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Student Animal Legal Defense Fund

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Our Mission

Helping Animals through the Law. As a student chapter of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, SALDF is devoted to enhancing the welfare and legal status of all nonhuman animals. Our primary goal is to educate ourselves and others concerning the issues and laws that affect animals and help to influence positive change.

Why Animal Law?

Because animals matter. Whether recognized for their intrinsic worth, their role as companions, or the value they bring to the environment and world economy, animals are integral to every aspect of human society. How our laws treat animals reflects our humanity and our capacity and willingness to consider their interests.

Because animal law attorneys can change the world. Lawyers interested in animal law have numerous opportunities to incorporate the field into their own practices. There are laws at the state, federal, local and international levels that contain provisions regulating or impacting animals. Animal law graduates of Lewis & Clark Law School work in small and large private firms, American nonprofits, foreign nongovernmental organizations, corporations, and all levels of government.

Because animal law is an exciting and rapidly expanding field of law. Animal law overlaps with many traditional areas of law such as torts, criminal, constitutional, and property law. Animal law is rooted in the practical application of statutory and decisional law, but the field also explores legal theory and jurisprudence. Animal law asks fundamental questions about the nature of a legal right or interest, how laws create or entrench power imbalances, and how those imbalances impact animals.

Current Projects & Events

SALDF Blog

Appellate Moot Court & Closing Argument Competition: Congratulations to our Closing Argument In-School Competition winners Jessica Johnson and Erin Walkowiak! They will join Moot Court winners Mark Billingsley, Bryan Telegin, Josh Allen, and Tara Zuardo to represent the Animal Law Program at Harvard in February of 2010.

Animal Law Conference: SALDF organizes the nation's longest-running annual animal law conference each fall with the support of the Center for Animal Law Studies and the Animal Legal Defense Fund. This year’s conference marks the seventeenth anniversary of this great event.

2009 Conference Podcasts Now Available

Animal Law Speaker Series: SALDF invites speakers from around the nation to discuss local, national, and international issues relating to animals. Past speakers have included Tom Regan, Steven Wise, and Carol Adams.

Pro Bono Opportunities: SALDF members regularly volunteer their legal skills for the public good. For example, students assist animal law attorneys in protecting animals, write comments influencing state and federal agency decisions affecting animals, and research important animal welfare issues for professors. These pro bono activities help our community and participating helps students gain hands on experience and make connections to attorneys practicing animal law and build relationships with experts in the field.

Public Commenting: SALDF members regularly submit public comments on state and federal administrative agency actions that affect animals.

Partnering with ALDF & CALS: SALDF representatives may also be found working at the downtown offices of the Animal Legal Defense Fund's Anti-Cruelty Division, taking the initiative to work with the Center for Animal Law Studies, or partnering with a number of other groups.

Community Service Opportunities: SALDF members engage in a myriad of community activities to help animals. Some projects focus on the law school campus, while others extend beyond-- into the local Portland community, to the greater Oregon community, and even nationwide. Some of SALDF's past and ongoing projects include: The Animal Law Conference; Save the Birds Campaign; HSUS's Humane Lobbying Day in Salem, OR; tabling at animal-related events; Meat Out; and volunteering at animal shelters and sanctuaries; Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary, Oregon Humane Society or Cat Adoption Team, among others.

Weekly Animal News & Action Alerts: Each week, students directly influence the lives of animals by taking action on legislation, pending court cases, and administrative rules/hearings.

Bird Save: to decrease the number of birds being killed by striking windows on campus.

Veg friendly campus: Through our efforts, Bon Appetit including new menu items at Bon Appetit for Fall 2009, bake sales and Meatout events.

Humane Education Program: Information coming soon!