2L attends 24th Annual Animal Law Conference

Over the Thanksgiving weekend while my friends and family were sitting down to eat large Thanksgiving dinners, I was attending a conference in New York City. I first learned of this conference by signing up as an executive member of the University of Calgary's chapter of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund – an international student body for law students interested in the field of animal law.

Now when I first heard about this group I did not really know what 'animal law' was. But I can cuddle a puppy as good as the next person and I wanted to support our chapter to get off the ground so I signed up. What I realized over the course of the next few weeks was that animal law is much more diverse than what I had realized. It spans from animal protection legislation to international trade agreements, from endangered species treaties to constitutional evolution to agricultural development & policy. It is any law that can touch or effect an animal and it's surprising once you start watching for it, how often 'animal law' can be engaged. So it is no wonder when an email came in advertising the 24th Annual Animal Law Conference in New York City that I was immediately excited by this opportunity and convinced Jill (our president) that she should come along too. It wasn't long before we were submitting registrations and seeking funding, and before we knew it, October was here and we were off to the Big Apple!

I arrived late on Friday night due to a terribly long delay in Toronto, so I missed the welcome reception and greetings that took place on Friday night. But I was one of the first people there on Saturday morning. I quickly got myself settled for a full day of learning about Animal Law. Our keynote speaker was Stephen Wise who is one of the predominant proponents in seeking legal rights for animals and his talk featured his work in seeking 'personhood' for nonhuman animals under the American constitution. If this seems bizarre to you, it is a new approach but I refer you to decisions deciding that corporations can be 'persons' under certain circumstances and Wise has written a few books that you can borrow from me if you're interested. After a quick book signing and some fan-girling with Wise, the conference proceeded. I attended sessions on litigation approaches to factory farming, military working dogs, legal ethics, regulating CAFOs, tax laws, captive wildlife laws and international trade law. It was a rewarding and interesting two days with some very dedicated people.

And at the end, I was in New York City! So I spent the rest of Sunday and the holiday Monday (Columbus day there and Thanksgiving here) exploring the city and taking a brain break from the craziness of law school.