PETA’s Use of Women

PETA takes a lot of grief from the animal advocacy community and from feminists for its use of naked or sparsely clad women in its public events.  This blogger offers a contrasting view.  For my part, though I find the controversy surrounding PETA’s methods interesting and worth having, I worry that the resulting schisms in [...]

Publishing Opportunity for Non-fiction Animal Prose

from the email… Call for Submissions: Animals For an upcoming issue, Creative Nonfiction is seeking new essays about the bonds—emotional, ethical, biological, physical, or otherwise—between humans and animals. We’re looking for stories that illustrate ways animals (wild and/or domestic) affect, enrich, or otherwise have an impact on our daily lives. Essays must be vivid and [...]

Bestiality and the Sex Offender Registry

If you were wondering whether judges in Kansas were paid enough, the answer is “NO.”    Judges in Kansas have to sometimes decide whether a person caught en flagrante with his ex-girlfriend’s dog (after sneaking into her garage) should have to register as a sex offender.  (Apparently so.)  That type of work, in my humble opinion, [...]

Ted Kennedy & Animals

Ted Kennedy’s death is a great loss for all kinds of reasons but not much of the eulogizing has focused on his animal advocacy.  This piece does a nice job of summarizing the Senator’s long-time devotion to animal causes — from animal fighting, to factory farming, to seal hunting, he sometimes led, sometimes followed, but [...]

Update on Westlaw Unfair Treatment Post – Victory for Puerto Rican Law Schools

After a conversation with University of Puerto Rico Law School Dean Aponte-Toro and Professor José Julián Alvarez, Thomson Reuters executives decided to reinstate printer services to Puerto Rican law schools. Thanks to all who helped! Luis Chiesa

IUCN Study of Elephant Meat Trade — Consulting Opportunity

From the email — an opportunity to lead a study for the IUCN Species Survival Commission on the elephant bushmeat issue in Central Africa.   Note the looming application deadline. The Impact of the Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa Call for Applications – Deadline 4 September 2009 1. Background The IUCN/SSC African Elephant Specialist Group [...]

Westlaw Puerto Rico Unfair Treatment

Given that issues related to animal law are directly and indirectly referenced in various Thomson Reuters casebooks and hornbooks, I want to share with Animal Blawg readers a couple of e-mails that highlight a policy adopted by the legal publishing giant in charge of Westlaw and Foundation Press that seems to discriminate against students at [...]

Deer Culling in Westchester — Rhetoric vs. Reality

I recently received the email below from my colleague (and occasional guest-blogger), Vanessa Merton.  I found the topic so interesting (and topical — see the panther post below) and the email such a good read that I asked her if I could post it on the blawg.  She agreed and so… David, I didn’t see [...]

Panthers in the Suburbs

[The op-ed below appeared in the Westchester Herald (ten or so pages after Ed Koch's movie review and immediately following  Congressmember Nina Lowey's piece on health care reform).  It deals with recent sightings of what appear to be a large cat in the New York suburbs.  For some good background on the issue, see this [...]

Another Look at Banning Depictions of Cruelty to Animals

John A. Humbach, Pace University School of law As most readers here know, in United States v. Stevens, 533 F.3d 218 (3d Cir. 2008), the Third Circuit struck down the Federal statute (18 U.S.C. § 48) that prohibited the creation, sale or possession of media depicting cruelty to animals. However, both the majority and dissenting [...]

First Animal Blawg Poll – Why do you believe Veganism is Morally Appealing?

Given that polls about veganism seem to be the cool thing to do these days, here’s my first foray into the internet polling world. Check out the poll’s format. Isn’t it way cooler than the one used by Leiter for his veganism poll? Luis Chiesa

Leiter Poll — The Sequel

Brian Leiter has reported the results of his poll here and contributed his own analysis of veganism, which he concludes to be a “kind of harmless and in many ways sweet eccentricity.”  I am omitting his preceding discussion, which is quite thoughtful and interesting and bears reading in its entirety.  However, in my view, his [...]

More on the Meat/Climate Change Nexus

The link between livestock agriculture (particularly but not exclusively industrial agriculture) and climate change is getting some serious discussion, albeit not by those who actually pass laws about such things.  I’ve blogged about the issue here and am finishing up an essay for the Animals & Society Institute on CAFOs and climate change. Legal Planet [...]

Who Gets to Know What About Whom Regarding Animal Experimentation

Guest blogger: Vanessa Merton I know absolutely nothing about the legal merit of the ruling described below, but it raises the question whether personal identifier data about particular individual researchers legitimately should be withheld from these reports, in an era when scientists like Dr. George Tiller and Dr. Barnett Slepian are gunned down in their [...]

Vegetarianism is Immoral??

Apropos of the dustup surrounding the Leiter Poll, this guy over at the National Review thinks vegetarianism (and, one would assume, veganism) is immoral.  His argument is beyond shallow but that’s the way these things sometimes go. H/T: Animal Ethics. –David Cassuto

Bill to Ban Canned Hunting in NY in the Pipeline

Once upon a time, the NY State Legislature passed a bill outlawing canned hunting only to have then Governor Pataki veto it.  The current law permits canned hunts except that the animals can’t be tied to a stationary object of confined in a pen or box.  The current bill, which is pending in the Assembly [...]

Dorf on Leiter’s Poll – A Must Read!

Cornell’s Michael Dorf recently posted a very witty response to Leiter’s veganism poll. In my first post on the subject I took issue with  the poll’s “veganism is disgusting” alternative. Professor Dorf believes that the proposed poll responses “trivialize veganism”. I agree.  From his comment to Dorf’s post, it’s unclear whether Leiter understands why animal [...]

More on Leiter’s Veganism Poll

Surprisingly, my recent post about Professor Leiter’s poll on “attitudes toward veganism”  seems to have sparked substantial interest among AnimalBlawg readers. Given the attention that the post has received, I want to keep readers updated on a couple of developments regarding this topic. First, it seems that Professor Leiter was somewhat annoyed by AnimalBlawg readers [...]

Pennsylvania Bar Institute to Host Animal Law Seminar

August 13th and 26th in Mechanicsburg and Philadelphia respectively.  This is the PBI’s 6th year doing this.  CLE is available.  More info here.

Leiter’s Poll on Veganism

Over at the “Law School Reports” blog, Professor Brian Leiter is conducting an interesting (unscientific) poll on “what is your attitude towards veganism?”.  Given that I’m a vegetarian, I voted for the option stating “Veganism is the morally most defensible dietary regimen, and I admire those who adopt it and wish I could do the [...]

A Bill to Ban Aerial Wolf Hunting

I’m fresh off the Long Trail.  Every year, my son and I head into the Vermont woods to be together and to be alone.  These are the best of times. During my absence some good things happened.  For example, Judge Sotomayor got confirmed.  Plus, a few tentative steps were taken to halt the shooting of [...]

Journalists Argue that Criminalizing the Depiction of Animal Cruelty is Counterproductive

A respected association of journalists – the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) – filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case dealing with whether it is a violation of the first amendment to criminalize the depiction of animal cruelty. David and Suzanne have blogged about the case here and here. According to the RTNDA, [...]

Bullfights in….California?

One of the most vexing problems that animal advocates face is fighting animal cruelty that is justified by reference to religious traditions. David has written about the problem here. A not so well known instance where there is a clash between religion and cruelty is in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where the hot summer nights [...]

Animal Cruelty Now a Felony in Arkansas

As of July 29th, 2009 (last Friday), animal cruelty became a felony in Arkansas.  Act 33 makes torturing a dog, cat or horse a felony on first offense, punishable by up to 6 years in prison and a $10k fine.  There’s a 5 year sentencing enhancement if any of these acts are committed in front [...]

Brief Ruminations on Spanish Anti-Cruelty Laws

While writing the syllabus for the comparative criminal law seminar that I will teach in Buenos Aires this September, I stumbled upon Spain’s anti-cruelty statutes. It seems that in Spain it’s only a crime to mistreat companion animals (Art. 337 of Spanish Penal Code) or unjustifiably inflict pain on non-companion animals pursuant to a public [...]