In 1995 Dr. Sheri Speede sold her interest in a large veterinary practice in Portland, Oregon so she could commit her time to animal activism. As Northwest Director of In Defense of Animals, a nonprofit organization based in Mill Valley, California, Dr. Speede advocated for companion animals, as well as victims of biomedical research, factory farms and circuses. In addition, she was able to provide veterinary care to animals in sanctuaries, including primates in Cameroon, Africa. Her two trips to Cameroon in 1997 soon changed the course of her life.
Since 1998 Dr. Speede has lived in Cameroon. With a mission to ensure that endangered chimpanzees survive in their natural habitats, she founded the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center and In Defense of Animals-Africa (IDA-Africa). At the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, located in Cameroon’s Mbargue Forest, Dr. Speede and her staff currently provide sanctuary for 69 chimpanzees orphaned by the illegal ape meat trade. In collaboration with the government of Cameroon, she leads IDA-Africa in a public education, sensitization and social marketing campaign aimed at preventing the extinction of chimpanzees and gorillas.
Katrina Sharman is the Corporate Counsel for Voiceless, the animal protection institute. Prior to assuming that role in 2004, she worked as a Senior Associate at Minter Ellison Lawyers.
Sharman is a former Chair of NSW Young Lawyers Animal Rights Committee and a former member of the Animal Research Review Panel (NSW) and the National Health & Medical Research Council, Animal Welfare Committee. Sharman has spoken about animal law issues at numerous conferences including the ”˜Future of Animal Law Conference’ (Harvard Law School, 2007). Sharman has also contributed to numerous publications including ”˜Animal Law in Australasia’ (The Federation Press, 2009) and ”˜Animal Law in Australia and New Zealand’ (Thomson Reuters, 2010).
In 2009, Sharman was included in Australasian Legal Business Magazine’s showcase of top 20 in-house Lawyers. She has also previously been shortlisted as Australian Corporate Lawyers Association In-house Lawyer Young Achiever of the Year.
Laura Allen, Esq., is the founder and Executive Director of Animal Law Coalition. She is a trial attorney with more than 20 years of experience trying cases and arguing appeals in the state and federal courts in Washington, Illinois, Missouri and Arizona. Laura is also a member of the Board of Directors and the vice president and general counsel for Equine Welfare Alliance, an executive advisory board member for Saving America’s Horses, and a member of the Board of Directors for Animal World USA. She is a liaison for advisors to StubbyDog, a project to restore the image of the pit bull dog and also serves as an advisory board member for Miami Coalition Against Breed Specific Legislation. Laura is on the advisory board for WFLF Wild Capture Awareness and works with Compassionate Animal TV and Animal Advocate Television. She is a frequent speaker and a regular guest on Big Blend radio’s Nature Connection, Animals Today Radio and Wild For Life Endangered Talk Radio.
Animal Law Coalition is a 501c4 nonprofit, which brings the latest animal legal news to attorneys, law students and the public and offers legal analysis of the issues affecting animals. Animal Law Coalition takes the fight to stop animal cruelty to Congress, state legislatures, local governments and the courts. Animal Law Coalition educates the public on how they can participate to stop cruelty and promote animal welfare. Animal Law Coalition is actively involved in drafting and lobbying for legislation relating to horse welfare, horse slaughter, wild horses and burros, breed
discrimination, puppy and cat mills, animal euthanasia, and animal cruelty.
Alberto Arguello is the Senior Legal Advisor for La Fundacion AMARTE (Fundacion Aire, Mar y Tierra; trans. Air, Sea and Earth Foundation), a nonprofit organization based in Nicaragua which focuses on animal protection (www.fundacioamarte.org). Through AMARTE, Alberto has coordinated the drafting and promotion of his country`s first set of laws aimed at protecting wildlife, endangered species and calling for the humane treatment of all animals. These bills are currently being discussed at the Nicaraguan legislature. In addition to his work as legal adviser, Alberto volunteers as a civic educator on animal rights as well as an environmental activist. In his role of animal advocate, Alberto manages an online site which collects claims on animal abuse and takes further legal action.
Photo caption: AMARTE provides veterinary care to thousands of carriage horses in Nicaragua and promotes city ordinances to improve the lives of these horses.
Joining spcaLA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles) in April, 1994, Madeline Bernstein is committed to the humane treatment of and respect for animals through education and enforcement of anti-cruelty laws.
Bernstein, a highly accomplished, articulate and respected attorney, is one of America’s preeminent leaders and advocates promoting animal welfare. Today, spcaLA is recognized as the leading voice, educator and hope for the animals they protect and the humans they serve.
Bernstein is a frequent talk show guest offering counsel, advice and perspective on companion animal care and welfare issues. spcaLA has established highly successful outreach programs using pets to teach at-risk junior high school students empathy and the need for the humane treatment toward all living things, in addition to animal assisted therapy, domestic violence intervention and disaster assistance programs.
Bernstein serves on the board of directors of the State Humane Association of California (past president), the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee of the Los Angeles Zoo, the California State Fish and Game Advisory Committee and the Office of Emergency Services Public/Private Advisory Committee.
Bernstein is a member of the California Bar Association, New York Bar, United States Southern District and United States Eastern District Bar Associations and has been an Adjunct Professor teaching employment, labor, evidence and criminal law at La Verne University College of Law and an arbitrator through the American Arbitration Association.
Prior to joining spcaLA, Bernstein served as Vice President/Senior Labor Counsel for the ASPCA in New York, where she handled more than 10,000 cruelty complaints and counseled the agency in areas of employment, union labor law and management rights - drafting personnel policies and practices.
Bernstein has worked for the New York City Department of Ports and Terminals as Deputy Inspector General/Advocate - heading a team of investigators, inquiring into and prosecuting government and municipal corruption and inefficiency. She is also a former Assistant District Attorney in the Bronx County District Attorney’s office.
Bernstein is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo, Faculty of Law and Jurisprudence. She received an Honors Diploma from Columbia University and a Scholastic Award in Talmudic Law from the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York.
Carla Boreham is Legislative Affairs Manager for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), based at their international office in the UK. Through WSPA’s 17 offices and over 1,000 member societies around the world, Carla helps to develop and improve animal protection legislation in countries, either working reactively following government requests or proactively as a result of lobbying. Following the completion of a LLB law degree she went on to work in television production and broadcast journalism. After years of carrying out voluntary work for animal welfare organizations in her spare time, Carla decided to leave the media world and made the switch to work for an animal charity full-time. While working as an RSPCA Inspector in animal law enforcement she was able to see first hand the impact of cruelty to animals, the need for proper education of the public as to animals’ needs and the requirement for adequate legislation and enforcement. Knowing that in other countries no such legislative safeguards exist, Carla was pleased to be able to join WSPA and to be able to try to help animals around the world. She lives outside London with four cats, six chickens and frequent temporary animal lodgers.
Mark Cushing
Chair, Government Relations and Public Policy Group, Tonkon Torp, LLP
Mark is Chair of the Government Relations and Public Policy practice group at Tonkon Torp LLP and serves as Government Counsel for Banfield, The Pet Hospital, with offices in Portland and Washington, D.C. Since 2004, Mark has specialized in animal welfare, veterinary and companion animal policy and lobbying issues for Banfield and other clients. A long-time political strategist, lawyer and executive, Mark focuses on providing strategic advocacy and counsel for clients with needs at any level of government in the U.S. and Canada. Mark is also an adjunct faculty member in Lewis & Clark Law School’s Animal Law program. In addition to his five children, Mark and his wife, Leslie, have a dog and a cat.
Following law school, Davis was in private practice before joining the Law School in 1994. Davis currently oversees the Career Services and Alumni Relations departments and has primary responsibility for the law school’s Externship and mentor programs, counsels students and alumni on career-related issues, and oversees the alumni publications.
Davis is a member of the Oregon State Bar, Oregon Women Lawyers, Multnomah Bar Association and the National Association for Law Placement. She also serves on the Oregon Women Lawyers Foundation Board of Directors and is currently Treasurer of the organization. She served as President of the Foundation board from 2007-2008.
She co-teaches the Externship Program class component with Clinical Professor Terry Wright.
Carter Dillard 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. He later joined Compassion Over Killing, as General Counsel, and then the Humane Society of the United States (“HSUS”), where he served as Director of Farm Animal Litigation, and eventually Of Counsel. He was then appointed to the faculty of Loyola University New Orleans, College of Law, as a Westerfield Fellow. Carter is currently Director of Litigation for the Animal Legal Defense Fund. He has a BA from Boston College, JD, with honors, from Emory University, and an LLM from New York University.
William S. Eubanks II joined Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal in 2008 after obtaining his Master of Laws (LLM) in Environmental Law, summa cum laude, from Vermont Law School. In 2007, Bill obtained his JD, magna cum laude, from North Carolina Central University School of Law where he was a member of the Law Review and founding President of the Environmental Law Society. In 2004, Bill obtained his BA in United States History and English Literature & Composition from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is licensed to practice law in North Carolina and the District of Columbia, and has been admitted to practice in various federal courts.
Since joining MGC, Bill has been involved in litigation under the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Freedom of Information Act, and other statutes. Cases on which he has worked include challenging oil spill response strategies harming sea turtles, garnering protections for Indiana bats from an industrial wind energy project, obtaining agency records regarding federal financing of coal-fired power facilities, and forcing a reconsideration of critical habitat for the California Tiger Salamander.
In addition to his litigation work, Bill has written extensively on diverse legal topics including the environmental and public health impacts of industrial agriculture, the ecological impacts of climate change, environmental injustice resulting from agency decision-making, the public health effects of failed air pollution legislation, the appropriate measure of equitable relief in a wildlife injury context, and the constitutional implications of nonresident university tuition structures.
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 journal, 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 the forthcoming 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.
Dr. Gail C. Golab is director of the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Animal Welfare Division and the first U.S. veterinarian ever to be credentialed in animal welfare.
Dr. Golab has a long history of commitment to ensuring the welfare of animals, starting as an undergraduate student engaged in biomedical research, when she served on a predecessor to today’s institutional animal care and use committees, which protect the welfare of laboratory animals. As a graduate student at Texas A&M University, she co-founded a student chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in order to provide education directed at reducing the number of students relinquishing pets at the end of semesters. After graduation from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in 1991, she provided medical and surgical services, and assisted with policy development, for local humane societies. She serves on several scientific advisory committees developing guidelines and standards for the care of animals used for agricultural purposes.
Dr. Golab earned her membership level credential in the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists’ (ACVSc) Animal Welfare Chapter in 2008. Australia is the only country that offers an animal welfare certification for veterinarians.
A longtime AVMA staff member, Dr. Golab worked for several years in private practice before joining the association as a scientific editor for the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Journal of Veterinary Research. She moved to the AVMA Division of Education and Research as an assistant director in 1998 and became an assistant director in the Communications Division in 2001. She moved to the newly created Animal Welfare Division as associate director in 2006 and was named Animal Welfare Division director in 2007.
Dr. Robert Goodland
Tropical Ecologist, Author & Consultant
Dr. Robert Goodland, a tropical ecologist, has lived and taught in the Amazon forest. He served as the lead environmental adviser to the World Bank Group for 23 years, during which time he wrote and persuaded the Bank to adopt most of its social and environmental safeguard policies. He was elected president of the International Association of Impact Assessment, and Metropolitan Chair of the Ecological Society of America. The Library of Congress lists 40 of his books and monographs. The World Conservation Union awarded him its first Coolidge Medal for outstanding achievements in environmental conservation.
He led a campaign to get the Bank out of financing industrial livestock, especially those entailing deforestation for ranches or feed. He recently co-authored with Jeff Anhang the most frequently cited World Watch article (http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6294) — estimating that livestock are responsible for at least half of global greenhouse gas emissions, so a 25% reduction in livestock would be the fastest and cheapest way to meet the minimum target agreed by most national governments.
Lee earned a JD from the University of Maryland at Baltimore and an undergraduate degree focused on language and linguistics from Northwestern University. Lee has taught animal law and immigration/refugee law and policy as a member of the adjunct faculty at Rutgers University (2001-2004) and has served the international animal-advocacy organization Friends of Animals full-time since 2002. Lee’s perspective on law, animal advocacy, and social movements has appeared through a variety of media including Legal Times; the Vermont Law Review; the UCLA Women’s Law Journal; the Encyclopedia ofActivism and Social Justice (Sage Publications); Alternet; Dissident Voice; and Court TV. Lee’s Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal article “From Property to Person: The Case of Evelyn Hart” (co-authored by Anthony Jon Waters, 2000) is presented in the style of a Supreme Court brief arguing for nonhuman personhood. Lee serves on the board of Primarily Primates sanctuary in San Antonio, Texas, and is also a board member of Compassion for Animals - Respect for the Environment (CARE) of the Delaware Valley. Lee has worked closely with the Environmental Law Clinic at Denver University on effective litigation involving antelope and tropical birds, and is currently working to set aside a deer-control plan in Valley Forge National Historical Park. Lee’s newest book is On Their Own Terms: Bringing Animal-Rights Philosophy Down to Earth (2010).
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 & 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.
Michael Hemker is a Deputy District Attorney for Shasta County, California. He has been a prosecutor for nearly five years and has gained extensive trial experience. He is the vertical prosecutor for all felony animal cruelty cases and has taken five animal cruelty cases to trial over the years. He also is an adjunct professor for National University teaching criminal justice courses. He graduated from the Univerisity of San Diego with his Juris Doctor in 2005 and has an undergraduate degree in Biology from Colorado State Univeristy.
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 LLM from Georgetown University Law Center and graduated with a JD 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, she coaches the animal moot court teams, and has been teaching Animal Law directly for 8 years 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 is the chair and a founder of the Animal Law Section of the American Association of Law Schools. She co-authored the amicus brief submitted in the U.S. v. Stevens case, on behalf of 45 law professors who teach animal law. She has written law review articles and is writing two books on animal law.
Professor Hessler lectures widely on animal law and animal law education issues and has spoken at Harvard and Yale as well as over a dozen other law schools in the US and in Canada and Japan.
Cara Hunt
Articled Student, The Law Centre Community Legal Aid Clinic
Cara Hunt earned her JD from the University of Victoria Law School in November 2009. She is working as an articled student at the Law Centre Community Legal Aid Clinic in Victoria, BC. Cara is currently serving her second year on the executive of the Animal Law section of the Canadian Bar Association ”“ British Columbia Branch.
In June 2009, Cara visited Lewis & Clark Law School on a foreign exchange term with the Centre for Animal Law Studies (CALS). While at CALS, she began an exhaustive review of all US legislation that in any way affects animals used in testing. CALS plans to use this ongoing compilation to advocate for legislative change to restrict the use of animals in toxicity testing.
Cara was a panelist at Canada’s first international animal law conference: “The Animal, within the Sphere of Human’s Needs” in May 2009 in Montreal, Quebec.
In summer 2008, Cara clerked with the Animal Law Offices of Adam Karp in Bellingham, WA through the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s externship program. She was director of her SALDF chapter during her second year of law school.
Cara has received several awards throughout her academic career. In 2009, she received the Prize in Community Law for demonstrating excellence in the Legal Aid Clinic Course. Cara was a recipient of ALDF’s Advancement of Animal Law Award in 2008. In 2007, Cara received the Criminal Law award for achieving the highest standing in the course.
Cara’s writings on criminal law have been included in The Advocate, a journal published by the Vancouver Bar Association.
Cara is passionate about animal rescue efforts. She has fostered chickens destined for slaughter, socializes semi-feral cats with a local rescue group, and shares her home with three rescued cats. Cara lives in Victoria where she and her husband have converted their backyard into an urban, veganic farm. When not gardening or rescuing, Cara enjoys sea kayaking, hiking, and has recently taken up motorcycling.
After receiving his undergraduate degree, Johansen taught in the Oregon public school system while earning his JD He was an associate with the Portland firm of Tedesco & Wilson working on labor law issues. Professor Johansen has worked extensively with colleagues at the University of Latvia on developing the first Legal Writing program in Latvia. His book, Juridiska Analize Un Tekstu Rakstisana, the first Legal Writing textbook to be published in Latvia, is now in its third edition. In Spring 2002, he was a visiting professor at University College, Cork, in Ireland. He has served on the Oregon Bench/Bar Commission on Professionalism since 2002. He served on the Board of Directors of the Legal Writing Institute from 1996 until 2008 and served as the Institute’s President from 2002 to 2004. He is also a former Chair of the AALS Section on Legal Writing, Research, and Reasoning. Johansen has published articles on the politics of legal writing, interpreting Oregon statutes, and most recently on the ethical limits of storytelling in the law. In addition to his work in Latvia, Johansen is a frequent participant in international legal skills training, including recent projects in the Czech Republic, Kenya, and the United Kingdom. He was the 2009 recipient of the Thomas F. Blackwell Award.
Matthew Liebman is a staff attorney at the Animal Legal Defense Fund, where
he litigates civil animal protection cases. 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, and from the University of Texas at Austin in
2001 with a degree in philosophy. While a law student at Stanford, Matthew co-founded a chapter of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund and was an active member of Animal Rights on the Farm, where he worked on campaigns against factory farming and vivisection. Matthew’s writing has appeared in the Journal of Animal Law, the Stanford Environmental Law Journal, and the Animal Legal & Historical Web Center. He is currently co-writing a book on
comparative and international animal law.
Dianne McGill is Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Banfield Charitable Trust. Since joining Banfield Charitable Trust in December 2006, Dianne has helped the charity grow through numerous initiatives, including the launch of the Pet Peace of Mind program in 2009, the launch of Pet Food Distribution grants for Meals on Wheels programs in 2007, and the launch of the FutureVet classroom education grant program in 2007.
Prior to joining Banfield Charitable Trust, Dianne served as a director for an educational nonprofit. Some of Dianne’s other leadership roles include Director of Marketing for the Associated Press, Regional Vice President for The Newspaper Network, and other senior marketing positions for various organizations.
She was born and raised in Spokane, Washington. Dianne holds a BS in Business Management. She is actively involved in a volunteer capacity for numerous nonprofit organizations. In her spare time, Dianne enjoys gardening, cooking, astronomy, camping, and collecting pieces from the Art Deco era. She also enjoys spending time with her husband and family, including two stubborn but very loveable English Bulldogs, Belle and Noel.
Russ Mead is General Counsel of Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s leading farm animal protection organization. Farm Sanctuary rescues animals from cruelty, exposes factory farming abuses and advocates for legal protections for farm animals. In addition, Farm Sanctuary shelter in Watkins Glen, NY and Orland, Calif. provide lifelong care for hundreds of rescued animals who have become ambassadors for farm animals everywhere by educating visitors about the realities of factory farming. Prior to joining Farm Sanctuary, Russ was General Counsel for Best Friends Animal Society where he lobbied for animal protection laws. 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 and the associated cruelty case work. 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 practiced business law out of Seattle for many years and taught graduate level managerial finance, business ethics and business law at Fontbonne University in the executive MBA program.
Bruce Myers is a senior attorney with the Washington-based Environmental Law Institute (ELI). He has worked on a wide range of environmental issues in the United States and abroad, and his areas of emphasis include constitutional environmental law, water quality protection, toxics regulation, environmental regulation of industrial agriculture, and sustainable forestry.
Bruce previously worked as a litigation attorney with a large Washington, D.C. law firm. After law school, he served as a law clerk to Senior Judge Edward Rafeedie of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, at Los Angeles. Bruce is a graduate of the University of Virginia (1993) and the University of Virginia School of Law (1996), where he was a Hardy Cross Dillard Scholar. He is licensed to practice law in California and in the District of Columbia.
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 145 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 grant programs.
Prior to joining ALDF in October 2005, Nicole completed her PhD in Sociology, specializing in social movements, culture, and social psychology, at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens. Her dissertation, “Becoming an Animal Rights Activist: An Exploration of Culture, Socialization, and Identity Transformation,” analyzed the social context of participation in the animal rights movement. While in graduate school, Nicole developed and taught the first Animals and Society course offered at UGA. Her writing has appeared in Sociological Perspectives, Society and Animals, and The Journal for Critical Animal Studies.
In addition to her academic work, Nicole has been involved with numerous animal protection and rescue groups over the years.
Nancy Perry is Vice President of Government Affairs for The Humane Society of the United States. She oversees all legislative work to protect animals, including statewide initiatives, state lobbying and federal lobbying. A graduate of Lewis & Clark Law School, she founded the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Animal Law Journal, and the Animal Law conference. Perry co-teaches the Animal Law courses at George Washington University Law School and Lewis & Clark Law School.
Dr. Mel Richardson
Veterinarian
Dr. Mel has been providing care for captive chimpanzees and other captive wildlife for more than 40 years, as a zookeeper, primate research technician and veterinarian. In 1982 Dr. Mel earned his Doctor in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Georgia. He has worked and consulted with zoos and wildlife parks in the USA, Africa, Colombia, Taiwan, and South Korea. He was veterinarian for the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project 1992-93 and was Project Director for the Projet Protection des Gorilles, a lowland gorilla orphanage in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, where he cared for orphaned gorillas and bonobos from 1995-1996. Dr. Mel has cared for chimpanzees and other wild animals in almost every setting imaginable: zoos, performing acts, private owners, sanctuaries, and research.
Since 1997 Dr. Mel has been advocating for humane treatment of captive wild animals. He is committed to relieving the suffering endured by captive chimpanzees and other captive wildlife. In 2006-2007 he was the receiver’s veterinarian when the state placed Primarily Primates (PPI), a sanctuary in San Antonio, TX into receivership. The Texas attorney general took control of the sanctuary in October 2006 after allegations that the facility was “unfit,” and that public donations had been misspent while the animals lived in substandard accommodation. Dr. Mel is convinced that in order to protect all animals, we must provide them with legal standing.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest and serves on their Direct Care Committee, while actively working to eliminate the suffering endured by wild animals in captivity through medical records review, expert testimony, & public education. Dr. Mel works with attorneys and animal welfare and rights groups.
Associate Professor Dan Rohlf teaches Wildlife Law, Environmental Litigation, and other courses in the law school’s environmental and natural resources program. He also directs the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center (PEAC), the law school’s environmental law clinic). Through his work with PEAC, Dan supervises students working on administrative and judicial actions which affect the environment of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. He has been at the law school since 1988.
Originally trained as a geologist, Dan’s expertise lies in endangered species law and policy, wildlife law, and ecosystem management. He is also interested in the interaction of law and science. His caseload though PEAC focuses primarily on endangered species issues, including extensive work on issues involving restoration of salmonids in the Columbia River Basin.
Dan’s research and publications have also centered around conservation of biological diversity. He is the author of The Endangered Species Act: A Guide to Its Protections and Implementation, which won the National Wildlife Federation book award. He has lectured and published widely on topics related to protecting and managing biodiversity.
Dan received his BA degree in geology from Colorado College and his JD from Stanford. After law school he served as a clerk for Justice Jay Rabinowitz of the Alaska Supreme Court.
Bob Sallinger has worked for Audubon since 1992 and previously served as the Society’s Wildlife Care Center Director and Urban Conservation Director. His current responsibilities include managing the Audubon Statewide Important Bird Area in Oregon, recovery of imperiled species, and promoting wildlife conservation in the Portland Metropolitan Region. He has a particular interest in anthropogenic impacts on wildlife and promoting wildlife stewardship in urban ecosystems. His work in this area is informed by his experience overseeing the rehabilitation of more than 40,000 injured wild animals and responding to more than 200,000 wildlife related phone calls.
In 2001, Bob developed Audubon’s “Living with urban Wildlife” program to proactively promote wildlife stewardship on the urban landscape. A highlight of Bob’s career with Audubon has been his work managing Audubon’s Peregrine Project which has combined educational outreach, management, captive rearing and release, and citizen science to promote peregrine falcon recovery in the Portland Metropolitan Region. Today Portland area peregrine eyries comprise 5% of the known peregrine nesting population in Oregon and the Audubon Program has been recognized with awards for the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society.
Bob’s passion for conservation was developed early exploring the woods of Massachusetts and later on solo hikes from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail and from Canada to New Mexico on the Continental Divide. Bob has a BA in Biology from Reed College and a JD from Lewis & Clark Law School. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Coalition for a Livable Future and the East Multnomah County Soil and Water Conservation District.
Paul Shapiro is the senior director of Humane Society of the United States’ factory farming campaign. He has spearheaded numerous successful campaigns to improve the plight of farm animals, helping enact both legislative and corporate policies which raise the bar on farm animal welfare. Some of those efforts include ballot measures in states like Arizona and California to ban certain extreme confinement systems.
Mr. Shapiro is also the founder and former campaigns director for Compassion Over Killing, a farm animal advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. While there, he helped lead campaigns such as the successful effort to end the use of the misleading “Animal Care Certified” logo on battery cage egg cartons nationwide. At Compassion Over Killing, Mr. Shapiro worked also as a farm animal cruelty investigator, primarily documenting conditions on egg and broiler factory farms, livestock auctions and slaughter plants.
Daniel Simberloff is the Nancy Gore Hunger Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Tennessee. He received his AB (1964) and PhD (1968) from Harvard University and was a faculty member at Florida State University from 1968 through 1997, when he joined the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee. His publications number ca. 500 and center on ecology, biogeography, evolution, and conservation biology; much of his research focuses on causes, consequences, and management of biological invasions. His research projects are on insects, plants, fungi, birds, and mammals. At the University of Tennessee he directs the Institute for Biological Invasions. He is editor-in-chief of Biological Invasions, edtior of the Encyclopedia of Biological Invasions, associate editor of the Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, and serves on the editorial boards of several other journals. He served on the United States National Science Board 2000-2006, and in he was named Eminent Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America.
As one of the visionaries who co-founded the Animal Legal Defense Fund over three decades ago, California attorney Joyce Tischler has helped shape the emerging field of animal law. Joyce handled some of Animal Legal Defense Fund”�
