The ABA Journal Blawg 100

The more contact people have with Animal Law, the better it is for all (including and especially nonhuman animals).  That is the guiding principal of this blog.  Towards that end, the folks at the (Shameless) Marketing Desk have asked me to share the email below with you.  They have further asked me to let you [...]

Some Thankful Sea Lions

Gillian Lyons According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, since 2008 40 California Sea Lions have been removed from the Bonneville Dam area (which straddles the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington.) 25 of these sea lions were euthanized, 10 were given to aquariums and 5 were captured and subsequently died (of unspecified [...]

Turkey Pardons (reprised)

David Cassuto As I sat down to type some Thanksgiving thoughts, I found myself returning to what I wrote a couple of years ago, back when this blog was first beginning.  I’m still saddened and bewildered by the idea of pardoning turkeys.  And, since not many people read the blog back then, I offer those [...]

Law Student Grant Opportunity

David Cassuto From the email — another fab-o opportunity for students interested in animal issues. Animal Welfare Trust is currently seeking applicants for our 2011 Student Grant Program. The grant provides up to $5000 per recipient for graduate students to work on an independent research project under faculty supervision or for an unpaid position within [...]

Check Out The Most Recent Issue of the Journal of Legal Education

David Cassuto Because it has 4 (count ‘em 4!) articles on animal law and animal legal education including one by Friend of the Blog, Bruce Wagman.

Amidst All the Slaughter — Abuse. Who Knew?

David Cassuto From the morbid irony desk: In this article about the demoralizing struggles of an animal activist in the Arab world, we learn that: At the Basateen slaughterhouse, near the vast cemetery known as the City of the Dead, butchers stride about in knee-high rubber boots, surrounded by lakes of feces, blood and urine. [...]

White-tailed Deer and Valley Forge National Park

Gillian Lyons Earlier this year, the National Park Service announced their plan to reduce the white-tailed deer population of Valley Forge National Park.  On October 4, the Service announced that the “lethal reduction phase” was set to begin this November and would take place over the next 4 years.  Overall, by 2014, the Service plans [...]

Summer Job at Compassion Over Killing

David Cassuto From the email — a cool-looking summer gig. SUMMER LITIGATION INTERN POSITION Compassion Over Killing (COK) is seeking Litigation Interns for Summer, 2011 (unpaid). Compassion Over Killing is a national nonprofit (501(c)(3)) animal advocacy organization. Working to end animal abuse since 1995, COK focuses on ending and preventing cruelty to animals in agriculture. [...]

Recent Animal Law Scholarship

David Cassuto With a hat tip to ace Pace Law Librarian, Jack McNeil, here is some animal law scholarship published this month: ANIMAL LAW. Gregory, John DeWitt. Pet custody: distorting language and the law. 44 Fam. L.Q. 35-64 (2010). Karp, Adam P. and Julie I. Fershtman. Recent developments in animal tort and insurance law. 45 [...]

D.C. Passes Wildlife Protection Act

Gillian Lyons Earlier this week, the D.C. City Council unanimously passed B18-498, the Wildlife Protection Act.  You may be wondering exactly what type of wildlife resides within the limits of the District of Columbia and the answer, inevitably, is various species that the human species unfortunately views as “pests.”  Many of these species fall under [...]

Bee Careful

Sam Capasso I was recently made aware that Illinois is taking bees the only way they should be taken: seriously.  In the middle of July this past summer, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed Public Act 96-1028 into law, becoming effective starting January 1, 2011. The law protects bees and their keepers by adding and changing [...]

Some Noteworthy Blogs

David Cassuto From the props desk: Top 101 Blogs to Inspire You To Protect Endangered Species. Look for us therein.

Happy Meals No More in San Francisco

David Cassuto The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has voted to prohibit Happy Meals (and their ilk) from having toys until the nutritional content is improved.  The mayor has promised to veto it but the 8-3 margin of passage is veto-proof.  Some skinny: “Under the proposal, restaurants would be barred from giving away the popular [...]

Government Hypocrisy — The Dairy Version

David Cassuto                 Amidst all the topsy turvy election results, one can easily start obsessing about the nation’s future.  Or, one can cling to the words of Lee Hays whose comment on the 1980 election results was: “This too shall pass; I’ve had kidney stones and I know.”  [...]

Animal Law Voter Initiatives: The Results

Gillian Lyons Early this week, Professor Cassuto linked us to a website which ran through all of the animal welfare based initiatives included on ballots across the country. Well, the results are in, and here they are: The Losses: Arkansas:  Capturing 83 % of the vote, Issue 1, which proposed a constitutional amendment that would [...]

Animal Law Voter Initiatives

David Cassuto Informative post here regarding various animal law-related ballot initiatives on ballots around the country,  Sadly, with the exception of Missouri’s Prop B (which deals with puppy mills), they’re pretty much all hunting related.

North Dakota Measure 2 — Canned Hunting Contextualized

David Cassuto There’s an odd debate going on within the North Dakota agriculture industry over Measure 2, which would ban canned hunting in the state.  On the one hand are those who support the measure because they believe canned hunts  reflect badly on the animal industry and also bring the threat of disease to livestock.  [...]