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Animal Law Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Animal Law

Litigating Nonhuman Animal Legal Personhood, Richard L. Cupp Jr. Dec 2017

Litigating Nonhuman Animal Legal Personhood, Richard L. Cupp Jr.

Richard L. Cupp Jr.

In 2017 a New York appellate court issued a landmark ruling rejecting an animal rights organization’s efforts to assign legal personhood status to chimpanzees in Matter of Nonhuman Rights Project, Inc. v. Lavery. This paper provides context for the ruling, and includes an amicus curiae brief the author filed in the case. The court discussed the amicus curiae brief in explaining its ruling, and a prominent animal law blog described the court’s decision as “citing to and relying on” the brief. The brief asserts and the court ruled that rights are broadly connected to humans’ norm of capacity for legal …


Decoding "Never Again", Sherry F. Colb Jun 2015

Decoding "Never Again", Sherry F. Colb

Sherry Colb

This article, Decoding “Never Again,” narrates its author’s experience as a child of two Holocaust survivors, one of whom participated in rescuing thousands of his fellow Jews during the war. Colb meditates on this legacy and concludes that her understanding of it has played an important role in inspiring her scholarship about (and ethical commitment to) animal rights. She examines and analyzes the ways in which analogies between the Holocaust and anything else can trigger people’s anger and offense, and she then draws a distinction between occasions when offense is an appropriate response to such analogies and when it need …


Owning What You Eat: The Discourse Of Food, David N. Cassuto Oct 2012

Owning What You Eat: The Discourse Of Food, David N. Cassuto

David N Cassuto

This essay examines the role of communication in the formation of law and social norms and the implications of that role for animal law and ethics. Part III contextualizes animal law within contemporary risk society. Part IV looks at how efficiency has transformed from an economic concept into a normative guideline and discusses how that transformation has affected animals and agriculture. It tracks the rise of industrial agriculture and ties it to this fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of efficiency. The essay concludes with some thoughts on how to reformulate contemporary notions of efficiency and ethics to account for the …


Lessons Learned: Acting As Guardian/Special Master In The Bad Newz Kennels Case, Rebecca J. Huss Jan 2008

Lessons Learned: Acting As Guardian/Special Master In The Bad Newz Kennels Case, Rebecca J. Huss

Rebecca J. Huss

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia appointed Rebecca Huss as the guardian/special master of the pit bulls that were the subject of the case against Michael Vick relating to dog fighting. In April of 2007, the Surry County Sheriff's Department seized fifty-three pit bulls from Vick's home in Virginia. According to the facts set forth in the plea agreement, dogs on the property were killed and subjected to violent dog fights. Similar to human victims of abuse, the dogs needed someone to represent their best interests during litigation. Huss was in charge of determining whether …