Greetings from Cambridge
Summer 2020
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Friends,
The past few months, weeks, and days have vividly and tragically highlighted the interlocking injustices and oppressions that characterize our world. A virus now known as COVID-19 rapidly spread through a live animal market in Wuhan, China, sparking a global pandemic. The rush to condemn China’s animal markets for their cruelty and dangerousness often played upon xenophobic sentiments and neglected to note that the very same conditions exist in animal markets around the world, including in the United States.
Powerful reporting also has called attention to slaughterhouses as equally deserving of scrutiny for facilitating disease transmission. At the same time, the meat supply chain was designated “essential” to the nation and workers in these slaughterhouses—some of the most vulnerable members of society—were forced to work in conditions even more dangerous than usual and accordingly contracted COVID-19 in disproportionately high numbers. When slaughterhouses no longer could operate at full speed, animals raised for food were killed as “surplus waste” in horrific ways even crueler than industrial slaughter itself.
African-Americans have contracted COVID-19 in disproportionately higher numbers than others in the U.S., exposing the inequities of living with systemic racism in health care and in society in general. The murder of George Floyd was an act of racist violence, reminding us once again that oppression is all around us, a chain that seems to grow longer and tighter.
The Harvard Animal Law & Policy Program recognizes the interconnected dimensions of injustice and believes that we cannot simply pull out one strand and work on it in isolation without an awareness of how others might be impacted. This spring, the work of the Program, the Clinic, and our Faculty, Staff, and Visiting Fellows reflects our commitment to these principles. This newsletter captures some of that work, including Visiting Fellow Amy Fitzgerald’s work on animals in Intimate Partner Violence, Executive Director Chris Green’s efforts to reduce the number of animals killed by police, and Clinical Instructor Nicole Negowetti’s advocacy for just food systems.
Other contributions include Visiting Professor Justin Marceau’s research rethinking criminal punishment in animal law, Clinic Director Katherine Meyer’s supervision of the Clinic’s challenging the environmental impacts of the proposed Border Wall, and Faculty Director Kristen Stilt’s work at the intersection of animal protection and religion. The Program itself also just launched a major research project on the global regulation of live animal markets.
In these times, such work is more important than ever. While rapidly adapting to our new remote realities, we have been fortunate also to expand our efforts to address new and pressing problems and challenges.
Against that backdrop, we are sending news and updates from this past Spring semester at HLS. We have much to be grateful for and share. Thank you for your continued interest in our mission, and may you and your families be well.
Best wishes,
The Animal Law & Policy Program
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Kristen Stilt, Faculty Director
Chris Green, Executive Director
Ceallaigh Reddy, Program Administrator
Sarah Pickering, Communications Manager
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Katherine Meyer, Clinic Director
Nicole Negowetti, Clinical Instructor
Kate Barnekow, Clinical Fellow
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Animal Law & Policy Clinic in Action
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Our
Animal Law & Policy Clinic
continues to develop and execute innovative legal strategies and policy initiatives to protect and advocate for animals—from primates to poultry, and cephalopods to coral. Under the mentorship of Clinic Director Katherine Meyer and Clinical Instructor Nicole Negowetti (pictured with students Kelley McGill ’20 and Brett Richey ’21), HLS students are empowered to advance the cause of animal protection across many spheres by working directly on the Clinic’s own litigation, legislation, rulemaking petitions, and policy work. This provides a valuable opportunity for students to have an immediate impact while honing their advocacy skills. As one of the Animal Law & Policy Program's Visiting Fellows said on hearing about the Clinic filing its first U.S. Supreme Court brief in March,
"The clinic is a paragon of creative, intelligent activism."
That Supreme Court brief challenging the proposed Border Wall was in support of the North American Butterfly Association and the National Butterfly Center, which operate an important wildlife refuge in the area where the Border Wall is to be built. Student Ashley Maiolatesi ’20, with the help of Clinical Fellow Kate Barnekow, dedicated more than 1,000 hours of pro bono work to this and other cases prior to graduating. Read
an interview with Ashley in
The Harvard Crimson
in which she describes the case.
Just today, the Clinic submitted a
Petition to the National Institutes of Health
calling on the agency to include cephalopods (octopus, squid, and cuttlefish) among the “animals” entitled to humane treatment by those involved in federally funded research. The petition argues that Congress intended its legislation governing research to protect
all
animals, not just vertebrates.
Last week, the Clinic issued a detailed
letter to the United States Department of Agriculture
that outlined 20 pages of recommendations for the labelling of cell-based (or “cultivated”) meat and poultry products––alternatives the agency has acknowledged could help supply the protein needs of a growing global population. The letter was drafted by graduating student Kelley McGill ’20 and specifically urges the USDA not to establish new standards of identity that could restrict the marketing of such products. It further warns the agency not to ban the use of common meat and poultry terms (such as “beef,” “burger,” “chicken,” or “sausage”) as doing so would violate well established commercial speech protections of the First Amendment.
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In April, 2L Rebecca Garverman ’21, along with Ashley, filed an amicus brief in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief was on behalf of a coalition of scientists in support of listing the Pacific Walrus as a “threatened species” under the Endangered Species Act, due to the devastating effects of climate change on sea ice.
This semester’s other projects included improving the treatment of poultry, humane standards for animal testing, and reducing plastics in the ocean. In the coming month our Clinic will file several more cases, which you will be able to read about, along with other news
on our website
.
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Animal Law & Policy Program in the News
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In February, Harvard Animal Law & Policy Fellow
Judge Gale E. Raisin
was named one of America’s Top Ten Animal Defenders by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF).
During her time with the program this Fall, Judge Raisin wrote a guide for other judges on how to address complicated cases of animal hoarding that often involve individual mental health issues and large-scale animal cruelty.
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In March, our Food & Climate Policy Fellow,
Helen Harwatt
, was
quoted in
The New York Times
on
the environmental impacts of dairy, noting that “dairy is the second highest emitting livestock product, accounting for 4 percent of all global emissions.” Helen's work focuses on identifying food system transitions that minimize adverse environmental and animal welfare impacts.
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In February, the American Bar Association adopted a Resolution urging legislation to provide police with animal encounter training in order to reduce the unnecessary use of lethal force against animals. The Resolution was drafted by our Executive Director,
Chris Green
,
who presented it to the full 600-member House of Delegates.
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Workshop Series & Visiting Fellows
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Professor Stilt led our
Animal Law & Policy Workshop Series
this past semester. Every other week more than a dozen participants meet for an afternoon session to review and critique drafts of each other’s scholarship in progress.
In addition to the Program’s faculty, staff, visiting affiliates, HLS SJD and LLM students, and Harvard University graduate students, we also welcome the JD student board of the Harvard Animal Law Society to participate, along with others from outside the immediate Harvard community. The mid-semester transition to holding our workshops via Zoom went incredibly smoothly and also provided the opportunity for children and companion animals to join the conversation!
The work of our Visiting Fellows forms the core of the
Workshop Series
. This semester those Fellows included
Omar Farahat
, who is drafting “A Preliminary Framework for the Rights of Nonhuman Animals in Islamic Legal Theory”;
Amy Fitzgerald
, who is examining “Social Recognition of Animals in the Context of Domestic Violence: A Strategic Avenue for Broader Socio-Legal Change?”; and
Steve Niemi
, who is writing about ethical considerations surrounding the use of animals in biomedical research.
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HLS held a “virtual commencement ceremony” last month, which featured an incredibly moving presentation by
Bryan Stevenson
’85, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. He told the Class of 2020: “My message to you is that I hope you’ll keep your eyes on the prize of doing justice and hold on. In these strange times, we need a generation of lawyers, like you, who commit to doing the things that are uncomfortable, that change narratives, that sustain hope, and that require proximity––to the poor, to those who suffer, to those who are marginalized, to those who are excluded.”
Among those graduating were Animal Law Society Co-Presidents Kelley McGill and Gabriel Wildgen, Vice President Boanne Wassink, and Campus Outreach Chair, Harish Vemuri (pictured above) who received the Dean’s Award for Community Leadership for his important work with the Animal Law Society, Effective Altruism, and South Asian Law Students Association. Both Kelley and Boanne also graduated with honors, achieving
cum laude
distinction.
At the commencement ceremony it also was announced that one of our two annual
Animal Law & Policy Writing Prizes
was won by graduating student Isabella Ariza LLM ’20, for her paper “Transition in Colombia: An Opportunity to Repair Animals in Cities and Animals in War.” Our other 2020 Animal Law & Policy Program Writing Prize was won by 2L Andy Stawasz ’21 for his draft law review article, “Correcting the Regulatory State's Massive Blind Spot: On Valuing Nonhuman Animals in Cost-Benefit Analyses.”
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Helping our students gain experience in the animal protection field via internships and externships is an important part of what we do. Read a blog by Elizabeth Melampy ’21,
Growth in Animal Advocacy
, about her litigation externship with Animal Outlook (formerly Compassion Over Killing).
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COVID-19 Collaboration
We received over 50 responses to our call for a six-month
Research Fellowship
to manage a Program project studying policy responses to live animal markets, also called “wet markets”––sites that have been known to facilitate the transmission of zoonotic diseases like avian flu, SARS, and COVID-19. The project aims to provide a comprehensive assessment that will aid policy makers considering regulatory decisions, contribute to public education about these issues, and serve the human health and animal protection NGO communities.
Collaborating partners will include the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School’s Center for Animal Law Studies, New York University’s Center for Environmental and Animal Protection, the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, the University of Victoria Faculty of Law, and Yale Law School’s Law, Ethics & Animals Program. The project will be managed by incoming Research Fellow
Ann Linder
.
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Animal Law Week Talks Online!
This year, our annual Animal Law Week was expanded to two weeks to accommodate even more speakers, including nutritionist and author Tracye McQuirter (pictured), who discussed, "Why I'm Helping 10,000 Black Women Go Vegan in 2020." These and other inspiring talks, including a February panel discussion we held with producers and athletes from the film
The Game Changers
, can be viewed on
our YouTube channel
.
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HLS recently announced that all learning, teaching, academic programming, and events will be conducted remotely in Fall 2020. While we look forward to the time when our community can come together again on campus, in the meantime, we are taking full advantage of the new opportunities that a remote environment offers––such as using technology to share our work widely throughout the world, and attracting new listeners who can engage with events in real time.
As the Animal Law & Policy Program continues to forge ahead in this new mode, we are excited about our full slate of Fall activities that include hosting an exciting new cohort of Visiting Fellows, continuing our Animal Law & Policy Workshop Series, adding new course offerings, welcoming guest speakers, and creating new events. By the time classes resume in September, our Clinic also will have filed two new federal lawsuits to improve humane standards for animals in agriculture and research, as well as a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court related to factory farming.
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With your support we will continue to undertake and invest in impactful research and equip the next generation of attorneys and activists with the skills they need to advocate for animals.
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