Pets - now legally protected

We buy our pets fancy clothes, outlandish designer dog accessories, a custom made pet carrier or jeweled dog collars; often paying more than we would if buying for ourselves. Now the legal profession has become involved to protect our four legged friends.

According to an article in a law review journal (Jarva), one weekend in November 2004, some 200 people convened at Yale Law School with a singular purpose: identifying ways of strengthening animal protection laws through the legislatures and courts. These individuals gathered from across the country and overseas.

There were lawyers, professors, and law students who, like many Americans, are convinced that animals are inherently valuable and deserving of humane treatment. However they go considerably furtherin their belief that all nonhuman animals are equally important and entitled to greater protections under the law.

The article goes further to say that some conference attendees may well balk at the "animal rightist" label, opting for the less inflammatory "animal protectionist" moniker instead. But whatever their ideological nuances, they are the legally savvy wing of a social movement determined on using the courts and legislatures to elevate the status of animals in society.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) and Yale Law School sponsored a conference titled "The Future of Animal Law," held Nov. 5-7. Headquartered in Petaluma, California. ALDF boasts some 100,000 members and has, for the past 25 years, worked for stronger enforcement of anticruelty laws.

The field of animal law has grown dramatically over recent years,and many want it to grow even more. There is a hope thatanimal law be taught in every American Bar Association-accredited law school,that animal law practices abound, and every judge and district attorney be educated about animal law.
New laws and new pet meds There is also a longstanding cultural norm against harming animals