Mara Hirz is a lifelong animal lover, dedicated shelter volunteer, and pitbull advocate.
Always a bit of a free spirit, the path that brought Mara to Lewis & Clark Law School and the Animal Law LLM program has not been straight. Mara’s educational background is diverse: she has a A.A. in Micro-Electromechanical Systems, a BS in Mechanical Engineering, a Master of Business Administration, and a Juris Doctorate. For the past few years, Mara’s legal practice has focused on criminal defense.
In 2020, Mara’s life changed forever when she rescued a senior pitbull named Ludo from her local municipal shelter, CITY DOGS Cleveland. Ludo is Mara’s best friend and Mara is the love of Ludo’s life. The dedicated staff and volunteers who cared for Ludo before he found his forever home, introduced Ludo to Mara, and ultimately saved Ludo’s life, inspired Mara to join them as a CITY DOGS volunteer.
The experience of volunteering with CITY DOGS not only increased Mara’s love of rescue dogs, but taught her a tremendous amount about compassion and the intersection between human rights and animal rights. Ultimately, Mara aspires to change policy and regulation. She wants to build community programs that help keep companion animals and people in homes together, eliminate breed specific legislation, and implement mandatory spay/neuter laws. Most importantly, Mara wants to address the systemic barriers which perpetuate animal abandonment and cruelty at all levels, so that the world is a more fair place for both people and animals alike.