Animal Advocacy Job!

Posted on November 11, 2016 by David

David Cassuto

From the email:

 My name is Kate and I am the editorial operations and outreach coordinator for One Green Planet (onegreenplanet.org). We are the fastest growing (and largest!) independent publishing platform focused on sustainable food, animal welfare issues, environmental protection, and cruelty-free/green living. 

We are currently hiring for a number of positions in our Animal Monster channel, which covers a variety of animal rights and welfare topics. Given your involvement in animal rights, I wanted to send the link to our current openings for you to pass along to any students/alums that might be interested:  Continue reading →

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Animal Law Job!

Posted on November 11, 2016 by David

David Cassuto

From the email:

The Department of Environmental Studies invites applications for the position of Clinical Assistant Professor. The appointment will begin September 1, 2017, pending administrative and budgetary approval. The successful applicant will help to administer a new M.A. in Animal Studies that will launch in the fall of 2018, teach graduate and undergraduate courses, advise students, conduct research, fully participate in and contribute to the development of the Department of Environmental Studies, and provide other service to the University. The Department of Environmental Studies currently offers a major and minor in Environmental Studies and an undergraduate minor in Animal Studies (one of the first in the country). It is in the process of developing other graduate programs. Continue reading →

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Animal Advocacy — Live from Hawaii

Posted on September 5, 2016 by David

David Cassuto

I’ve spent the last 5 days in Hawaii at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, the quadrennial gathering of environmental leaders from all over the world. The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) recently applied for membership in IUCN and was denied.  I have been lobbying for support for ALDF’s appeal from that denial.  It’s a bizarre world where organizations like Safari Club International — which advocates trophy hunting as a form of conservation — is granted membership where ALDF, an organization that actively works to protect animals both in and out of the wild, is denied.

So far the support has been very gratifying; many IUCN member organizations have stepped forward to support the appeal.  However, we remain a few signatures short of Continue reading →

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Animal Law Clinic at Michigan State

Posted on July 7, 2016 by David

David Cassuto

From the email:

Animal Welfare Clinic

(for release 7 July, 2016)

 Michigan State University College of Law invites applications for the Director position in its newly created Animal Welfare Clinic.

 MSU’s Animal Welfare Clinic will provide opportunities for students to learn the practice of law in a well-supervised and academically rigorous program.  The direct representation of clients is the core of the students’ experience in the clinic, and the clinic seeks to maintain a diverse and challenging docket.  With a core focus on animal law content, the clinic will select cases with attention to pedagogical concerns, community need, and the need to provide students with opportunities to engage as attorneys in a variety of contexts. This clinic will service individual clients with a variety of individual animal legal issues as well as clients who raise public policy questions about the use of animals in our society. The Clinic will seek out cases which will use the courts to enhance the welfare of animals beyond present practices. The Director will be expected to be an active member of a major University with a diverse set of players with animal related interests. Additionally, it is expected that the individual will coordinate with national organizations and seek to provide leadership on a national level.

For all aspects of the Clinic, the Clinical Professor will work in coordination with Animal Law Program of the College, directed by Professor David Favre and the Associate Dean for Experiential Education, David Thronson, who will help create the program of the clinic.  The Clinic Director will receive an annual salary commensurate with their experience, together with generous benefits. This will be a clinical track appointment starting with the title of Assistant Clinical Professor.  Continue reading →

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Seaquarium Still Confines Lolita: Double Standard Created for Endangered Animals

Posted on July 6, 2016 by delcianna

Delcianna J. Winders, Academic Fellow, Animal Law & Policy Program, Harvard Law School

This piece originally appeared in the Sun Sentinel.

A Miami judge recently denied relief to Lolita, the sole orca at the Seaquarium, by creating out of whole cloth a double standard for endangered animals like Lolita who are held in captivity. As a result, Lolita will remain in the smallest orca tank in North America without the company of a single other orca.

Lolita-alone-ccorcanetwork
© Orca Network

The Endangered Species Act makes it illegal to harm, harass or wound Lolita. This broad ban includes a prohibition on significantly disrupting normal behavior patterns. Congress and the Supreme Court have stressed that it should be interpreted as broadly as possible, even to extend to seemingly harmless activities like bird watching if they might disturb the protected species.

It is beyond dispute that the Seaquarium’s confinement of Lolita disrupts her normal behavior patterns.

Orcas are highly social animals who stay with their mothers for life. Lolita was ripped from her family as a baby.

Puget Sound orca capture ©Terrell C. Newby, Ph.D.©Terrell C. Newby, Ph.D.

She hasn’t seen another orca since 1980, when her companion died after ramming his head into the tank, believed by some to be an act of suicide.

Still, Lolita reportedly continues to use vocalizations known only to her pod. When played a recording of her pod’s calls, she responded and returned the calls.

Wild orcas dive hundreds of feet and travel up to 100 miles every day. The Seaquarium confines Lolita, who is 20 feet long, to a tank that is just 20 feet at its deepest and 80 feet Continue reading →

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International Animal Law News

Posted on March 1, 2016 by David

David Cassuto

From the email:

[T]his email is being sent to you to update you with some of the key news and events of the last few months that have been posted on the website of International Animal Law.

ANIMALS, WELFARE AND THE LAW

Animals, welfare and the law is an essential book for all those that have direct and indirect dealings/interests with animals. It’s now the course book for a couple of online courses including Vet Scholar and the Global Animal Welfare Authority.

Remember, the format of the book is intentionally designed to be thought provoking and interactive. For example, there are questions at the front of the book, and at the end of each chapter, that assist readers in examining their own knowledge (and attitudes) concerning animal welfare and the rules that currently govern it. Additionally, all proceeds from the sale of the book go to the registered charity Animal Welfare Law Matters.

NEWS PICKS

I am always grateful to those who continue to contribute to the array of topics, articles and news of interest on the website of International Animal Law (“IAL”). A few picks shown on IAL over the last few months include:

  1. A new International Research Consortium for Animal Health (IRC) has been created to coordinate global research and ultimately lead to new methods of controlling animal diseases. Given the competing attitudes, agendas and interests between different stakeholders on many of the issues involving animals and the welfare of animals and people, it is encouraging to see continued efforts towards harmonisation in the international market place.
  2. On the subject of initiatives which seek to implement consistency on issues of animal welfare internationally, a proposed model of animal welfare has been published. Its authors propose that can be used as a guide and information source for countries seeking to introduce or improve their animal welfare legislation.
  3. Do you know how enforcement actually works? For example, what are the criteria for determining whether or not a prosecution proceeds. These considerations were raised following notification of a complaint against the SPCA.
  4. And do you recall seeing the public response and outcry at the shooting of a lion organised by trophy hunting safari operations in South Africa last year? Change is fostered when public opinion is supported by commercial decisions that have an economic impact, so the cancellation of a hunting expo by the Holiday Inn is interesting to note. It also raises questions about how many of the other voices that criticised the slaying of the lion and wider trophy hunting safari operations, have implemented similar initiatives for change?
  5. Opinions regarding the use of animals for human use obviously vary. The Greyhound racing industry is one of the animal use activities that has come under the spotlight in recent times, and the imprisonment of Greyhound trainers in Australia is a reminder of how far the law has progressed in that people can and to go to prison for animal welfare offences.

Continue reading →

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Voiceless is calling for an end to the legalised cruelty of the commercial kangaroo trade

Posted on March 1, 2016 by emmanuelgiuffre

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By Emmanuel Giuffre, legal counsel of Voiceless, the animal protection institute 

Many individuals – both in Australia and internationally – would be appalled if they knew of the legalised cruelty inflicted upon Australia’s national icon, the kangaroo. While similar wildlife trades, such as the Canadian seal hunt, have attracted global criticism and condemnation due to their brutality, the kangaroo hunt is left relatively unchallenged to continue its cruel trade.

Voiceless, the animal protection institute is calling on individuals to take a stand against the legalised cruelty being committed against Australian kangaroos in the name of profit. It is a promise not to buy into kangaroo cruelty and to join Voiceless in calling for our politicians to put an end to this trade.

> Take the pledge, and learn more about the brutality of the commercial kangaroo industry, here: https://www.voiceless.org.au/kangaroo-takethepledge

The commercial kangaroo industry has been identified as the largest commercial slaughter of land-based wildlife on the planet.[1] Over the past 30 years, an annual average of approximately three million wild kangaroos have been commercially killed and processed by the kangaroo industry.

This figure does not include pouch young or young at foot (joeys) who are killed, or who are left orphaned and subsequently die from starvation, predation or exposure, as a result of the commercial killing of female kangaroos. These joeys are treated as  Continue reading →

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