The 27th Animal Law Conference Explores the Complex, Evolving Topic of Animals' Legal Status
Justice the horse was badly mistreated by the person who was supposed to take care of him — Gwendolyn Vercher. Vercher left Justice out in the cold, without adequate food or care. When the horse was rescued in 2017, he was emaciated and suffered from genital frostbite, lice, and rain rot.
Vercher pleaded guilty to criminal animal neglect that year, but Justice’s injuries from this neglect are so severe that he will require expensive, specialized treatment for the rest of his life.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a civil lawsuit in Justice’s name that seeks damages to pay for Justice’s ongoing care. This lawsuit could establish, for the very first time, that animals have a legal right to sue their abusers in court.
Registration is open now for the 27th annual Animal Law Conference — October 25-27, 2019 in Portland, Oregon. The conference will explore the critical issue of animals’ legal status and how it is being transformed, in civil, criminal, and international law.
Joyce Tischler, the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s founder, will present an introduction and overview of the legal status of animals — and how this part of the effort to protect animals through the legal system fits in with the broader animal protection movement as a whole.
Additional speakers include: Congressman Earl Blumenauer; Dr. Kate Darling, MIT robot ethicist; Lora Dunn, Director of the Criminal Justice Program for the Animal Legal Defense Fund; Kathy Hessler, Animal Law Clinic Director at Lewis & Clark Law School; Jake Kamins, the Animal Cruelty Deputy District Attorney in the State of Oregon; Jean-Marc Neumann, a French lawyer, lecturer, and consultant in animal law; Kevin Schneider, Nonhuman Rights Project Executive Director; and more.
Animal law is an emerging, and evolving, field. Although they are distinct areas of law, some scholars compare animal law’s trajectory over the past decade to the development of environmental law when it emerged in the 1970s. In addition to environmental law, animal law draws comparisons with other social justice movements that began at the grassroots level and have inexorably moved into the spheres of policy and academia, such as women’s rights and civil rights.
The legal system still, in many ways, treats animals as “property” — not much different from a table or a chair — instead of according them a legal status that reflects that animals are sentient beings, creatures with the capacity for pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, fear and contentment.
Justice the horse’s case is innovative and groundbreaking. Animals’ legal status is evolving, along with the field of animal law as a whole. Should this case be successful, should animals’ legal status be recognized as what it should be, perhaps abused animals can finally be made whole.
The Animal Law Conference is co-presented by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School, and the Lewis & Clark Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Chapter.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund was founded forty years ago to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. To accomplish this mission, the Animal Legal Defense Fund files high-impact lawsuits to protect animals from harm; provides free legal assistance and training to prosecutors to assure that animal abusers are punished for their crimes; supports tough animal protection legislation and fights harmful legislation; and provides resources and opportunities to law students and professionals to advance the emerging field of animal law. For more information, please visit aldf.org.
This content is advertising.
