. I’m glad to see there has been innovation, and I hope the work continues!

• minthin 19 Nov 2025 18:44 UTC

  1 point

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  in reply to: Cameron Meyer Shorb 🔸’s comment on: Fund­ing pri­ori­ties for Wild An­i­mal Ini­ti­a­tive in 2026

  Wow, wishing you the best, @Cameron Meyer Shorb 🔸 .

• minthin 18 Nov 2025 18:09 UTC

  1 point

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  on: Fund­ing pri­ori­ties for Wild An­i­mal Ini­ti­a­tive in 2026

  Fascinating approach to rodenticide contraception, that is a cool way to galvanize a search for the solution. Does this mean you have analyzed the current contraceptives and feel that they fall short? Senestech has a new product called Evolve and Wisdom Goodworks has a product called Goodbites. Is it possible that either of these could already fit the criteria needed to manage rodent populations?

• minthin 13 Mar 2025 21:03 UTC

  5 points

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  on: Which an­i­mals are most af­fected by fish­ing?

  Thought provoking take! I hadnt considered this angle. While there is uncertainty, one obvious conclusion is to manage the welfare of animals killed by fishery industries. Supporting the work of organizations like Fish Welfare Initiative.

  One note: the jargon was challenging to navigate. I almost ducked out at planktonic mysids and pelagic decapods! : P

• minthin 20 May 2024 19:50 UTC

  3 points

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  in reply to: abrahamrowe’s comment on: What’s the The­ory of Change/​The­ory of Vic­tory for Farmed An­i­mal Welfare?

  Ditto, this is a transformative vision. Here is a blog post summary https://​​www.directactioneverywhere.com/​​theliberationist/​​2016-9-6-the-roadmap-to-animal-liberation-part-i-plant-the-flag-1

• minthin 20 May 2024 14:53 UTC

  1 point

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  on: An­i­mal Welfare is now en­shrined in the Bel­gian Constitution

  This is great to see! Thanks for the write-up

• minthin 6 Dec 2023 15:44 UTC

  2 points

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  on: #Giv­ingTues­day: My Giv­ing Story and Some of My Fa­vorite Charities

  Folks like you inspire me for your generosity, broad-minded take on different causes, and commitment to a better world. Thanks for sharing Kyle!

• minthin 8 Mar 2023 16:24 UTC

  3 points

  1 ∶ 0

  on: Should we be do­ing poli­tics at all? Some (very rough) thoughts

  You pose some great questions, Holly.

  I really like the EA culture of “unintended consequences” analysis, as you do with a political campaign on rodent control. That analysis is good to do with all campaigns, and some political campaigns will have greater risks and some will have lesser. It is not inherently a reason not to engage in politics.

  Interesting points about undermining democracy. I think it is also worth considering the null-hypothesis: what is the impact of doing nothing? How does it favor existing powers to continue the status quo?

  Ultimately, the costs and benefit of political campaigns are extremely difficult to quantify, so I understand why EAs are still developing our attitudes toward this. As a person who works in politics, I agree that there are potential consequences to be wary of (developing a partisan identity, making powerful enemies, etc). Nonetheless, I see these as important precautions and risks to mitigate rather than dealbreakers.

• minthin 19 Dec 2022 22:20 UTC

  2 points

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  on: Work­ing with the Beef In­dus­try for Chicken Welfare

  I like the philosophy behind this—in order to win in politics we need to build coalitions. A good example of aligning opposing sides behind one bill is the recent Inflation Reduction Act, which was our nation’s largest climate bill in history, but also had provisions that advanced fossil fuel interests.

  I do have questions about practicality—how would somebody work with beef? Call them? Is there enough trust between animal welfare and beef to collaborate? Given that the big picture is to have the beef industry stop hurting/​killing cows, would they want to work with a community that believes in its abolition? Are we talking Big Beef or small scale ranchers? If the latter, are local ranchers powerful enough to advance law?

  I understand that we are not giving beef a free pass, but instead finding a meeting of “strange bedfellows” with mutually aligned interests. I like the concept: support from the beef industry immediately neutralizes any stigma associated with a bill being a “vegan agenda”. There may be a need to test this on a local level before working on a national campaign.

• minthin 19 Dec 2022 21:53 UTC

  1 point

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  on: Band­ing To­gether to Ban Oc­to­pus Farming

  I love this campaign—it is so tragic to see octopi eaten :′ (

  I know I’ve asked this, but I’m struggling to get a sense of scale of the problem. How many octopi are killed for food...and do we have a sense of how that number could grow? How many octopi is the Canary Islands facility projected to produce? Especially when compared to the gajillions of marine animals killed for food. From the INT framework, I see a potential gap in the “Importance” variable. This campaign is certainly Neglected and Tractable, but so is stealing candy from children : P

  One factor in favor of this campaign is the idea that bad practices are a lot easier to prevent than to stop. If we can halt this practice now, it is a lot easier than fighting an entrenched and politically connected industry.

• minthin 2 Dec 2022 15:13 UTC

  4 points

  2 ∶ 0

  on: In­de­pen­dent Office of An­i­mal Protection

  Great write-up! Sometimes establishing policy on a local level can help build momentum to scale it up. In DC one similar policy we are advocating for is to have the Mayor establish an Animal Welfare Liaison. We have used candidate questionnaires to gauge interest in such an office. You can see an example of some results here: https://​​dcvfa.com/​​who-are-the-best-at-large-candidates-on-animal-issues/​​

• minthin 20 Oct 2022 14:20 UTC

  2 points

  1 ∶ 0

  on: Switzer­land fails to ban fac­tory farm­ing – les­sons for the pur­suit of EA-in­spired poli­cies?

  Incredible news. I see two big benefits of the results:

  1. If 37% of the voters supported the initiative, approximately 30% of the meat eating voter pool signed off on ending factory farming (assume ~5-7% are vegetarian/​vegans. That is noteworthy.

  2. Sometimes an initiative takes multiple attempts before it passes.

  The main rebuttal I see to the “if it doesnt happen in Switzerland then it’ll happen elsewhere” argument is that it has to start somewhere. One country can be the catalyst for others.

• minthin 20 Oct 2022 14:11 UTC

  1 point

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  in reply to: Peter’s comment on: Switzer­land fails to ban fac­tory farm­ing – les­sons for the pur­suit of EA-in­spired poli­cies?

  Great points—especailly the positive framing. On the surface it seems valid, although I’d want to see evidence to support the positive framing perspective. Also, I really like how you give examples to back up your points.

• minthin 20 Oct 2022 14:08 UTC

  1 point

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  in reply to: Mo Putera’s comment on: Switzer­land fails to ban fac­tory farm­ing – les­sons for the pur­suit of EA-in­spired poli­cies?

  And a rating of which campaign tactics worked and did not.

What would a poli­ti­cal ad­vo­cacy arm of EA look like any­way?

• minthin 26 Jul 2022 12:44 UTC

  2 points

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  on: Play­book for U.S. State Leg­is­la­tive Cam­paigns (Kid­ney Dona­tion)

  Love this, Josh. Political advocacy can feel so inaccessible, you really lay out the fundamentals clearly.

• minthin 21 Jul 2022 21:39 UTC

  8 points

  0 ∶ 0

  on: EA Prob­a­bly Shouldn’t Try to Ex­er­cise Direct Poli­ti­cal Power

  I love this post and the fact that EAs are weighing trade-offs of electoral politics.

  OP undervalues the impact having one EA in Congress can make. Even if not in the party in power, the member can 1) raise/​introduce policy interventions that would otherwise not be considered, even as “marker” bills, 2) shift the Overton window on important cause areas, 3) Recruit fellow members to support policy interventions.

  Nonetheless, I’m glad we are weighing the trade-offs of appearing partisan. There are benefits of that too, that should not be overlooked, but def some unintended consequences.

The Poli­ti­cal Lever: Poli­ti­cal Ad­vo­cacy in Effec­tive Altru­ism