Legal Niches

Upcoming Critical Animal Studies Conference

Posted on March 13, 2010
 The 9th Annual Conference on Critical Animal Studies will take place on April 10th, 2010 at SUNY Cortland in Cortland, NY.  Get the lowdown here.

In Case You Were Wondering?

Posted on March 12, 2010
via h/t Prabhat Gautam

What We Talk About When We Talk About Industrial Agriculture & Climate Change

Posted on March 11, 2010
David Cassuto Santos was interesting.  First, who knew there was a significant mountain range between Rio & Sao Paulo?  Even having flown this route many times, I was surprised by the size and extent of the range which we drove over. My talk on biofuels, industrial agriculture and climate change was well-received in an odd but increasingly [...

Endangered Sei Whale Sushi ? You Just Have to Know Who to Ask

Posted on March 11, 2010
The Hump, a chic Japanese restaurant in Santa Monica, apparently served sushi made from the flesh of the endangered sei whale to customers willing to fork over the appropriate dough.  Two patrons went to the restaurant with an undercover film crew and, after racking up a $600 tab, requested whale meat...

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Biofuels, Climate Change & Agriculture

Posted on March 10, 2010
David Cassuto Our hero is off to Santos, south of Sao Paulo to participate in a congress on biofuels.  I will speak about the tangled relationship between biofuels, climate change and factory-farming.  I’m interested to see the reactions.

Giving Words Meaning (or Taking It Away)

Posted on March 09, 2010
David Cassuto So here’s new linguistic turn: putting words in quotes to indicate uncertainty as to accuracy (as opposed to putting words in quotes to indicate irony or sarcasm).  Contrast, for example, It was a ‘good’ idea for California State Senator Roy Ashburn, a closeted gay man with a ferociously anti-gay agenda to drive drunk (and [...

Thinking About Animal Law

Posted on March 07, 2010
Bruce Wagman Lately, I have been think about animal law almost constantly.  That has been the case for some time actually.  I?ve had the honor of being involved in the field for about eighteen years at some level, and pretty much had a full time animal law practice for the last five years...

Still Thinking About Dogs (and Cats Too)

Posted on March 06, 2010
Bruce Wagman There?s so many issues that come up with dogs that I am still thinking about them.  And much of this applies to cats as well.  Let me be clear to start that I live with three dogs, five cats and one wife, and it?s the rare event that I get to sleep on my [...

Circus Blowback

Posted on March 05, 2010
David Cassuto The good folks at Ringling Bros. (aka Feld Entertainment Inc.) have taken some time out from bullhooking elephants to file a RICO suit against HSUS and the other plaintiffs in the recent lawsuit about elephant mistreatment and the Endangered Species Act...

Thinking About Dogs

Posted on March 04, 2010
Bruce Wagman I have had dogs on my mind lately.  They are the main players in many of my (and many animal lawyers?) cases, and they are the species I get the most calls about.  This week I had a call about a sheep owner shooting a roaming dog, with the caller wondering about the implication [...

Breeding Ignorance

Posted on March 04, 2010
David Cassuto Wherever you go, there it is.  Or something like that.  Settling into Rio means (for me, anyway) drinking my bodyweight in tropical juices and running on the beach.  It also means working really hard on my Portuguese, which involves spending a lot of time with the dictionary and the newspaper...

Thinking About Pigs

Posted on March 03, 2010
Bruce Wagman Pigs have been on my mind a lot lately.  Years ago I met several of them at the Farm Sanctuary home in Orland, California, and while I already had appreciated their complex personalities and emotional lives, getting to spend time with them changed the knowledge to revelation...

Thinking About Elephants

Posted on March 02, 2010
Bruce Wagman I have been thinking about elephants.  The recent disappointing judgment in the hard-fought Ringling Brothers case is really only one reason.  I?ve been involved in a few nonlitigation matters trying to help make life better for elephants in zoos in different states, have visited the elephants at PAWS in California, and have spent many [...

Thinking About Wild Horses

Posted on March 01, 2010
Bruce Wagman Lately I have been thinking about wild horses.  I discovered the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1331-1340 (Wild Horses Act), when I was collecting materials for the first animal law class at Hastings College of the Law in 1996...

Thinking About Chimpanzees

Posted on February 28, 2010
Bruce Wagman Lately I have been thinking about chimpanzees.  I have been fascinated by them since one spit on me as a child, and then overwhelmed by my first visit to Gombe National Park in the months before I began practicing law, when I saw their natural lives, as perfect as anything I could have imagined...

Burying Factory Farms with Faint Praise?

Posted on February 27, 2010
David Cassuto Not too long ago, I blogged about Beppe Bigazzi, the Italian tv host who advocated for stewing cats.  My working theory was that Bigazzi could not possibly have been stupid enough not to know his remarks would create a backlash.  If so, then he was being wonderfully subversive  in a manner only available to those who [...

Blogging from Brazil

Posted on February 25, 2010
David Cassuto I?m live-blogging from the plane on my way to Rio.  Actually, that?s not true.  There?s no in-flight internet connection so by the time you read this, the time of writing will have long passed.  Indeed, this situation reifies the ongoing and insuperable challenge faced by all writers...

California Bill Proposes Animal Abuser Registry

Posted on February 22, 2010
David Cassuto From the Hopeful Developments Desk: California State Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez has drafted a bill (with help from the ALDF) which will require people convicted of felony animal abuse to register with the state and provide a current photo, home address, place of employment and other information...

Friedman and Norman on Maryland DV Protective Orders

Posted on February 20, 2010
Bridget Crawford Joshua L. Friedman (Attorney Advisor, U.S. Social Security Administration) and Gary C. Norman (Staff Attorney, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) have published their article, “Protecting the Family Pet: The New Face of Maryland Domestic Violence Protective Orders,” 40 U...

Volunteer Opportunity:Protecting Bison from Those Who Want Them Dead

Posted on February 19, 2010
David Cassuto The bison herd in Yellowstone Park is protected from hunters.  Until the animals leave the park — which they are sometimes wont to do, as bison have no pockets in which to carry a map.  As soon as the animals step over the park boundary they become prey for hunters abetted by the livestock [...

To Stew a Cat

Posted on February 18, 2010
David Cassuto According to an Italian cooking show host, cat stew is a delicacy.  Beppe Bigazzi recently declared that: “Cat, soaked for three days in the running water of a stream” in Tuscany “comes out with its meat white, and I assure you ? I have eaten it many times ? that it is a delicacy...

State by State Breakdown of Animal Protection Laws

Posted on February 15, 2010
David Cassuto To read about it, go here; for the breakdown, here, here, and here.

Another E. coli Flesh Recall

Posted on February 13, 2010
David Cassuto There’s really nothing one can say about this that’s new.  Oh, the ongoing infamy.

GA Bar Adds Animal Law Section

Posted on February 12, 2010
Bridget Crawford The State Bar of Georgia has added an Animal Law section.  Law.com (pay site ? sorry; 30 day passes available) has the story here.  Law.com reports that there are several animal-law related bills pending in the state legislature including HB 429 (protective orders for pets)and SB 131 (pet trusts)...

?Organic? Rules Revised

Posted on February 12, 2010
David Cassuto Breaking news from the AP: The Agriculture Department is sharpening the standards for organic milk and meat. New rules announced Friday say organic milk and meat must come from livestock that graze in pastures at least four months of the year...

The Return of the Aurochs ? Along With Some Baggage

Posted on February 12, 2010
David Cassuto Ever seen an aurochs?  Ever heard of one?  Answers to the latter query may vary but the response to the former is assuredly “no.”  The aurochs is an ancestor of domestic cattle and went extinct in 1627.  Though domesticated 8,000 years ago, it also lived in the wild in much of Europe until the [...

Habeas for Chimps

Posted on February 11, 2010
David Cassuto I will soon be blogging from Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, to be precise).  More about that soon.  While in Rio, here’s a case I’ll be following: Jimmy is a 26 year old chimpanzee who has spent several years alone in a cage, where he’s on exhibit at a zoo in Niterói, Brazil, just outside of [...

NYC Carriage Horse Panel on 2/23

Posted on February 10, 2010
David Cassuto More from the NYLHV email: 2/23 Panel Discussion: Protecting Animals and Humans: The Past, Present and Future of Horse Carriages in NYC Since the 1970?s, New York City residents and animal protection organizations have advocated to protect horses used in the carriage industry and ensure public safety; however, the dangers created by animal-pulled vehicles [...

NYLHV Board Member Nominated to AVMA Executive Board

Posted on February 10, 2010
David Cassuto From the email (from the New York League of Humane Voters): NYLHV Veterinarian Needs Your Help! Dr. John Hynes, a veterinarian and Board Member of NYLHV has been nominated to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)  Executive Board...

On Autism, Activism, Compassion, Love and Slaughter

Posted on February 08, 2010
Bridget Crawford Bitch Magazine has a critical post (here) inspired by the Temple Grandin HBO biopic starring Claire Danes.  Here is an excerpt of the review by Brittany Shoot: I wondered why Grandin, understanding how out of control factory farming has gotten in the last forty years (thanks in part to her [...

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