Legal Niches

The New York State?s new bill: end of pet sale for good?

Posted on March 09, 2020
Chloe Kim On February 3, 2020, the New York State Senate?s Domestic Animal Welfare Committee approved the bill (S.4234/A.6298) that has been introduced by Senator Michael Gianaris and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal. The bill would prohibit retail pet stores and commercial pet shops from selling any dog, cat, or rabbit...

Canadian beavers in Patagonia?s forests: environmental ethics and invasive species management

Posted on March 08, 2020
Andrea Galassi According to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute, beavers, the largest rodents in North America, are ?one of the few species that significantly modify their environment.? By erecting of watertight dams of sticks woven with reeds, branches and saplings, which are caulked with mud, they diminish the stream erosion and form slow-moving […]

What?s going on with feral cats?

Posted on March 08, 2020
Chloe Kim It is estimated that about 68 percent of U.S. households live with animal (non-human) companions, and there are approximately 94 million pet cats in the U.S. On the other hand, the number of feral cats in the U.S. is estimated as many as 160 million...

Chemically Castrate the Swamp

Posted on March 08, 2020
  Alexis Tomaino Atrazine wreaks havoc on the sex lives of adult male frogs, emasculating three-quarters of them and turning one in 10 into female. The 75 percent that are chemically castrated are essentially ?dead? because of their inability to reproduce in the wild...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Border Walls & Climate Change

Posted on March 08, 2020
Alexis Tomaino Scientists now estimate that ?half of all life? is ?on the move? in direct response to anthropogenic climate change.  Yet at the very moment when ecological corridors for animal migrations should be safeguarded and prospectively secured because of climate change, more nations are constructing international barriers as a national security tool to impede […]

Denver Stops Bullying the Bully Breeds

Posted on March 08, 2020
Emma Campbell Pit bulls were banned from Denver in 1989. There have been many legal challenges to the law and in 2004, the Colorado state legislature outlawed breed-specific bans. However, this only lasted about a year because the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that dog breeds were a local issue, and therefore the city had a […]

?Furever? Home or Hospice? New FDA Regulation Approves Animal Abuse and Allows Labs to put the Abused up for Adoption

Posted on March 08, 2020
Giovanna DiFilippo Humans have used animals for experimentation in biomedical research as far back as ancient Greco-Roman times. Classic philosophers, including the likes of Aristotle and Erasistratus, recorded their experiments on animals and their writings are some of the first records of animal testing in existence...

Animal Mistreatment Causes Environmental Damage

Posted on March 08, 2020
Gabriela Tavarez Pollution impacts animals just as much as it affects humans.  Human activity (factory farming, waste disposal, etc.) impacts wildlife?s habitat.  In addition, erratic and long-lasting wildfires in California have caused over a billion animals to die...

Retail Pet Sales Ban (A Hope To End Puppy Mills)

Posted on March 08, 2020
Rebecca Powers The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) gives the Secretary of Agriculture the authority to promulgate regulations for the sale, housing, and treatment of pets. ?A puppy mill is a breeding operation that breeds dogs for profit, prioritizing financial gain over the health or well-being of the dogs...

How Backyard Breeders are Negating Pet Shop Bans

Posted on March 08, 2020
Elizabeth Burns Just over a month ago, two pug babies were surrendered to The Pug Queen and Tiny Paws Pug Rescue. Sisters Bella and Sadie were only 3.5 months old, but both had tested positive for canine distemper. The virus begins by attacking the respiratory system before replicating and attacking the rest of the dog?s […]

The American Diet of Meat

Posted on March 31, 2011
David Cassuto With a hat tip to Scu and a huzzah to the NY Times, this graphic speaks for itself:

Law, Food, & Vegas

Posted on March 30, 2011
David Cassuto (also up in GreenLaw) Alas, blogging has paid a heavy price for what has been and continues to be a very busy semester.  But it?s been busy in a good way.  To wit, I am recently returned from both Las Vegas and Rio.  I?ll discuss Rio in my next post but first, to [...

The Agribusiness Lobby Wins Again

Posted on March 28, 2011
Jacqueline McMahon Well, there go the rights of farmed animals and whistleblowers in Iowa.  On March 17, 2011, the Republican-dominated Iowa House of Representative voted 65-27 to approve a bill criminalizing secretly recording factory farm practices...

Wolves have their day in court?again

Posted on March 25, 2011
First, anyone who aspires to be a judge should take a gander at this. Here’s the latest on the complex legal maneuvers surrounding the wolf issue in the northern Rockies. A small cadre of “anti-wolf protesters” showed up outside the courthouse in Missoula, MT yesterday–to view the rest of their signs, click here.

Fashion, fishin?, & factory farming: Fowl play in the news

Posted on March 20, 2011
Kathleen Stachowski Other Nations Today it was corndogs. Two days ago it was feathers.  More often than not, something I read in the local morning paper gets my goat. It’s not that I go looking for the dark side, mind you. Whether an article deals with fun, food, or fashion, if the news-maker relies on animal [...

Going Dutch ? National Debate on Factory Farming

Posted on March 18, 2011
Laurens Peters As is the case in many countries, Holland?s factory farming business has always been largely hidden from the ordinary consumer?s view. This is no small feat in a country that slaughters half a billion farm animals per year. Holland is as densely populated as New Jersey, less than twice its size...

Minding the GAP Program

Posted on March 13, 2011
    William Sheehan In a market awash with vague and misguiding advertising regarding the treatment of animals raised for slaughter, Whole Foods? proposed GAP Program is a breath of fresh air. Whole Foods announced that it will rate food items that use animal products on a 5-step scale, established by the Global Animal Partnership, [...

Bad luck for the bunny

Posted on March 09, 2011
Kathleen Stachowski Other Nations At first glance, the Chinese Lunar New Year and Easter have little in common.  On second glance, a long-eared furry creature hops through both. Is it possible to celebrate a new year and wax sentimental about a candy-bearing bunny while ignoring the atrocities faced by the family Leporidae? The Chinese new year [...

Eating Live Lobsters: Painful or Delicious?

Posted on March 07, 2011
Lili Corn I recently received an email advertising a hot new delicacy at a swanky New York City restaurant and couldn?t wait to share the news! Apparently, the best way to eat a spiny lobster is while it?s still alive (I was promised the opportunity to ?pick belly sashimi out of its still moving body?)...

The Donation Loophole in the Lacey Act ? A Win for Animal Smugglers?

Posted on March 05, 2011
Jacqueline McMahon In the United States, animal smuggling is a $10 billion industry.  Worldwide, animal smuggling is seen by participants as a “low risk, high profit” business because of the limited breadth of domestic legislation, undermanned agencies, and lax penalties...

Killing the Holy Grail: Fisher, wolverine trapping continues

Posted on March 04, 2011
  Kathleen Stachowski Other Nations Last autumn, on a remote forest road in Montana’s northern Bitterroot Mountains, I saw my first fisher. The luxuriously-coated, dark brown carnivore–a member of the weasel family–had just caught lunch...

You?ll Eat It and Like It: Rehabbing Vegans in Texas Prisons

Posted on February 27, 2011
David Cassuto First the bad news then some good news then some middling, reality check observations. It seems that a prisoner in Texas wishes to eat a vegan diet but the prison system will not let him.  Texas currently offers only a “meatless option,” which includes dairy and eggs...

Fearing and spearing animals in Montana

Posted on February 24, 2011
Kathleen Stachowski The Montana legislature meets every other year for 90 days. There’s always talk of how this isn’t long enough to get the people’s business done, but some years (like this one) would be better skipped altogether. The legislature–ever filled with pillars of anti-government, anti-regulation conservatism–is awash in a bath of tea-fueled fervor this [...

In Poor Taste

Posted on February 21, 2011
Seth Victor I’ve been meaning to comment about an article I read earlier this month. As NPR’s Robert Krulwich reports, a couple of innovators from the UK have created carnivorous machines. I think the article sufficiently captures the mix of awe and  horror at the development of furniture that derives its energy from consuming animals...

Don?t Mail Dogs; Just Don?t Do It

Posted on February 10, 2011
David Cassuto From the Wouldn’t Make This Stuff Up Even if We Could Desk: Here’s a newsflash for all those who think humanity’s superior intellect is what separates us from “lower” animals…

Amidst a Windy Congress, Some Protections for Birds

Posted on February 10, 2011
David Cassuto (also up in GreenLaw) I?ve blogged before about the dangers to wildlife from wind turbines.   Well, this just in: yesterday, the Department of the Interior released draft guidelines to protect wildlife from wind turbines  while calling on all involved in the industry to rigorously monitor, assess, and incorporate best practices into their designs...

Do You Know What It Means for a Vegan to Miss New Orleans?

Posted on February 09, 2011
Douglas Doneson No matter how many cups of Yerba Mate I drink or how many lamps I turn on (or off) to get the right lighting, I can?t focus on my law school work. After living in New Orleans for close to six years my body knows Mardi Gras is approaching...

Cat Talk, Kitty Litter, and Inglorious, Litigious Homo Sapiens

Posted on February 04, 2011
David Cassuto From the Where Litigation Should Go To Die Desk: I’d like to think that Arm & Hammer dropped its lawsuit against Clorox Co., the maker of Fresh Step kitty litter because it (Arm & Hammer) was embarrassed.  Apparently, the gravamen of the suit lay with Clorox’s contention that “cats prefer Fresh Step...

?Petrie-Pork?: The Future for Meatatarians?

Posted on February 03, 2011
Rosana Escobar Brown Test tube tacos, in-vitro veal parm, and beaker burgers?sounds like something more from a Jetson?s episode than from a leading science journal, but could it be for real? Scientists have been developing lab-created meat for over a decade and now it seems as though this man-made meat might just become reality…someday...

New Animal Ethics Book Series

Posted on January 30, 2011
David Cassuto From the email: LAUNCH OF PIONEERING BOOK SERIES ON ANIMAL ETHICS   The publisher Palgrave Macmillan in partnership with the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics is delighted to announce the publication of the first two books in its pioneering new book series on animal ethics: An Introduction to Animals and Political Theory by [...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.