Bridging Veterinary Medicine and Animal Law: A Vital Alliance

When I entered the Lewis & Clark Law School’s Master of Studies in Animal Law program in 2022, I was the first veterinarian to join the inaugural cohort in the first advanced legal degree of its kind designed specifically for non-lawyers.

The Center for Animal Law Studies offers a Veterinary Animal Law course in the online advanced degree program at Lewis & Clark Law School of which I was excited to take part in. The course is designed to bring together lawyers, veterinarians, and other advocates to find commonality and build a strong foundation to work together to advance animal protection. It was a milestone not just for me personally, but also for the emerging intersection of veterinary medicine and animal law.

My journey to that degree was anything but conventional as I had spent many years traveling as a companion animal and wildlife clinician, bearing witness to the realities animals face in the wild, in laboratories, in the streets, and on industrial farms. This firsthand practical experience provided valuable insight about the important role that veterinarians can and should play in the advancement of animal welfare.

Since graduating, the advocacy work has accelerated quickly. I have testified against indiscriminate wildlife killing at the California State Capitol, lobbied for farmed animal welfare bills, and co-published op-eds about the preferred use of high-tech modalities instead of animals in laboratory research. I serve on the Animal Welfare Committee for the California Veterinary Medical Association, am an active policy volunteer with Humane World for Animals and am a member of the Humane Veterinary Medical Alliance. Each of these roles reflects the conviction that veterinarians have an important and largely untapped voice in shaping policy and the law on behalf of animals.

The Vision for my GAP Project

It was this conviction that inspired me to apply to become a CALS Global Ambassador which provided a project grant. My project centered on a place that holds enormous personal meaning to me: St. George’s University School of Veterinary Medicine (SGUSVM) in Grenada, West Indies, my alma mater. SGUSVM is an American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) accredited international institution with students and faculty from more than 50 countries, making it one of the most culturally diverse veterinary schools in the world. I saw this diversity as very exciting and an extraordinary opportunity to advance animal protection.

My mission was to introduce the study of Animal Law to SGUSVM and to help integrate it into their new Professional Development Skills curriculum. Although a seemingly straightforward mission, it was ambitious! At the time, only two veterinary schools in the United States, the University of Pennsylvania and Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, had weaved animal law into their veterinary program. With my GAP project, I wanted to offer SGUSVM an opportunity to not only join these trailblazing schools but to also set an international precedent that could ripple far beyond its Caribbean shores.

Dr. Emily Talkington, presenting about animal law to students at SGUSVM earlier this year.

The Journey of integrating Animal Law into the Veterinary Medical School Curriculum

I traveled to SGUSVM in Grenada in April of this year and presented lunchtime lectures to three veterinary student groups including the Student Chapter of the AVMA (SAVMA), the Shelter Medicine sub-chapter of the Humane Veterinary Medical Alliance, and the Exotics and Wildlife Society. My presentations all began with storytelling with the stories being anchored in my real-life veterinary experiences that have taken me to sub-Saharan Africa, the jungles of South East Asia, the rainforests of the Amazon, and in wildfire disaster triage zones in California. I shared photos and anecdotes from the field that illuminated the very real welfare and legal dilemmas facing animals across the globe. Included were descriptions of my work with endangered species in peril, such as African Grey Parrots, Western Lowland Gorillas, and Asian elephants, as well as helping chimpanzees released from a research laboratory setting and street dogs needing basic care in the United States.

We spoke broadly of the international laws and treaties in place and of the unfortunate gaps and loopholes as it relates to wildlife trade and trafficking and other animal protection disparities. We spoke of industrial animal agriculture and our responsibility to take part in positively shaping government regulations, welfare standards, and public understanding of how animals utilized for food and fiber should be treated. We spoke about the importance of articulating their thoughts publicly when current policies of national veterinary institutions contradict scientific evidence or ethical responsibilities, and that we should be willing and empowered to challenge them.

My goal with these presentations was to introduce the field of Animal Law to veterinary medical students, but also to stimulate curiosity, and to build confidence in them so that they, too, can step into their power as knowledgeable, compassionate experts who are well-positioned to advocate for animals via policy and the law. I also reminded them that as veterinarians we have immense professional responsibility and influence and encouraged them to stay aligned with their own values and ethical belief systems.

I found the students to be engaged, curious, and moved to action! Many students told me after the presentation that they were surprised to learn about some of the topics that are not generally covered in veterinary medical school education, such as mass euthanasia methods for pigs and poultry used during a disease outbreak and how exotic pets like fish and reptiles can be related to the illegal wildlife trade and trafficking industry.

A post-presentation survey of the 300+ students who attended the presentations confirmed what I felt in the room. Their perspective on how they could actively take part in fostering animal welfare advancement had shifted, and their appetite to learn more about animal law was clear. They asked how to get involved, how to learn more, how to connect and network with other advocates to form coalitions, and how to work within the challenging, current system to evoke more benefit and protections for animals.

Following the presentations, I met with SGUSVM’s Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and the coordinator of their Professional Skills Development course, which already covers topics like ethics, communication, and mental health. The conversations were enthusiastic and productive. Animal law fit naturally into this framework, and the faculty and administration were very receptive to my ideas of an integration. The path toward guest attorney lecturers and an ongoing curricular presence was created, bringing them one meaningful step closer to my hope of a formal animal law course and perhaps someday, an MSL/DVM dual-degree program.

I am excited to use my veterinary background and the animal law knowledge that I gained during my Animal Law MSL studies at Lewis & Clark Law School to help develop these first Animal Law workshops at SGUSVM. Co-created with CALS animal law lecturers and alums, these initial workshops will incorporate companion animal cruelty reporting and international industrial farmed animal law to include aquaculture, with the first workshop set for January 2027. Over 400 international veterinary medical students per year will be exposed to animal law and actively take part in these law workshops. These workshops focusing on practical application, policy research and writing, and drafting letters will be a required and graded component of their curriculum, and sustainable moving forward into the following years with the goal of continued expansion.

The Impact

The broader implications of this project extend far beyond one island or one veterinary school. SGUSVM’s openness to embracing Animal Law is sending a signal to veterinary institutions worldwide that this intersection matters and that the next generation of veterinarians should understand not only anatomy and pharmacology but also their role in advancing ethical policy, advocacy, and knowledge of animal welfare law. The momentum from this project has also opened doors for outreach to other veterinary medical schools, such as UC Davis, and organizations, such as the Humane Veterinary Medical Alliance, which helps to further normalize animal law education across the profession.

Being an alum of both SGUSVM and Lewis & Clark Law School proved to be no small asset. What had once lived only in my imagination and in the enthusiastic encouragement of my professors during my Animal Law MSL studies became reality. I am profoundly grateful to the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School for believing in this vision and in the power of veterinarians who, if given the chance and grant funding, could inspire open dialogue and connection between two otherwise disparate fields.

Looking back on the journey from that first Animal Law MSL class to speaking with veterinary medical students introducing Animal Law in the lecture halls of SGUSVM, I am filled with immense hope. Animals cannot advocate for themselves in courtrooms or legislatures, so animal lawyers have carried this advocacy forward. We, as veterinarians, can and should join them! We have the scientific credibility, the clinical experience, and now the hopeful networking and support to make our voices heard and amplified. There is an entire pipeline of veterinary students open and willing to connect with the legal world to advance the protection of animals. We just need the legal world to greet them at the door, have their backs, and welcome them in. I am so grateful and delighted to be working with CALS to move this work forward!

About the Author: Emily Talkington graduated from the Animal Law MSL Program at Lewis & Clark Law School in 2023.

As well as being a domestic and wildlife veterinarian, Emily is a member of the Animal Welfare Committee for the California Veterinary Medical Association, the Humane Veterinary Medical Association, and the Veterinary Association for Farmed Animal Welfare. Emily is a Humane Policy Volunteer Leader for Humane World for Animals. She has been selected by the American Veterinary Medical Association to become a mental health advocate as part of their program called MentorVet Connect that assists veterinarians who are struggling with the stressors of the profession. 

The Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) was founded in 2008 with a mission to educate the next generation of animal law advocates and advance animal protection through the law. With vision and bold risk-taking, CALS has since developed into a world-renowned animal law epicenter. CALS’ Alumni-in-Action from over 30 countries are making a difference for animals around the world. CALS is a nonprofit organization funded through donations and grants.