U. Va. Offers First-Ever Animal Law Class This Fall
UVA Today, October 29, 2009
After receiving a $1 million grant to establish the Bob Barker Animal Rights Program, U. Va. offered its first course in animal law this fall. The course, "Animal Law 9040," examines the "legal issues pertaining to animals, the laws that govern their treatment, as well as a number of topics that fall within the general headings 'animal law' and 'animal rights,'" said Margaret "Mimi" Riley, who teaches the three-credit seminar. "The class is a great way for students to explore legal principles in the context of a subject area that interests them," Riley said. "It's also an area of law that is evolving rapidly." To view the press release, click here.

Bob Barker Donates Additional $1 Million to Drury to Establish Animal Rights Professorship
USA Today, October 28, 2009
Bob Barker has donated an additional $1 million to his alma mater Drury University to establish a professorship that he hopes will lead to the nation’s first undergraduate degree program in animal rights. Patricia McEachern, currently a professor of French, received the new professorship. McEachern stated that she was unsure when the animal rights program would be started, but she hopes to add two more courses to the program in the next two years. Commenting on the program, Barker stated, "I think some students would become full-fledged animal rights activists…Some will become lawyers and doctors who will always be interested in animal rights. And some will have more respect for animals." If Drury establishes the new animal rights program, Barker said he expects other schools to duplicate it. This donation follows a similar donation last year where Barker donated $1 million to Drury to establish a Forum on Animal Rights, which led to an undergraduate course on animal ethics. Barker has also donated $1 million to eight laws schools, including Harvard and UCLA, to fund courses on animal law. To read the news article, click here.


Animal Studies Tests the Boundary between Human and Animal—and Between Academic and Advocate
Chronicle of Higher Education, October 21, 2009

Academic researchers, "spurred on by a shift in consciousness that has been going on for several decades, beginning with the environmental and social-justice movements of the 1960s and 70s," are working to break down the categories and distinctions between humans and animals. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education,

At the curricular level, courses with some kind of animal-studies emphasis are popping up almost everywhere, in law schools and in literature departments. But students cannot yet get a Ph.D. in animal studies.

Michigan State University is edging closer. It has had an animal-studies graduate specialization for about a year now. Linda Kalof, a professor of sociology, founded and directs the program. "We are the first doctoral specialization in animal studies anywhere in the world," she says. "We focus primarily on the question of how animals figure in human lives and how humans figure in animal lives, from a social-science and humanities perspective." The program attracts faculty members and students from beyond those areas, too. Professors from the school of veterinary medicine and from the law school take part, as do students from zoology and animal science as well as sociology, anthropology, and American studies

...Taken far enough, animal studies ultimately points to "a revision of our most basic social institutions and our most fundamental intellectual assumptions," Calarco says. "There are no guideposts. You're on very experimental terrain."

To read the article, click here.

Bob Barker Plans to Fund Additional Animal Law Programs
At the 8th annual West Hollywood Book Festival Bob Barker used his Q&A session to promote the animal law programs that he has helped fund at several colleges and universities. Since 2001, Bob Barker has donated up to $1 million to eight law schools including Columbia, Harvard, Stanford and UCLA and $1 million for an undergraduate program at his Alma Mater, Drury University. At the festival, Barker told the crowd that he plans to aid universities in the creation of more animal law programs throughout the nation and expressed his satisfaction with the animal law program at Drury. Barker explained that he “got the idea to fund animal law degrees at universities because so many law degree programs are impacted and the level of interest in animal law has increased greatly amongst students and the public.”

To read the news article, click here.

For more information about Bob Barker’s donations to law schools, click here.


Animal Ethics Course Kicks-Off
Drury Mirror - September 10, 2009
Drury University has used a donation by Bob Barker to fund a Forum on Animal Rights, the centerpiece of which is an animal ethics course. The primary goal of the course is to raise moral consciousness about the most current conditions and uses of nonhuman animals and the ethical dimension of relationships between nonhuman animals and human beings. The course focuses on both ethical theory and applied ethics. In addition to the gift to Drury, Bob Barker has made similar donations to eight law schools, including Harvard and Stanford, to help fund the study of Animal Law and Animal Rights. Read the Article.

Moving Beyond Animal Rights: A Legal/Contractualist Critique
Law professor Richard Cupp has published an important law review article documenting the explosive rise of animal law in United States courts and law schools, and analyzing the increasingly volatile animal rights versus animal welfare debate. Professor Cupp concludes that the rights paradigm does not fit well in a legal context when addressing animals, and he supports biomedical research with an emphasis on human responsibility for the humane treatment of animals. The article, entitled "Moving Beyond Animal Rights: A Legal/Contractualist Critique," has been published by the San Diego Law Review. Read the article

Animal Law Specialists Speak for Those Who Can't
Fort Worth Business Press, August 10, 2009
Animal law is one of the fastest growing areas of the legal field and is now taught in over 100 U.S. law schools (click here for more information). Despite the explosive growth of animal law, some attorneys specializing in animal law complain that it is difficult to make a living practicing animal law because, in many states, it is impossible to win more than the animal’s market value. Animal law practitioners in Texas, Virginia, and other states are trying to change this by challenging legal precedents that only permit pet owners to recover the replacement value of the animal in cases of veterinary malpractice or wrongful death, not sentimental value or emotional damages. http://www.fwbusinesspress.com/display.php?id=10761

Animal Law Topic of Recent Seminiar
Times-Picayune, July 13, 2009
The Animal Law Section of the Louisiana Bar Association was founded last year, and recently held its first continuing legal education seminar at Tulane Law School in conjunction with the school's Student Animal Legal Defense Fund. Topics discussed at the seminar ranged from the history of animal status to practical advice for today. http://www.nola.com/picayunes/t-p/wbpicayunes/index.ssf?/base/news-17/1247376654104580.xml&coll=1

Animal rights? Some things shouldn't happen to a dog
Salt Lake Tribune, February 12, 2009 - Animal law is one of the fastest-growing fields in the legal profession.  In 1993, just seven states had felony animal cruelty laws; today, all but four do.  Lewis & Clark opened the first Animal Legal Defense Fund chapter in 1992. Today it has branches at more than 115 law schools in the United States and Canada.  In 2000, nine law schools had animal law studies. Today about 100 do. Read the article

Bob Barker Donates $1 Million for Creation of Animal Law Program at U. Va.
UVA Today, January 13, 2009 - A $1 million gift from animal rights advocate and television personality Bob Barker will establish an animal law program at the University of Virginia Law School. The Bob Barker Animal Rights Program will include coursework, guest speakers and a writing competition focused on animal law, which is emerging nationally as an area of legal study, said U.Va. law professor Mimi Riley, who will spearhead the new program.
Read the article