China — Where Pigs Go to Die

David Cassuto Here’s a scary quotation from a scary article: The fastest growth in meat consumption occurs when people’s income is less than $5,000 per year, and China’s current figure is around $ 3,000, so we are still on the fast track. So says Ma Chuang, vice secretary-general of China Animal Agricultural Association.   

RICO Case Against Petland to Proceed

David Cassuto A federal district court in Phoenix has allowed a racketeering trial  to proceed against Petland.  The suit alleges that Petland violated the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), and myriad state laws by misleading thousands of consumers across the country into believing that the puppies they purchased were healthy and came [...]

Cow Abuse

ABC News expose of horrific abuses by the dairy industry.  More here.

Starve the Poor (and the Animals)

David Cassuto Lt. Governor Andre Bauer of South Carolina recently compared poor people to stray animals. He declared himself focused on reducing the number of people on government assistance because:  “my grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because [...]

Haggis is Legal

David Cassuto Apparently, haggis was illegal.  It was banned in 1989 by health officials fearing mad cow disease (which is not really called mad cow nor is it confined to cows).  Haggis is a pudding made of (among other things) sheep offal and oatmeal.  It is prized component of Scottish cuisine and a particular favorite [...]

How Not to Parent

Bridget Crawford The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports here about a mother who forced her son to bludgeon his pet hamster.  The 12 year-old’s offense?  Bad grades.  After the child told his teacher about the incident, the teacher reported it to the authorities.  The mother was arrested and charged with animal cruelty and child cruelty (as well [...]

Announcing “Our Hen House”

David Cassuto Mariann Sullivan and Jasmin Singer are two of the jewels in the crown of the animal advocacy movement.  Both women have labored tirelessly on behalf of the voiceless for many years and in many ways.  Now they have a new way.  Their new project is called Our Hen House and is much more [...]

NYSBA Environmental Law Section Conference Call on CAFO Permitting

From the email: The Environmental Law Section’s Agriculture and Rural Issues Committee will host a conference call on Wednesday, February 3rd from 2:00 – 3:00 pm to provide information and answer questions about the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) permit program. This call is open to any Environmental Law Section member wishing to participate.  Attorneys [...]

Go Here, Read This

David Cassuto This is a very interesting piece by Stephanie Ernst.  She argues that the crusade against factory farming undermines the larger animal rights movement by creating safe rationalizations for the consumption of local, “humanely raised” animal products. Here’s a little taste: It’s time for the vegan/animal rights movement to stop battling factory farming. And [...]

Animal Control = Execution in Two Mississippi Counties

David Cassuto What kind of a world do we live in where a person pledging to be the 41st vote against health care reform wins Ted Kennedy’s seat?  The same sort of world, apparently, where an animal control officer slaughters hundreds of animals and dumps their bodies in a creek.  Here’s some data: A Mississippi [...]

Some Legal News

David Cassuto I don’t often get around to doing roundups of animal law in the news.  Fortunately, there are folks with more gumption than I.  ALDF, for example.  Check it out.

Cap and Trade for Animals?

David Cassuto A journey outside the box of animal welfare law brings us to this article, ” An Introduction to Cap and Trade for Animal Welfare,” by Alan Nemeth, in the Journal of Animal and Environmental Law.   The article is about just what the title says.  Nemeth is an adjunct professor  at the Washington College [...]

ABA-TIPS Event in Chicago

From the email: ABA-TIPS Humane Education Project – Chicago Humane Education Advocates Reaching Teachers (HEART), the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), and Northwestern Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF) chapter are pleased to invite you to a free training workshop for the Humane Education Project of the American Bar Association’s TIPS Animal Law Committee. The [...]

Haiti

David Cassuto What can one say?  Unimaginable suffering on an epic scale unleashed on a population that was already barely surviving.   Please help.  My organization of choice is Doctors Without Borders but there are lots of them out there.  Whatever we can do is what needs to be done.

The Tropical Fish “Crop”

David Cassuto The recent cold weather in Florida has hurt the tropical fish industry.  I have a few things to say about this.  For one, the NYT refers to the fish as a “crop.”  I’ve railed about rhetoric in this space before (here, for example) but this one feels really egregious.  Since when are animals [...]

Food Fight at McDonald’s

David Cassuto So a woman throws a tantrum and destroys some property when her McDonald’s meal is prepared wrong (apparently, she was “unhappy with her cheeseburger”).  Some foundational questions: how does one prepare such a thing “right?”  And how would one know?

NYSBA “Hot Topics in Animal Law” CLE Program

David Cassuto Looks good.  Full skinny here.  Find it on and at: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 1:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. New York Hilton 1335 Avenue of the Americas, New York City Bryant Suite, 2nd floor More info from: Kim Hojohn, Staff Liaison, khojohn@nysba.org or 518/487-5593

Fasting on the Bayou

David Cassuto I blog from New Orleans, where I am attending the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) annual meeting.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, tomorrow is the meeting of the Animal Law section.  Today I field tripped with the Environmental and Natural Resource sections.  We first visited a swamp and marshland (there [...]

Why It’s Not About the Elephants

David Cassuto Here now, a few words about the Ringling Brothers case.  The suit focused on the treatment of Asian elephants – an endangered species – by the circus.  Much credible evidence suggests that the elephants were mistreated, both by intent (using bullhooks to “train” them) and by the rigors of the circus life, a [...]

Newsflash: Dolphins are Smart

David Cassuto This article discusses some recent scientific findings about the intelligence of dolphins and their ability to communicate and learn.  The researchers conclude that “it is morally unacceptable to keep such intelligent animals in amusement parks or to kill them for food or by accident when fishing.” That’s nice, of course, but one wonders [...]

Some Thoughts on “Old Partner”

Matthew Blaisdell Film Forum provides the following quote and review in its promotion for “Old Partner,” a film in a 1-week engagement at the theater (ending January 5th). (http://www.filmforum.org/films/oldpartner.html) “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened,”
 (Anatole France).  “Mr. and Mrs. Lee, elderly peasants, eke out a living from [...]

Ringling Brothers Decision — Justice Denied

David Cassuto The decision is in.  It’s a debacle.  Read about it here.  I’ll have more to say when I’ve studied the opinion.