National Cattlemen’s Beef Association — A Climate Change Hero…?

David Cassuto Guess what?  Apparently, human contributions to climate change is still iffy science and even if it weren’t, the beef industry sequesters rather than releases carbon and should be rewarded for its zealous fight against climate change.  So says the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).  According to the NCBA, agriculture was responsible for less [...]

Elephant “Training” Photos

David Cassuto Paucity of posts this week, for which I apologize.  More soon.  In the meantime, if anybody was thinking that the allegations of the plaintiffs in the Ringling Brothers case were exaggerated, take a gander at these elephant “training” pics.  They are not from Ringling Brothers but they do reflect standard training practices.

AALS Animal Law Section Third Annual Panel

David Cassuto A few years ago, after many years in the wilderness, the animal law community successfully created a section within the American Association of Law Schools (AALS).  This year will be our third and we once again have a great panel lined up for the AALS annual meeting.  The skinny follows:   

Sentient Brussel Sprouts and Other Convenient Tropes

David Cassuto Natalie Angier writes in today’s NYT about how plants are sophisticated organisms and therefore any kind of dietary regime causes pain.  Jasmin Singer rips Angier a new one here. UPDATE: Check out this rebuttal  as well.

Animal Law and Lab Animals — Fearing a Paper Tiger

David Cassuto P. Michael Conn, Director of Research Advocacy at Oregon Health and Sciences University and the the Oregon National Primate Research Center is concerned that the proliferation of animal law courses taught at U.S. law schools (111 schools at last count) poses a threat to animal research.  This claim is interesting on a number [...]

100K

We’ve surpassed 100,000 hits. No small thing, that. Thank you for taking the time to read and write and care. –David

Some Externalized Havoc from Industrial Agriculture

David Cassuto Following up on Jessica’s prairie dog post of a little while back, here’s an excellent piece on the havoc industrial agriculture wreaks on wild animals (in addition to farmed animals) and the non-animal environment.

Desert Rock Power Plant to Be Reassessed in Light of Threat to Fish

David Cassuto From the Things that Never Would Have Happened Under W Desk: The Bureau of Indian Affairs has withdrawn its Biological Assessment and the  EPA has also withdrawn the air quality permit they respectively issued last summer for the Desert Rock coal-fired power plant sited for the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners region [...]

Fast Friends – Adopting a Racing Greyhound

In my first guest post on Animal Blawg, I talked a little bit about my addiction to retired racing greyhounds and I mentioned that we have adopted six since 2003.  A few of the comments in response talked about what wonderful companions retired racers make.  Of course, this topic is near and dear to my [...]

The Animated Fried Fish: The Latest Development in Animal Cruelty

Irina Knopp Tired of those boring fish in the lake and that bland fried fillet you had at the local fast food restaurant? Well come on down to China and combine the two! Get the fun of torturing a live fish with the satisfaction of getting to eat it at the same time! Sarcastic venting [...]

Electrocuting Lobsters

David Cassuto So here we have a device (which sells for £2,500 — or roughly $4,400) that kills lobsters almost instantly by electrocution rather than forcing them to endure the 3-4 agonizing minutes they typically spend being boiled or roasted alive.  Is this a step forward?  Will it lead to more lobster consumption — a [...]

Meat, Copenhagen and Climate Change

David Cassuto Concerned citizens the world over have gathered in Copenhagen to hammer out a plan to arrest climate change and prevent a planetary apocalypse.  Many have written much about the talks (check out, for example, Andy Revkin’s blog) but at least as interesting is what’s being neither talked about in Copenhagen nor much covered [...]

Why I’d Rather Feed My Child Dirt Than a School Lunch

David Cassuto I’ve been trying to figure out what it says about this country that McDonalds  sets higher standards for its flesh products than the USDA does for school lunch programs. At a minimum, it says that we care almost as little about our children as we do about the animals we torture and slaughter [...]

Animal Law on a Channel Near You

David Cassuto My colleague, Ralph Stein (a founding member of Pace Law School and frequent commenter on this blog), devoted his most recent community access tv show to animal law.  Watch it here.

Greyhound Racing – The Industrialization of Man’s Best Friend

My name is Jennifer Krebs, and I am an addict. My addiction is to racing greyhounds and advocating for them. The first time I saw a retired racing greyhound up close and personal was in 1993 in South Florida.  I fell completely in love, but it was a full ten years before I realized my [...]

Factory Farms, Mark Bittman and TSCA — An Unlikely Trio

David Cassuto Intriguing blog post by Mark Bittman, of all people, wondering whether industrial meat could be illegal under TSCA , the Toxic Substances Control Act (not to be confused with Tosca, the Puccini opera).  The argument would be that TSCA gives the EPA authority to regulate substances that pose “an unreasonable risk of injury [...]

The Voiceless Toolkit Can Now Be Yours

From the email: Last night the Honourable Justice Ruth McColl AO, Judge of Appeal of the Supreme Court of NSW, launched the Voiceless Animal Law Toolkit. The launch was part of the Voiceless 2009 Awards Event, where this year’s Voiceless Grant recipients and inaugural Voiceless Media Prize winner were announced. Speaking at the launch, Brian [...]

NYC City Council Speaker to Unveil Citywide “Food Policy”

David Cassuto Creating an urban food policy for the nation’s largest city is an opportunity to accomplish something of genuine import.  The key word here is “opportunity.”  The proof will be in the pudding, as they say…

The Objective Correlative

David Cassuto The objective correlative conveys a sense of  “the whatness of the thing.”   According to T.S. Eliot, that means “a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion [...]

More on the Vegan Dialogues

Matthew Blaisdell This is a summation/expansion of my comments (see post & comments here) relating to the NY Times Op-Ed in which the writer likened the killing of animals for meat consumption to the Holocaust. I know only about as much as the general public regarding animal rights/law.  I do think that the issues involved [...]

Top Chef — A Cultural Barometer

Matthew Blaisdell A cultural studies major may find grounds for a thesis in following the treatment of vegetarianism in ‘Top Chef,’ which I’ve gotten roped into the last 2 seasons.  This season started on a typical meat-obsessive note, with the first contestant mockingly dismissed for attempting a seitan-stuffed pepper.  Even the thought seemed to make [...]

How Many is Too Many? When Does Having Too Many Pets Become Hoarding Syndrome?

Tiffany Gallo Hoarding is a syndrome that has become more publicized in the recent years.  Normally, a hoarder collects inanimate objects and is addicted to the clutter. Compulsive Hoarding is the acquisition of and failure to use or discard such large numbers of seemingly useless possessions that it causes significant clutter and impairment to basic [...]

Newborn Calves Abused at Organic Farm

Elizabeth Bennett Unfortunately, allegations of animal abuse at slaughterhouses have long been prevalent.  It is not, however, too often that you hear of a farm or company being punished for such cruel behavior.  Recently, an organically certified Vermont slaughterhouse called Bushway Packing Inc. was ordered to close because of their inhumane treatment of calves.  An [...]

Animal Drop Boxes and the Economic Recession

Katy Steere As more and more Americans face poverty and homelessness during this economic recession, their pets are being left at after hours shelter drop boxes in droves. Foreclosure pets make up a great number of the pets surrendered every day. After hours drop boxes are outdoor kennels attached to shelters where people can anonymously [...]

Throwing the Wolves Out With the Bathwater

David Cassuto Odd editorial in today’s NYT.  On the one hand, it lays bare the hypocrisy and bloodlust behind the wolf hunt in the Northern Rockies.  For example, after several wolves were killed just outside of Yellowstone (outside the park boundary, you can kill them), Montana’s wolf program director said, ““We didn’t think wolves would be that [...]

Critical Animal Studies Is Here For Good

David Cassuto I have been remiss in not remarking on the surge in recognition and spreading impact of the academic field of Critical Animal Studies.  Not only are there a number of cool blogs about it (e.g., this and this and this) but one of the preeminent thinkers in the field is my good friend [...]

Are Seahorses Becoming Extinct?

Elisa D’Ortenzio Today, there are so many threats to the various ecosystems and the animals that live in them that it has become hard to keep track of them all.  One animal that seems to receive little attention is the seahorse, even as many believe the seahorse to be a flagship of endangered marine habitats [...]

Vegan With a Vengeance

Tara Dugo On November 22, 2009, the New York Times ran an op ed that discussed, of all things, veganism.  (Previously discussed on this blawg on November 24, 2009 and November 27, 2009.)  The op ed, which was written by Gary Steiner, a Professor of Philosophy at Bucknell University, really delved into the issues that [...]

Oreo’s Law

Christopher Cuomo In June 2009, I was deeply saddened to learn that a fellow New Yorker threw his pit bull (Oreo) off the roof of a building. Despite the horrendous act I was happy to hear that the owner was being prosecuted and Oreo was recovering. In November 2009, after Oreo had made a full physical [...]