The Ethics of Veganism, Cont’d

David Cassuto In keeping with my earlier promise to highlight well-argued pieces on both sides of the veganism debate, here is a piece by former vegan and author George Monbiot, which explains why he has now concluded that meat-eating (not, however, the factory farm system) is ok.  There have been a number of thoughtful responses [...]

Schwarzenegger’s Legacy: Skinned Animals

David Cassuto Amid all the hagiography (outside of California) for soon to be ex-Governor Schwarzenegger, comes this: he vetoed a bill that would have required clothing made with fur to be properly labeled.  Currently, so-called faux fur products are actually made of real fur, just the fur from less “desirable” animals.  The gov was concerned [...]

Reconsidering Crush Videos

Gillian Lyons After the Supreme Court struck down 18 U.S.C. § 48 in United States v. Stevens for having too broad a focus (click here for Professor Cassuto’s post-mortem of that decision), there was a general feeling of dismay in the animal law community due, in part, to the fact that the law strove to [...]

Thinking Inside the Box (Where the Mice Suffer & Die)

David Cassuto Thirty-some years ago, researchers attempting to determine if tobacco smoke was toxic put mice in boxes filled with smoke.  The mice didn’t develop cancer at the rate human smokers did.  One could conclude that tobacco was not a carcinogen but, of course, that  would be wrong.  The problem lay with the experiment, including [...]

Some Antibiotic News

Gillian Lyons According to some sources, as much as 70 percent of the antibiotics produced in the United States are fed to animals housed in the factory farm industry, animals otherwise known as “food product animals.”  These antibiotics are used not only to prevent the spread of disease among animals housed in small overcrowded quarters, [...]

Transgenic Animals

David Cassuto I’ve been thinking about the legal and ethical issues surrounding transgenic animals lately, hoping to write something soon.  If you’re interested in the subject too, this post at the new Vet Tech blog provides all sorts of cool resources to peruse.

CT Animal Law CLE

David Cassuto From the email:

Fries, Beer, and the IUCN Colloquium

David Cassuto Belgium is pretty cool.  Ghent is an absolutely beautiful city, filled with the kind of stunning architecture that one might expect to see in European cities better known for their visual splendor.  And did you know that Ghent was the second-largest city in Europe (behind Paris) for quite a while, quite a while [...]

Legal Protections for Great Apes (or Lack Thereof)

Gillian Lyons Last week, without much ado (at least from American news sources), the European Union passed a series of directives aimed at reducing the number of animals used in laboratory experiments (for BBC News’ perspective, click here).  Included in those directives was a mandate ending the use of great apes in scientific research, once [...]

Brasilia and Now Ghent (Belgium) — Still Talking Climate Change & Agriculture

David Cassuto So here I am on a plane again – this time to Belgium on my way to the Colloquium of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, which is taking place in Ghent.  I’m back in steerage this time; no business class for our hero.  I swore I would never go back but here [...]

The Dirty South? No; More Like Dirty Cleanup Efforts

Douglas Doneson Early May… With law school final exams a few days away, keeping up with current events was the last thing on my mind. But this past May, the BP oil spill was literally all over the place. Prior to transplanting to New Orleans for my summer internship, I applied to every volunteer site [...]

Gaga Wears Meat, Chimps Turned Into Bushmeat — A World Gone Horribly Awry

David Cassuto So even as I fight to keep my gorge down after seeing Lady Gaga in a meat bikini (about which more soon), I know her offense against fashion and compassion pales in comparison to what’s going on out in the bush. Congolese chimps are being slaughtered for “bushmeat” at an alarming and grotesque [...]

Fed up with Feeding

Seth Victor Phillipsburg, NJ signed in a law Tuesday that makes it illegal to feed feral cats without permission. Violators could face up to $2,000 in fines at the discretion of the Municipal Court. Animal advocates debated this measure earlier, arguing that people should be allowed to help animals in need without fear of repercussions. [...]

“Thinking About Animals Conference” at Brock University

David Cassuto More goodies from the email: CALL FOR PAPERS: THINKING ABOUT ANIMALS 2011- BROCK UNIVERSITY The Department of Sociology at Brock University is issuing a Call for Papers for a conference on “Thinking About Animals” to be held March 31 and April 1, 2011 at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. This two-day conference [...]

Some More Cool Animal Law CLE

David Cassuto From the email: The DePaul Center for Animal Law cordially invites you and your colleagues to join us for this year’s symposium, “Revisiting the Line between Free Speech and Obscenity: U.S. v. Stevens and Its Impact on Animal Welfare”. The symposium will take place at the DePaul College of Law on Thursday, September [...]

Animal Law Goes to the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Bridget Crawford Earlier this summer I visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio with my father (who is in his 70’s) and my daughter (who is 10). .  I love the Jim Thorpe statue and the Hall of Fame Gallery’s bronze busts.  I refreshed my sports memory, learned a bit about history [...]

Morrissey Half-Cocked

David Cassuto From the Wish He Hadn’t Said It Desk: Morrissey calls the Chinese a “subspecies” because of the widespread mistreatment of animals that goes on in China.  It’s hard to know where to begin with this kind of racist, unproductive, polarizing rant.  All I can say is that it would be great if we [...]

Part 2 of the Brazilian Odyssey

David Cassuto I flew Business Class on the way home.  Business Class is better than coach.  In fact, I’m seriously considering renaming my child Business Class.  I’ve also written several epic poems and elegies to Business Class and am thinking about getting a tattoo. But I digress. I’m back in the U.S. after a truly [...]

Salvador in Hindsight

David Cassuto The Brazilian tour has been and continues to be a whirlwind.  Here’s a first installment of updates, live from Brasilia but a few days behind in terms of news.  More soon. As Liz & Gloribelle’s posts make clear, the Salvador Conference was fab-o.  I felt and feel very lucky to have had the [...]

Animal Law CLE Opportunity

David Cassuto Some farm animal-related CLE from the good folks at the ABA.  Note the intriguing speaker lineup. Farmed Animal Welfare and Consumer Labeling Issues To Register: http://www.abanet.org/tips/market/10SepAnimalLawWeb.html Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146567802042349&ref=mf Increasingly, consumers concerned about the welfare of farm animals, and related health, food safety, and environmental issues, are seeking to purchase animal-derived foods that [...]