19th Annual Conference

Standing Up for Animals: Can a Bad Economy Inspire Greater Goodness?

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Bernard E. Rollin

University Distinguished Professor, Colorado State University

 Dr. Bernard E. Rollin (B.A. CCNY, Ph.D. Columbia) is University Distinguished Professor, Professor of Philosophy, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Professor of Animal Sciences, and University Bioethicist at Colorado State University.

Rollin taught the first course ever done in the world in veterinary medical ethics, which has been a required part of the veterinary curriculum at CSU since 1978, and was a pioneer in reforming animal use in surgery teaching and laboratory exercises in veterinary colleges.  He is a principal architect of 1985 federal legislation dealing with the welfare of experimental animals, and has testified before Congress on animal experimentation.  He has consulted for various agencies of the governments of the U.S., Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and South Africa on many aspects of animal research, for the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress on genetic engineering of animals, for NIH on animal pain, and for the World Health Organization on using antimicrobials in food animals. He has consulted for the USDA/CSRS on farm animal welfare research, for APHIS on future planning, and for numerous multinational corporations on a variety of animal issues. These companies include United Airlines, McDonald’s, PETCO, DuPont, Chipotle, and the US Soybean Association. He served on the Pew National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (PCIFAP) and on the Institute for Laboratory Animal Resources (ILAR) Council of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2008, he mediated a historic agreement between the Humane Society of the U.S. and Colorado agriculture resulting in legislation advancing the welfare of farm animals.

Click here to read more about Professor Rollin.

Joyce Tischler

Founder and General Counsel, Animal Legal Defense Fund

As one of the visionaries who co-founded the Animal Legal Defense Fund over a quarter century ago, California attorney Joyce Tischler has helped shape the emerging field of animal law. Joyce handled some of Animal Legal Defense Fund’s earliest cases, including a 1981 lawsuit that halted the U.S. Navy’s plan to kill 5,000 feral burros and a 1988 challenge to the U.S. Patent Office’s rule allowing the patenting of genetically altered animals. She has tackled such diverse topics as challenges to hunting and trapping using the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA), enforcement of the federal Animal Welfare Act, standing to sue, animal custody battles, the right to kill animals pursuant to will provisions, landlord-tenant issues and damages and recovery for injury to or death of an animal. Joyce was the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s executive director for 25 years and now serves as the agency’s general counsel, responsible for writing, lecturing on and promoting the field of animal law. In 2009, The American Bar Association Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) Animal Law Committee honored Joyce with the Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law Award.

 

Panelists

Sara Amundson

Executive Director, Humane Society Legislative Fund

Sara Amundson is the Executive Director of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, the 501(c)4 legislative and political organization affiliated with The Humane Society of the United States. In this capacity, she directs political and legislative activity for HSLF. She was previously the Deputy and Legislative Director of the Doris Day Animal League where she directed local, state and federal legislation to protect wild horses and burros, prevent the use of animals in the “Crush” video industry, prevent the slaughter of horses for human consumption, require the use of non-animal, alternative tests, promote spaying and neutering, and require appropriate federal regulation of breeders. She testified before the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions supporting the Bittering Agent bill and the Pet Animal Welfare Statute.  Sara’s primary area of expertise is in the use of animals for testing and, as such, she has been the principal lobbyist behind the acceptance of Corrositex® as the first federally approved non-animal, alternative test; passage of the ICCVAM Authorization Act; passage of the California, New York and New Jersey alternatives laws; the first federal appropriation for research, development and validation on non-animal, alternative tests; ongoing federal appropriations for research and development of non-animal, alternative methods; and the Congressional mandate for a five-year plan for implementation. She successfully lobbied to increase funding, by $4 million, for the EPA’s Computational Toxicology program for fiscal year 2010.  She has been a featured speaker at the University of Virginia Law School, Lewis and Clark Law School and Harvard Law School and has appeared on CNN, ABC News and in print for major U.S. newspapers.

 

Sarah Baeckler

Executive Director, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Sarah Baeckler is a primatologist and lawyer with degrees in primate behavior and anthropology, whose research focused on chimpanzee communication and cultures of captive management. After several years of working with captive chimpanzees in zoos and sanctuaries, Sarah worked undercover at a Hollywood animal training compound where she witnessed and reported on institutionalized abuse of chimpanzees by the trainers. She spent five years as the administrator of the Chimpanzee Collaboratory, a joint effort of several nonprofits including Animal Legal Defense Fund, The Jane Goodall Institute, and Save the Chimps. Inspired by the lawsuit that resulted in the rescue of the chimpanzees she met while undercover, she expanded her focus by combining her scientific experience with legal training at Lewis and Clark Law School. As Executive Director of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest Sarah focuses her efforts on advocacy and fundraising.

 

Bruce Berning

Attorney, Tonkon Torp LLP

Bruce Berning is a partner with the Portland, Oregon law firm Tonkon Torp LLP.  Bruce has had a broad and varied business law practice at Tonkon Torp for more than 30 years.  Bruce has been the Legal Counsel for Banfield Pet Hospital since the inception of that business in 1994.  Before joining Tonkon Torp in 1979, Bruce served as law clerk for the Honorable George M. Joseph, Oregon Court of Appeals.  Bruce is a 1977 graduate of Harvard Law School.

 

 

Rebeka Breder

Barrister & Solicitor, Boughton Law Corporation; Board of Directors, Vancouver Humane Society

Rebeka practises general corporate commercial litigation and animal law at Boughton Law Corporation in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Rebeka’s interest in animal law issues first began as a thirteen year old when she discovered a dead duck from duck hunting along the suburban shores of Montreal. She subsequently brought that same dead duck to a Montreal City Hall meeting, along with a petition to ban duck hunting in the area. She convinced City Hall as well as some of the surrounding municipalities to ban the discharge of firearms within one kilometre of the shore. Twenty (somewhat) years later, Rebeka’s animal law practice includes acting for both plaintiffs and defendants in veterinary malpractice suits, representing clients whose animals were injured as a result of tainted food (product liability claims), acting exclusively for dog owners whose dogs are facing destruction orders as a result of being designated “dangerous/aggressive/viscious” dogs, and acting for veterinarians in professional disciplinary complaints. Rebeka is the founder and Chair of the first Animal Law section of the Canadian Bar Association, which she formed in 2008. She is also the director of the Vancouver Humane Society. Most importantly, Rebeka is the “mother” of two very happy (fat and) rescued cats and one rescued Great Dane/Mastiff dog.

 

Taimie Bryant

Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law

Professor Bryant has been a member of the UCLA Law faculty since January of 1988. Because she is trained both as an anthropologist and a lawyer, she regularly incorporates interdisciplinary perspectives in her teaching and scholarship. She has written about psychological and sociological theories about trauma in relation to advocacy for animals, feminist theory as applied to animal law, and, most recently, moral philosophy and its applicability to animal law. She has taught animal law courses at UCLA Law since 1994, including courses about animal shelters, animal law and theory, animal law and popular culture, and animal law and advocacy. She also teaches Property, which includes consideration of the status of animals as the legal property of people rather than as legal persons, and Tax-Exempt Organizations.  As to tax-exempt organizations, Professor Bryant is particularly interested in how such organizations can move ideas from the margins of society to the mainstream and whether such organizations may be more or less successful in generating social change than new forms of for-profit enterprises whose owners want to provide public benefits in addition to the profits they seek for themselves. Professor Bryant regularly assists organizations and legislators with review and drafting of animal-protective legislation, especially shelter reform legislation, but she also strongly believes that legal reform actually begins with social reform and that social reform begins with individuals one by one observing each other becoming more thoughtful and compassionate in their daily behaviors that affect animals.

 

David Cassuto

Professor of Law, Pace Law School

David N. Cassuto is Professor of Law at Pace Law School, where he teaches in the fields of animal law, environmental law, and property.  He serves on the board of the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) and is also the Class of 1946 Distinguished Visiting Professor of Environmental Law at Williams College and a Visiting Professor of Law at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil.  He holds a JD from the University of California, Berkeley,  a PhD from Indiana University, and a B.A. from Wesleyan University.  Prior to joining the Pace faculty, he practiced complex civil litigation, clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and was a professor of American Literature.
 
He speaks and writes frequently on animal law & policy as well as many other topics within environmental law and environmental and cultural studies.  In addition to several books and many articles on topics ranging from water as cultural signifier to climate change & factory farms, Professor Cassuto is also the founder and principle contributor to the Animal Blawg, a blog on animal law, ethics, and policy.

 

Pete Castleberry

Attorney at Law, Castleberry & Elison, PC

Pete Castleberry graduated from Lewis and Clark Law School in 2010 and immediately started a private criminal defense practice with his law partner Emily Elison. In law school, Pete studied Animal Law and was a member of the Lewis and Clark Animal Law Clinic where he worked on issues related to Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Pete also served as a member of the Non-Human Rights Project where he researched and wrote about ancient slavery laws and their potential applicability to modern Animal Law issues.

 

Ethan Davidsohn

Sous Chef, Lewis & Clark College

Ethan Davidsohn is a Sous Chef for Bon Appétit at Lewis & Clark College. Ethan and the other chefs at Bon Appétit make it a top priority to source produce locally and seasonally as much as possible.  On any given day, upon entering the dining room on the main campus you can expect to see a bounty of fresh local produce sourced from as many as 20 different local farms and purveyors. Also in the Fields Dining Room is a 100% vegan/vegetarian station, which is open at both lunch and dinner. Although this station is not always vegan there is always a vegan option available as well as vegan options available at most of the other stations in the dining room.

In his spare time, Ethan likes to cook at home for his wife Emily, as well as their two dogs Dually and Ramona. He is also an avid home brewer who enjoys mixing beer styles to create unique and delicious combinations. Ethan has spent a lot of time over his more than 15 years of cooking, exploring ways to mimic classic dishes that contain animal products using few additives, chemical agents, or processed ingredients.

 

Maneesha Deckha

Professor of Law, University of Victoria, Faculty of Law

Maneesha Deckha is Associate Professor at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law. Her research interests include critical animal studies, feminist theory, law and culture, animal law, and bioethics. Her work has been published in Canada and internationally. Her animal-related publications have appeared in the Hastings Women’s Law Journal, the Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society, Ethics & the Environment, the Animal Law Review, the Journal of Animal Law and Ethics, the Stanford Journal of Animal Law and Policy, Unbound: the Harvard Journal of the Legal Left, the Journal for Critical Animal Studies, and Animal Law.

Professor Deckha is the recipient of grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. In 2008 she held the Fulbright Visiting Chair in Law and Society at New York University to pursue her book project integrating critical animal studies with animal law.

Professor Deckha has taught her seminar Animals, Culture and the Law at NYU and the University of Victoria. She has also taught courses in Bioethics, Personhood and the Law; Feminist Legal Theories; Administrative Law; Property; Law, Legislation and Policy; and Legal Process. She has been the recipient of the Faculty’s Annual Teaching Award and University of Victoria Learning and Teaching Centre Grants in support of her interactive pedagogy. In 2006, her seminar on Animals, Culture and the Law received the U.S. Humane Society’s Animal and Society New Course Award.

Professor Deckha received her B.A. from McGill University, her LL.B from the University of Toronto and her LL.M from Columbia University.

 

Carter Dillard

Director of Litigation, Animal Legal Defense Fund

Carter Dillard is the director of litigation for the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Prior to joining ALDF, Carter was appointed to the faculty of Loyola University New Orleans, College of Law, as a Westerfield Fellow. He also served as an Honors Program attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and as a legal advisor to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in the National Security Law Division. Carter later joined Compassion Over Killing as general counsel and then the Humane Society of the United States, where he served as director of farm animal litigation. He has a B.A. from Boston College, a J.D., Order of the Coif and with honors, from Emory University, and an LL.M. from New York University where he wrote his thesis under Jeremy Waldron. He is a peer reviewer for the journal Bioethics, and his work has been published by Yale, Duke, and Northwestern universities. Carter has been invited to speak at the UN World Civic Forum, has appeared on Fox Business News, and he has been quoted as an animal law expert in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.

 

Geordie Duckler

Founder & Attorney, The Animal Law Practice

Dr. Geordie Duckler heads The Animal Law Practice, a unique private law practice based in Portland, Oregon, whose clients are a wide host of companion, domestic, commercial, farm, ranch, wildlife, livestock and exotic animal owners, and whose focus is on the litigation and trial of animal-related disputes and injuries in cases across the country, state and federal. Representing plaintiffs and defendants on hundreds of unique animal cases each year ranging from minor code violations to major injury and death suits, Duckler’s practice is the only one of its kind on the West Coast and one of only a handful in the nation.

As a scientist, Duckler received his doctorate in biology from UCLA in 1997. Throughout the 1990’s, he lectured and published extensively on animal anatomy and the role of disease in ancient and modern populations. He received his gross anatomy training from UCLA Medical School and his orthopedic pathology training from the Center for Advanced Medical Education at the AFI Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C. His original scientific research in the paleopathological diagnosis of disease conditions in late Pleistocene and Holocene mammals in North American assemblages interpreted fossil evidence for increased physiological stress through pathological indicators, gross trauma, and skull and tooth abnormalities, and his numerous publications in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology and Animal Conservation contributed to a better assessment of animal health, including a better evaluation on stresses in endangered Florida pumas. That work established the very first use of Harris lines in paleontological research as a general health indicator. His modern fauna research and anatomical dissection of cranial and masticatory musculature of captive felids at the Los Angeles County Museum, and his publications in Zoo Biology describing previously unknown features in large felids raised in captivity, recorded, for the very first time, new musculatory and osteological formations in the skulls of captive tigers and contributed to a better understanding of the health of zoo animals.

As an attorney, Duckler received his J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School in 1987 and over the last 24 years has practiced civil and criminal law primarily in Oregon and California. His 1997 law review article on zoo animals received national recognition and became the focus of a landmark law conference by the Bar Association of New York. Other law review articles have addressed the economic value of domestic animals from an anthropological perspective, analyzed evidentiary problems in the proof of animal legal issues, and criticized the promotion of animal “rights”. In 2001, Duckler made national headlines as counsel in Brock v. Rowe, a civil action in Washington County, Oregon that garnered significant attention for championing the tort of “loss of companionship,” as well as for the recovery of emotional distress damages for companion pet owners. In 2006, Duckler again made headlines in Greenup v. Weaver, a civil action in Clackamas County, Oregon that garnered national and international attention for championing loss of companionship as well as for obtaining one of the highest jury verdicts in the country in a companion animal death case. In 2008, Duckler was once again covered extensively in national and international press for representing the owner of the infamous black-tail deer “Snowball” in Filipetti v. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, a civil action in Clackamas County disputing rights of private possession in rescued wildlife.

Along with representing a diverse clientele of pet owners, animal shelters, recreational riders, commercial farmers, ranchers, neighborhood associations, specialty dog and cat breeders, stable owners, animal welfare activists, sportspeople, consumers, veterinarian clients, and private adoption agencies, Duckler has taught animal law courses as an adjunct professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, sits regularly as a hearings officer for Multnomah County Animal Services, and presents yearly professional CLEs in both Oregon and California on animal law for the state bars. Duckler is frequently profiled in regional and national newspapers and magazines, as well as on television and radio programs about animal law issues and cases, including in The Oregonian, The Tribune, Willamette Week, The National Law Journal, Court TV Radio, Geraldo, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Playboy, and on National Public Radio, Canadian Broadcasting, and the BBC. He writes a regular column for The Bark magazine as its resident legal expert, and was featured in two National Geographic nature documentaries in 2007 and 2009. Most recently, Duckler has been collaborating with Dr. Sebastien Gay, an economics professor at the University of Chicago, on an upcoming book about an objective assessment of the value of dogs as companion pets. Duckler anticipates commemorating his 1000^th animal law case this summer.

 

Will Fantle

Co-Founder, The Cornucopia Institute

Will Fantle is co-founder of The Cornucopia Institute. He is also the organization’s Research Director.

Mr. Fantle’s previous professional experience is varied but always with a focus on the environment. He has worked in both the public and private sectors developing and promoting renewable energy technologies. Fantle has been a respected consultant in the area of recycling, focusing on municipal and industrial waste generators. For many years he was a regular contributor of feature articles on environmental, resource, food, and health issues for national magazines and urban weekly papers. He is a 2001 recipient of an award from Fairness and Accuracy in Media’s Project Censored for his story, Plutonium Pancakes. Mr. Fantle has also worked as webmaster for the Wisconsin Stewardship Network, a coalition of the state’s hunting, fishing and environmental groups.

Mr. Fantle graduated with honors from the UW-Eau Claire with degrees in Economics and Political Science. He has been a longtime environmental activist, has served on the boards of several environmental organizations active in Wisconsin, and serves on the Eau Claire County Board. He is married and resides with his wife Francie in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

 

David Favre

Professor of Law, Michigan State University College of Law

David Favre is a professor of law at Michigan State University College of Law. Professor Favre has written several articles and books dealing with animal issues including such topics as animal cruelty, wildlife law, the use of animals for scientific research, and international control of animal trade. His books include Animal Law: Welfare, Interest, and Rights (2^nd ed.), Animal Law and Dog Behavior and International Trade in Endangered Species. He also has presented to international audiences on these topics.  He created and is editor-in-chief of the largest animal legal web resource, www.animallaw.info. Now residing on a farm in lower Michigan, Professor Favre shares his space with sheep, chicken and the usual dogs and cats.

He was a national officer of the Animal Legal Defense Fund for 22 years. Presently he is the Legislative Chair of the ABA/TIPS Committee on Animal Law.

 

Pamela Frasch

Assistant Dean, Animal Law Program and Executive Director, Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School

Pamela Frasch is the assistant dean of the animal law program and executive director of the Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. CALS was established in collaboration with the Animal Legal Defense Fund and is an academic program with a focus on research, scholarship, and experiential education in animal law. In her dual role, Dean Frasch supports and works to develop all the various components of the program including teaching, writing, speaking, competitions, the Animal Law Review, the conference and the Student ALDF group (SALDF).

Previously, Dean Frasch was general counsel for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and in 1996, she created the ALDF Criminal Justice Program which has since assisted law enforcement and animal advocates in investigating and prosecuting thousands of animal abuse and neglect cases nationwide.

In addition to her duties with CALS, Dean Frasch is co-editor of the first casebook in the field, Animal Law, Cases and Materials now in its fourth edition (Carolina Academic Press, 2010), and co-author of Animal Law in a Nutshell (Thomson West, 2010). She has taught survey and advanced courses in animal law at Lewis & Clark Law School since 1998 and co-authored (with Professor Kathy Hessler and Megan Senatori) the amicus brief submitted in the U.S. v. Stevens case on behalf of 45 law professors who teach animal law.

Dean Frasch is a frequent speaker on issues of animal law and is the principal author of Oregon’s first felony anti-cruelty law. She has authored or co-authored many articles and book chapters in the field, and has been recognized by the Humane Society of the United States and the Oregon Humane Society for her contributions. 

 

Sophie Gaillard

Law Student, McGill University, Faculty of Law

Sophie Gaillard is a fourth year law student at McGill University and president of the school’s SALDF chapter. Sophie clerked at the Toronto-based organization Lawyers for Animal Welfare in 2010, and at the Animal Legal Defence Fund in the summer of 2011. This fall, she will be interning at the Animal Advocacy Department of the Montreal SPCA. Prior to attending law school, Sophie obtained a Master of Science degree from McGill University and was actively involved in a number of local animal rights groups.

 

Laura Handzel

Assistant Director, Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School

Laura Handzel joined the Center for Animal Law Studies (the Center) as the first-ever Animal Law Program Assistant. Prior to that, Lara freelanced at various law firms in Tucson, Arizona, while also focusing much of her time on grassroots animal rescue, humane education & other animal advocacy work.

Laura earned her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, completing a Certificate of Special Training in Environmental Law & Policy Analysis. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Arizona, earning degrees in anthropology and french, plus a minor in sociology.  She was also fortunate to complete some of her studies at the University of Pau, France.

Laura grew up on a working farm in the Midwest and comes from a family of lawyers, fostering a passion for both environmental and animal law.  Within the field of animal law, she has special interests in farmed animals, wildlife, the link between domestic violence and animal cruelty, breed discrimination, social justice, as well as public health and policy issues.  Laura enjoys spending time outdoors, especially with friends and family, which include her four rescued companion animals.

 

Scott Heiser

Director, Criminal Justice Program, Animal Legal Defense Fund

Scott has been a prosecutor for seventeen years, serving the last eight years as the elected district attorney in Benton County, Oregon. While Scott has prosecuted all types of criminal conduct including capital murder, he has always found animal cruelty cases among the most compelling cases he has handled. His passion for holding animal abusers accountable for their crimes recently lead Scott to join the ALDF, serving as the senior staff attorney in the ALDF’s Criminal Justice Program. Scott received his JD from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College and his undergraduate degree in economics from Oregon State University. In 2006, Scott served as the president of the Oregon District Attorneys Association and as member of the Governor’s Drug and Violent Crime Advisory Committee. Scott is a regular instructor at trainings hosted by the Oregon Department of Justice and he has served on the Board of Directors of his local humane society animal shelter, helping to fund the construction of a new shelter.

 

Kathy Hessler

Clinical Director, Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School

Kathy Hessler is a clinical professor of law and director of the only animal law clinic in the country. She is the first faculty member hired to teach animal law full time in a law school. She received her LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center and graduated with a J.D. from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary.

Prior to teaching at Lewis & Clark, Professor Hessler taught in clinical programs at Case Western Reserve University Law School, Cornell Law School, the University of Dayton Law School, the Capital University School of Law, and Georgetown University Law Center.

She has been an animal activist and vegan since the late 1980’s. She has been an advisor to the journal Animal Law since 1998, and is currently a SALDF faculty advisor.  She coaches the animal moot court teams, and has been teaching Animal Law directly since 2001 and as a part of nonviolence courses beginning in 1989. She was a board member with ALDF and helped found the Animal Law Committee of the Cuyahoga County Bar. She was the chair and a founder of the Animal Law Section of the American Association of Law Schools. She co-authored (with Pamela Frasch and Megan Senatori) the amicus brief submitted in the U.S. v. Stevens case, on behalf of 45 law professors who teach animal law.  She co-authored Animal Law in a Nutshell (with Pamela Frasch, Sarah Kutil and Sonia Waisman) and has written numerous other law review and other articles and she is co-authoring two new books on animal law.

Professor Hessler lectures widely on animal law and animal law education issues in the US and beyond.

 

Rebecca Huss

Professor of Law, Valparaiso University School of Law

Rebecca Huss is a Professor of Law at Valparaiso University School of Law in Valparaiso, Indiana.  Professor Huss has a Master of Laws in International and Comparative Law from the University of Iowa College of Law and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Richmond School of Law.  Professor Huss is currently the Chair-Elect of the American Bar Association’s Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section’s Animal Law Committee, and Immediate Past Chair of the American Association of Law School’s Animal Law Section.

Recent publications include:  Canines in the Classroom:  Service Animals in Primary and Secondary Educational Institutions; Why Context Matters Defining Service Animals Under Federal Law, Lessons Learned:  Acting as Guardian/Special Master in the Bad Newz Kennels Case; Issues Relating to Companion Animals and Housing, in Animal Law and the Courts: A Reader (Taimie L. Bryant, Rebecca J. Huss & David N. Cassuto eds., 2008);  Rescue Me:  Legislating Cooperation between Animal Control Authorities and Rescue Organizations; Valuation in Veterinary Malpractice; Separation, Custody, and Estate Planning Issues Relating to Companion Animals; and Valuing Man’s and Woman’s Best Friend:  The Moral and Legal Status of Companion Animals.  Her primary focus in research and writing is on the changing nature of the relationship between humans and their companion animals and whether the law adequately reflects the importance of that relationship and issues relating to service animals.

Links to her publications and other biographical information about Professor Huss can be found at her faculty webpage at www.valpo.edu/law/faculty/rhuss.

 

Steve Johansen

Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School

Steve Johansen is a dreamer; but he’s not the only one. He teaches Regulation and Ethics of Lawyers and directs the Legal Analysis and Writing program at Lewis and Clark Law School. He lives in Portland with his wife Lenore and Quigley the couch-eating dog. He likes his Sox red and his beer black. Imagine that.

 

 

 

 

Robert Klonoff

Dean and Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School

Dean Klonoff’s areas of expertise include class action litigation, civil procedure, and appellate litigation. He is the senior author of a leading casebook on class actions, published by Thomson West, and the author of the Thomson West Nutshell on class actions. He is also the co-author of a leading text on trial advocacy and co-author of a Thomson West Nutshell on federal appellate practice. Moreover, he has written numerous articles on class actions and other topics. He has lectured throughout the United States and in several foreign countries on class actions and appellate litigation. Dean Klonoff is a member of the United States Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules.  In addition, he is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and served as an Associate Reporter for the ALI’s class action project, “Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation.” He is also a Fellow in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and served as a Reporter for the 2005 National Conference on Appellate Justice. He is also an advisory board consulting editor of Class Action Litigation Report (BNA).

After graduating from law school, Dean Klonoff clerked for the Honorable John R. Brown, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He then served as an Assistant United States Attorney in D.C. and as an Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States. After his government service, he was a visiting professor at the University of San Diego Law School. He later served for many years as a partner at the international law firm of Jones Day. At Jones Day, Dean Klonoff handled complex litigation at both the trial and appellate levels and also held the administrative post of chair of the pro bono program for all of the firm’s 20+ offices. He received an award from the DC Bar for public service, was instrumental in establishing a free walk-in clinic in DC’s Shaw neighborhood, and served as a board member for the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and for Bread for the City. While practicing at Jones Day, Dean Klonoff served for many years as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center.

In 2003, Dean Klonoff was selected as the Douglas Stripp/Missouri Endowed Professor of Law at the University of Missouri/Kansas City School of Law. As the holder of this position, Dean Klonoff received two awards for most outstanding teacher and an award for service to the law school community. Dean Klonoff was also selected by the third year class to deliver the 2007 commencement speech.

Dean Klonoff has extensive litigation experience. He has argued eight cases before the United States Supreme Court, including Gentile v. Nevada Bar and Kungys v. United States, and has argued dozens of cases in other federal and state appellate courts throughout the country. He has also tried dozens of cases (primarily jury trials). In addition, he has served as an expert witness on class action issues in several federal and state court cases and has personally represented clients on both the plaintiff and defense side in more than 100 class actions. His pro bono cases have included death penalty, civil rights, and veterans’ rights cases.

 

Deborah Knaan

Deputy District Attorney, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office

Deborah Knaan has been a Deputy District Attorney since 1996.  Her assignments have included prosecuting hardcore gang crimes and felony sexual assaults and child molestation.

In 2004 Ms. Knaan was appointed by the Mayor of Los Angeles to the Los Angeles City Board of Commissioners for the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services.  As a commissioner, Ms. Knnan was responsible for overseeing, and setting policy for the Department, which operates seven animal shelters.

In 2006 Ms. Knaan was given a leave of absence from the District Attorney’s Office to serve as the Assistant General Manager of Operations for the Department of Animal Services.  As Assistant General Manager, Ms. Knaan oversaw the day-to-day operations at the shelters and supervised the shelter staff, as well as the field officers and animal cruelty investigations.

In 2007 Ms. Knaan returned to the District Attorney’s Office to become the Office’s first Animal Cruelty Case Coordinator.  As the Animal Cruelty Case Coordinator Ms. Knaan oversees the prosecution of all animal cruelty cases within the County of Los Angeles.  Ms. Knaan also trains prosecutors and animal control and law enforcement agencies on how to investigate, file, and prosecute cases of cruelty and neglect.  Ms. Knaan has been responsible for creating a dog fighting tip line, a court-ordered program for those convicted of animal neglect, and a public awareness campaign that warns of the dangers (and illegality) of leaving animals in hot vehicles.

 

Matthew Liebman

Staff Attorney, Animal Legal Defense Fund

Matthew Liebman is a staff attorney at the Animal Legal Defense Fund, where he works in the Litigation Program. Matthew has managed cases including ALDF v. Conyers, which resulted in the rescue of more than 100 dogs from a North Carolina hoarder; ALDF v. Keating, in which seven horses were saved from starvation; and Penrod v. Robertson County, in which ALDF helped to establish a new shelter for homeless dogs and cats in Kentucky. Before coming to ALDF, Matthew clerked for the Honorable Warren J. Ferguson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Matthew graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School in 2006, where he co-founded a chapter of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund and helped lead a campaign against animal experimentation. Matthew’s writing has appeared in the Journal of Animal Law, the Stanford Environmental Law Journal, the Animal Legal & Historical Web Center, and the Encyclopedia of American Reform Movements. With Bruce Wagman, Matthew co-authored A Worldview of Animal Law, which examines how the legal systems of different countries govern our interactions with animals.

 

Paul Locke

Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Paul Locke, an environmental health scientist and attorney, is an Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Division of Toxicology.  He holds an MPH from Yale University School of Medicine, a DrPH from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and a JD degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law. Dr. Locke is admitted to practice law in the states of New York and New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and before the Southern District Court of New York and the United States Supreme Court.

Dr. Locke’s research and practice focus on how decision makers use environmental health science and toxicology in regulation and policy-making and how environmental health sciences influence the policy-making process.  His areas of study include radiation policy, as well as the law of humane science and policy, with an emphasis on how in-vitro and non-mammalian toxicology data can be incorporated into regulatory decision making under US laws.  He also studies the impact of the US legal system on the development of non-mammalian toxicology and alternatives to animals in testing.  Dr. Locke directs the School’s Doctor of Public Health program in Environmental Health Sciences and is a faculty member of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing and the Center for Law and the Public’s Health.   He has published papers in peer reviewed journals and law reviews, including the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, The Environmental Law Reporter, Health Physics, and the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health.

Dr. Locke has served on 6 National Academy of Sciences study committees, including the committee that updated the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.

Russ Mead

General Counsel, Animal Law Coalition

Russ Mead is General Counsel of Animal Law Coalition, and is a partner in the Seattle based law firm of Allen & Mead. In the past he has served as General Counsel for two of the nations leading non-profit animal sanctuaries. He was on the ground overseeing thousands of volunteers after Hurricane Katrina hit, and has put into motion some of the largest animal rescues in the country. His work included rescues from animal hoarders, puppy mills and dog fighting cases, including the Michael Vick case. Russ holds a BS in Accounting from Arizona State University, an MBA from Lindenwood College, a JD from St. Louis University School of Law, and earned a CPA from Arizona. He taught  business ethics in the MBA program at Fontbonne University, and has taught Animal Law as a guest lecturer at Cornell University School of Law. Russ recently presented continuing legal education programs on Animal Law Ethics for the New York City Bar as well as the Nassau County New York Bar. Russ is a frequent speaker at animal law conferences, and law schools with animal law sections.

 

Teresa Menendez-Taboada

Director, AnimaNaturalis Internacional

Teresa Menendez-Taboada obtained her Masters degree in Anthropology from UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónima de México) and is currently pursuing a Doctorate at the same institution. Her passion is to know and learn about people through their bones, either the ones living in contemporary societies or the ones who lived in the past. Her world is not only built through these elements of research but also through her concern about animal rights and the environment. She has dedicated part of her life to activism for these important causes. As Director of the NGO AnimaNaturalis International in Mexico, she has been the bearer of messages of justice and awareness; likewise she has coordinated numerous events for the dissemination of the rights for all animals. One of her greatest purposes in life is to teach children, teenagers, young people and adults living in Mexico, the importance of respect for animals, in order to make her country a better place where human and nonhuman animals can live harmoniously.

 

Russ Morgan

Wolf Coordinator, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

An Oregon native, Russ graduated with a B.S. Wildlife Science from Oregon State University in 1986. He has been employed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for 25 years and currently serves as the Oregon Wolf Coordinator in La Grande. He is a former District Wildlife Biologist in Heppner where he worked with a variety of game and nongame wildlife species.  His personal interests include photography, traditional archery, hunting, fishing, birdwatching, and spending time in the outdoors with his two boys.

 

Daphna Nachminovitch

Vice President, Cruelty Investigations Department, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)

Daphna Nachminovitch has been with PETA since 1997. She oversees PETA’s Emergency Response Team, which fields hundreds of calls every week from across the country. 

She also directs PETA’s undercover investigations. In one recent high-profile case, Nachminovitch worked with state and federal officials to execute what has since been coined the largest animal seizure in history: Nearly 27,000 animals (including the bearded dragon pictured here at a temporary rescue facility) were confiscated from international exotic-animal dealer U.S. Global Exotics in Arlington, Texas. The company was forced to shut down, and the operator is now a federal fugitive on the run. Nachminovitch also oversaw the case implicating North Carolina product testing laboratory Professional Laboratory and Research Services (PLRS)—a North Carolina product testing company that closed and released for adoption hundreds of dogs and cats within six days of PETA’s breaking its investigation. A grand jury has since indicted four former PLRS workers on 14 felony cruelty-to-animals charges.

Under Nachminovitch’s direction, PETA investigators have infiltrated and documented abuse and neglect backstage at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, at Georgia-based PETCO and PetSmart supplier Sun Pet Ltd., and at a Pennsylvania dairy farm that supplies milk to Land O’Lakes. Nachminovitch also directed PETA’s 2008 investigation of a pig factory farm that supplies Hormel, which resulted in six abuse and neglect convictions, and PETA’s investigation of Aviagen’s turkey factory farms in West Virginia, which resulted in the first-ever felony indictments for abuse of factory-farmed birds. The case led to five convictions and the stiffest penalty ever imposed in U.S. history for cruelty to any farmed animal.

Nachminovitch also oversees PETA’s low-cost spay/neuter clinics—which have “fixed” more than 74,000 animals since 2001—as well as PETA’s fieldwork division and doghouse program, which provides custom-made doghouses, straw bedding, toys, and other services to neglected dogs in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. She has successfully worked with government officials to pass laws restricting or banning the chaining of dogs in several cities.

Born in Israel and having lived in Ivory Coast and Paris, Nachminovitch is fluent in Hebrew, French, and English. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a major in communications and theater. Before starting at PETA in 1997, Nachminovitch worked at Chicago’s Anti-Cruelty Society animal shelter and at Head Start centers doing speech and play therapy with underprivileged children on Chicago’s South Side.

 

Eric Nagle

Attorney, U.S. Department of the Interior

Eric W. Nagle has been an environmental lawyer with the federal government since 1986. Since 1998, he has worked in the Portland office of the Office of the Solicitor, U.S. Department of the Interior, where he advises the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the Endangered Species Act. 

Before joining the Department of the Interior, he was a prosecutor in the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, enforcing federal pollution-control laws. Among his cases was the successful prosecution of Exxon Corporation for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He has also worked for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Environmental Law Institute, and the National Outdoor Leadership School. He received his J.D. in 1986 from the University of Virginia, where he was an editor of the Journal of Natural Resources Law.

 

Nicole Pallotta

Student Liaison, Animal Legal Defense Fund

Nicole is the student liaison for ALDF’s Animal Law Program. In this capacity, she works with law students who are interested in advancing ALDF’s mission, including members of over 170 Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF) chapters. Nicole helps law students form and maintain chapters and assists them with projects like getting animal law courses added to the curriculum at their schools. She also coordinates ALDF’s animal law clerkship, scholarship, and SALDF grant programs. Prior to joining ALDF in 2005, Nicole earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Georgia, where she taught the school’s first undergraduate course in animals and society. Her dissertation, “Becoming an Animal Rights Activist: An Exploration of Culture, Socialization, and Identity Transformation,” analyzed the process of developing a vegan, activist identity. Her writing has appeared in Society and Animals, Sociological Perspectives, and Animal Wellness Magazine. Nicole also blogs at Alec’s Story (www.alec-story.com).

 

Nancy Perry

Senior Vice President of Government Relations, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)

Nancy Perry is currently Senior Vice President of ASPCA Government Relations, where she oversees the ASPCA’s legislative efforts and public policy at the local, state and federal government levels. Under Nancy’s leadership, the ASPCA Government Relations team works closely with lawmakers and citizen advocates to secure the strongest possible protections for animals through the passage of humane legislation and regulations. She is currently establishing a Washington, D.C., office for the ASPCA and hiring several new staff positions.

Prior to joining the ASPCA, Nancy served as vice president of Government Affairs for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) where she oversaw HSUS’s state and federal legislative efforts, including ballot measure campaigns and nationwide grassroots activities. During her 16-year tenure at the HSUS, Nancy led successful efforts to secure federal legislation preventing the distribution of notorious animal crush videos, prohibiting the practice of shark finning, requiring truthful labeling of fur garments, banning the import of puppies from foreign puppy mills, prohibiting the interstate commerce of birds for fighting, requiring disaster planning for pets, banning tigers and other big cats as pets, securing greater protections for pet food safety, and defunding government-supported horse slaughter.

Nancy has testified before U.S. House and Senate committees and worked directly with legislators on pending federal and state legislation on puppy mills, horse protection, and other high priority bills.  Nancy has also been a key architect and leader on more than 20 successful state ballot measures to protect animals since 1995.

Nancy graduated from Wellesley College with a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy. She received her M.A. in Communications from California State University, Northridge and a J.D. with an Environmental Law Certificate from Northwestern School of Law, Lewis & Clark College, where she co-founded Lewis & Clark’s Student Animal Legal Defense Fund. She was a two-time national champion in the Pace Environmental Moot Court competition while in law school. She also co-founded the Animal Law Journal and organized the country’s first animal law conference – an event that recently celebrated its 19^th anniversary. Nancy is an advisory board member of the Animal Law Review, teaches animal law at both George Washington University and Lewis & Clark Law Schools, and has published several articles on animal law.

Nancy lives in the Washington, D.C. area, with her husband, her two rescued dogs, Ellie and Summer, her three former feral cats, Emma, June and Sylvester, and Sam, a rescued bird.

 

Amy Sacks

Executive Director, The Pixie Project

Amy Sacks, 27, is the Executive Director of THE PIXIE PROJECT, an animal rescue and adoption nonprofit in Portland, Oregon.

Amy attended the University of Iowa, during which time she was named the Humane Society Volunteer of the Year for her work with a mobile veterinary clinic in rural Iowa and with homeless youth and their companion animals.

After graduating from college in 2002 with a degree in French and Spanish, Amy returned to Portland to establish THE PIXIE PROJECT. The mission of the organization is to provide support for local shelters through transitional foster families and adoption services. Additionally, Amy provided the leadership which launched a multi service collaboration providing low income spay and neuter services in the city.

During the difficult economy of the last few years, Amy became a resource for many families faced with the need to find temporary or permanent homes for their beloved pets.

Amy has spoken at many conferences and events and in 2009 she was the recipient of a Skidmore Prize given annually to young Portlanders engaged in non-profit work.

Amy’s passionate and effective work on behalf of homeless animals has been recognized nationwide and she has been the subject of stories on the Today Show and CNN.

 

Peter Sankoff

Associate Professor of Law, The University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law

Peter is an Associate Professor at the University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law who specializes in animal law, criminal law and the law of evidence.  He is the author or editor of five books, including Animal Law in Australasia: A New Dialogue, the first book ever published in the Southern Hemisphere to focus exclusively on animal law issues.  Peter lectures and publishes on a variety of animal law topics.  He taught animal law at the University of Auckland from 2006-2010, and also as a Visiting Professor at Haifa University in Israel, and the University of Melbourne.  Peter has also taught an advanced animal law course entitled Comparative Concepts in Animal Protection Law at Lewis & Clark Law School.  

 

Jasmin Singer

Executive Director, Our Hen House

Jasmin Singer is the co-founder and executive director of Our Hen House, a multimedia hive of opportunities to change the world for animals. With her partner, Mariann Sullivan, Jasmin runs the popular Our Hen House podcast. Jasmin is the former campaigns manager for Farm Sanctuary, a contributing writer for VegNews Magazine, a host for VegNews TV, and was  named by VegNews as one of twenty stand-out stars of the animal rights movement. She has also written for Satya Magazine and Heeb Magazine, and contributed to dozens of blogs. Her workshops — which have been featured in publications such as TimeOut NY and The Village Voice — have been presented at universities and law schools throughout the country, as well as conferences such as The National Animal Rights Conference, Taking Action for Animals, Farm Sanctuary’s Hoe Down, Let Live Northwest Animal Rights Conference, the Institute for Critical Animal Studies North American Conference, the SUNY Social Justice Conference, and the NYC Food & Climate Change Summit at Climate Week NYC, which was organized in conjunction with the United Nations’ Climate Change Summit. She has also presented on the topic of animal rights at VegFests across the country including in New York City, Madison, WI, Bethlehem, PA, Portland, ME, and New Orleans, LA. For her activism, Jasmin has been featured in media outlets such as CNN, Trece:Veinte, Freakonomics, and the New York Observer. Prior to her animal activist career, Jasmin was an actor-educator with the AIDS-awareness theatre company, Nitestar. She lives in New York City with Mariann and their perfect pit bull, Rose.

 

Kristen Stilt

Co-founder and U.S. Liaison, Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals; Associate Professor of Law, Northwestern University Law School, Chicago

Kristen Stilt is an Associate Professor of Law and History at Northwestern University in Chicago, and, for the 2011-12 academic year, is a Visiting Associate Professor at Harvard Law School. She has a J.D. from The University of Texas and a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and her main research interests include Islamic law in classical formulations and contemporary applications. Her first book, Islamic Law in Action: Authority, Discretion, and Everyday Experiences in Mamluk Egypt, was published in 2011 by Oxford University Press and she was awarded a major grant from the Carnegie Corporation to study the place of Islam and Islamic law in constitutions in the Muslim world. While living in Egypt during graduate school, she got involved in the formation of the first animal rights organization in the country, the Society for the Protection of Animal Rights in Egypt, and then became a founder of the Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals (ESMA), an animal rights organization with a large shelter, for which she continues to serve as board member. Traveling to the Middle East several times a year, she has also participated in several undercover investigations with Animals Australia in an effort to stop the horrific Australian practice of exporting live sheep and other animals to the Middle East for slaughter in those countries. To assist the animal groups in the Muslim world, she has published a booklet, in Arabic and English, entitled “Animal Welfare in Islamic Law,” which was endorsed in a preface by a religious scholar from Azhar University in Cairo. Recently, Kristen established a U.S. charitable organization, Animal Diplomacy, to raise funds to support the work of ESMA and other groups in Egypt. She shares her home with a group of Egyptian cats, one American cat, and an Egyptian dog.

 

Saskia Stucki

Law Student, University of Basel, Switzerland

Saskia Stucki (MLaw) is a research assistant at the University of Basel’s Faculty of Law. She  graduated from law school summa cum laude and is currently working on her doctoral thesis on fundamental rights for animals. Her area of research comprises the critical analysis of existing animal protection laws and the underlying legal status of animals, the assessment of the legal capacity of animals to be subjects of rights and the development of a feasible concept to implement animal rights into law. Saskia Stucki has also authored an article in this field (edited volume forthcoming). Besides her academic interest in animal law, Saskia has been actively involved in animal rights issues for nearly a decade.

 

Mariann Sullivan

Board President, Our Hen House

Mariann Sullivan is the co-founder of Our Hen House, a multimedia hive of opportunities to change the world for animals. Mariann is a lawyer and an adjunct professor of animal law at Brooklyn Law School and Cardozo Law School, and Columbia Law School. She found her way into animal law through the Committee on Legal Issues Pertaining to Animals of the New York City Bar Association and eventually served as chair of that committee. She is also the former chair of the American Bar Association’s Tort Trial Insurance Practice Section’s Animal Law Committee. With David Wolfson, she is the author of a trilogy of articles on farmed animals and the law: “Foxes in the Henhouse: Animals Agribusiness and the Law, A Modern American Fable” in Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions; “What’s Good for the Goose… The Supreme Court of Israel, Foie Gras, and the Future of Farmed Animals in the United States,” in the 2007 volume of the Duke Journal of Law and Contemporary Problems; and “If it Looks Like a Duck: New Jersey, The Regulation of Common Farming Practices, and the Meaning of ‘Humane,’” in Animal Law and the Courts. Mariann is also the author of “The Animal Welfare Act: What’s That?” which was published in the New York State Bar Association Journal. She has spoken at various conferences and animal law related events throughout the country, as well as Animal Rights Africa’s Animal Law Review Consultation Workshop in Johannesburg. Mariann has served on the board of directors for Farm Sanctuary and The Animals Agenda, and currently serves on the board for Animal Welfare Trust and Animal Welfare Advocacy. 

 

Will Travers

Chief Executive Officer, Born Free Foundation

Will Travers has dedicated most of his life to wildlife issues, ever since he lived with his family in Kenya while his parents, Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, made the film Born Free (1966).  In 1984 he co-founded the charitable organization which has become known as The Born Free Foundation.  Born Free is an international wildlife charity working throughout the world to stop individual wild animal suffering and protect threatened species in the wild with projects and campaigns now spanning five continents and that are supported worldwide.

In 1989, in response to the brutal slaughter of elephants for the ivory trade, Elefriends was formed. Their huge ‘Ivory Out’ petition collected 1.6 million signatures and was submitted to CITES by Will Travers, helping to ban the international ivory trade. The campaign for elephant protection continues through Born Free Foundation. In the late 1990s, Will Travers helped Elefriends, together with the Kenya Wildlife Service, carry out the largest ‘elephant relocation’ project in Born Free’s history, saving the lives of 29 wild elephants.

Born Free’s core campaign is Zoo Check, which has taken on the might of the multi-billion pound global zoo industry.  Milestones include launching the ‘Zoochotic Report’ which exposed the abnormal behavior and suffering of captive animals and helping draft the Zoo Directive (passed in 2002) which seeks to address the conditions endured by animals in Europe’s slum zoos. Will has served as a member of the UK Government appointed Zoos Forum, the body which advises DEFRA and other departments on the future of UK zoos as well as on the UK government’s Circus Working Group.

Will is also President of Born Free USA, a national animal advocacy nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, which aims to end the suffering of wild animals in captivity, rescue individual animals in need, protect wildlife – including highly endangered species – in their natural habitats, and encourage compassionate conservation globally. Born Free USA’s primary campaign areas currently include animals used in entertainment, captive exotic animals, trapping and fur, and the international wildlife trade. 

The Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary, located in Dilley, Texas, offers more than 500 primates, many of whom were rescued from abusive situations in laboratories, roadside zoos and private possession, life in as natural an environment as possible with minimum human interference.

Will is the President of the Species Survival Network (SSN) an international coalition of more than 80 organizations committed to the promotion, enhancement and strict enforcement of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Through scientific and legal research, education and advocacy, the SSN is working to prevent over-exploitation of animals and plants due to international trade. He represents the Species Survival Network at CITES Conference of the Parties meetings.

Will helped Ian Redmond (Born Free consultant and conservationist) and the United Nations Environment Programme initiate GRASP (Great Ape Survival Partnership) which is creating a strategic global framework for wild great ape conservation.

Will is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a member of the IUCN SSC Reintroduction Specialist Group and a member of the Special Forces Club. Will is also a regular contributor to national and international press publications, radio and TV and other media.

 

Ledy VanKavage

Senior Legislative Attorney, Best Friends Animal Society

Ledy VanKavage is Senior Legislative Attorney for Best Friends Animal Society located in Kanab Utah. Ledy  began her legal career as a judicial law clerk for the Illinois Appellate Court and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. After working at a St. Louis environmental law firm, Green, Hennings, and Henry, she served as an attorney advisor for the U.S. Health and Human Services. Ledy joined the ASPCA in 1999 as a Midwest Government Affairs and Public Policy Associate. Ledy has worked extensively in the humane movement.  In 1985 she organized the Madison County Coalition Against Pound Seizure, successfully stopping the sale of animals for research from her county animal control facility. She then founded the Madison County Humane Society and served as its president for eight years. In 1992 she co-founded the Illinois Federation of Humane Societies and served on its board for ten years. She was also a cofounder of Operation SPOT (Stop Pet Overpopulation Today) in the St. Louis Metropolitan area and served as a board member for eight years.  She worked for the ASPCA for nine years as Sr. Director of Legislation and Legal Training.  During that time she spearheaded the passage of over 20 humane bills making Illinois the best state for animal laws in the nation.  She is the Chair-Elect for the American Bar Association’s Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section Animal Law Committee and serves on the ISBA’s animal law committee.

 

Bruce Wagman

Partner, Schiff Hardin

Bruce Wagman is a partner in the San Francisco office of Schiff Hardin, with an almost exclusive focus on a wide range of animal law cases, as well as education, legislative counseling, and consultation in the animal law field. He has been practicing animal law since 1992 and has represented clients in state and federal courts.

Bruce’s clients include numerous animal protection organizations as well as private individuals. His cases cover national issues affecting animals in entertainment, biomedical research, animal cruelty, the farming industry, and wildlife, as well as more “local” cases involving injuries to, and caused by, animals. He is a co-editor of Animal Law, the first casebook for animal law courses, which was first published in January 2000 and is currently in its fourth edition. This year he coauthored, A Worldview of Animal Law, which provides a broad perspective on the similarities and differences of animal laws around the world. He has been teaching animal law since 1996 and currently teaches at Hastings College of the Law (San Francisco), Boalt Hall (Berkeley), and Stanford Law School.

Bruce has provided legal advice to and been active in the formation, oversight and management of a number of sanctuaries, and he has also been involved in litigation and dispute resolution between sanctuaries. He is a founding board member of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest  in Cle Elum, Washington. CSNW is home to the Cle Elum Seven, who were rescued after decades of torture in biomedical research. The sanctuary is unique among American chimpanzee sanctuaries because of its active advocacy program and its groundbreaking outdoor enclosure for its residents.

 

Deborah Wood

Manager, Washington County Animal Services & Bonnie L. Hays Small Animal Shelter

Deborah Wood is manager of Animal Services for Washington County, the second-largest county in Oregon. She supervises the open-admission animal shelter for the county, as well as related services such as animal services officers. In the past three years, Washington County has reduced the number of animals euthanized at its shelter by 68 percent.

Before coming to Washington County, Deborah was the pet columnist for The Oregonian newspaper and is the author of 11 books (including The Tao of Bow Wow: Training Your Dog the Taoist Way, Help for Your Shy Dog and Little Dogs: Training Your Pint-Sized Companion). She also has managed housing and social service programs for low-income and homeless people, giving her unique insights into the interaction of societal problems that people face and the impact those problems have on the animals of the community.