Animal Law Symposium at Lewis & Clark: “Common Practices of Animal Exploitation”

Lewis & Clark Law’s Animal Law Review organized this year’s animal law symposium – “Common Practices of Animal Exploitation.” The March 16 event will feature some of the leading voices combating animal exploitation, with professionals from different backgrounds who fight animal exploitation in different ways. 

The symposium speakers are grouped into four broad panels, including animals as entertainment, ethics and moral implications, animals as resources, and animals as sustenance.

“I specifically chose a broad topic this year so it could include a wide range of panels and speakers,” said Animal Law Symposium Editor Frances Chrzan, ’19. “I’m looking forward to an event that includes numerous participants from the broader animal welfare community, and it’s especially interesting to have an international perspective for the event.”

The animal law symposium includes ten speakers, with many traveling to Portland for the event. The first speaker, spokesperson for AnimaNaturalis International Andrea Padilla, from Colombia, is participating on the “Animals as Entertainment” panel.

Padilla’s talk, “International Bull and Cockfighting,” will discuss how suits are brought against these practices and the ways in which constitutional law has transformed the use of animals for fighting.

The other speakers on the panel include marine biologist and education outreach member of the Dolphin Project Cynthia Fernandez, staff attorney for the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s criminal justice program David Rosengard, and criminal justice fellow for the Animal Legal Defense Fund Kathleen Wood.

Fernandez will speak on dolphin exploitation globally and domestically, and Rosengard and Wood will discuss domestic animal fighting.

The symposium offers one hour of Ethics CLE credit through an “Ethics and Moral Implications” talk by Russ Mead, an adjunct professor at Lewis & Clark Law School and general counsel for the Animal Law Coalition.

In the “Animals as Resources” panel, symposium attendees will hear a discussion of the fur industry from CEO and general counsel of Born Free USA Prashant Khetan, and a talk on animal testing and the federal Animal Welfare Act from Delcianna Winders and Dr. Alka Chandna. Winders is the vice president and deputy general counsel for the PETA Foundation, and Chandna is PETA’s chief of laboratory case management for the Laboratory Investigations Department.

Finally, the “Animals as Sustenance” panel will feature the founder and executive director of the Food Empowerment Project Lauren Ornelas, as well as Kathy Hessler, an animal law clinical professor and director at Lewis & Clark Law School.

Ornelas will give a talk titled “Abuses in the Food Industry: From Human to Non-Human Animals,” and Hessler will speak about aquaculture.

Time/Date Place

“Common Practices of Animal Exploitation” will be held from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Friday, March 16, in Classroom 2 of the McCarty Building on Lewis & Clark Law School’s campus. There will be a catered vegan lunch and a reception will follow the event.

RSVP/Contact 

To attend the symposium, please complete this RSVP form by March 11 and purchase your tickets online. Questions about the symposium can be directed to sym-animallaw@lclark.edu.