What about plants? Don’t animals eat other animals? There are no perfect vegans, so why bother? If you’re vegan, how many times have you been asked these, and other similarly challenging, questions from non-vegans? Using humor and reason, Sherry F. Colb takes these questions at face value and also delves deeply into the motivations behind behind them, coming up with answers that are not only intelligent but insightful about human nature. Through examples, case studies, and clear-eyed logic, she provide arguments for everything from why veganism is compatible with the the world’s major religions to why vegetarianism is not enough. In the end, she shows how it is possible for vegans and non-vegans to engage in a mutually beneficial conversation without descending into counterproductive name-calling, and to work together to create a more hospitable world for human animals and non-human animals alike.

When: Friday, January 11, 2013 | 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Where: Armory Center for the Arts | 145 N. Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, CA
Tickets: $50.00 per person

To order tickets or make a donation, please visit: http://animalhistorymuseum.eventbrite.com/

Questions? Email the museum at info@animalhistorymuseum.org

In the United States today, approximately 25% of domesticated cats are declawed. Declawing is the amputation of the last bone in a cat’s toes. Despite the physical and behavioral harm inflicted on cats who are declawed, many veterinarians continue to recommend the procedure — which costs upwards of $1,200 per hour – even for very young kittens.

These are animals we love, and with whom we share our homes. Why aren’t we being told the truth of what the declawing procedure involves? What goes on when the vet takes our beloved companions in the back of the veterinary clinic? The Paw Project documentary chronicles the happy and unexpected twist of fate that led to the protection of many animals through the grassroots advocacy led by Dr. Conrad and The Paw Project. We invite our readers to watch the trailer for The Paw Project documentary [VIDEO].

The screening will be followed by a panel presentation and Q&A session, featuring an exciting panel of speakers, including: filmmaker Dr. Jennifer Conrad, editor Allan Holzman, and David R. Ginsburg, Executive Director of the UCLA Entertainment, Media, and Intellectual Property Law Program. Detailed biographies of our speakers are provided below. Admission to the conference is free; parking is $11.00.

Directions to the UCLA School of Law:
Take the 405 to the Sunset Boulevard exit.
Sunset Boulevard (east) to Hilgard Avenue, turn right.
Follow Hilgard Avenue to the Westholme Drive (second light) entrance to the campus.
Turn right on Westholme Drive.
The parking kiosk is immediately on the right.
Please tell the attendant that you are attending an event at the Law School, and you will be directed to the nearest available parking lot (most likely Lot 2).

Dr. Jennifer Conrad, filmmaker

Dr. Jennifer Conrad has cared for wildlife on six continents for over two decades. She is an impassioned advocate for animal welfare, driven by her firsthand witnessing of the suffering and exploitation of animals, destruction of habitat, and gratuitous hunting — all of which threaten the welfare and survival of many species. In her former role as head veterinarian at a wildlife sanctuary, Dr. Conrad founded The Paw Project, which rehabilitates big cats, such as lions, tigers, cougars and jaguars maimed by declawing.

The stunning spotted leopard featured above is named Oscar. Before Dr. Conrad came to his aid, Oscar was used as a prop in a Las Vegas magic act. His owner declawed Oscar as a baby, but when his feet began hurting too much for him to continue participating in the act, his owner decided to have him killed. The organization Forever Wild intervened and rescued him, bringing him to the sanctuary for paw repair surgery by The Paw Project veterinarians. Photograph taken by Christina Bush.

Allan Holzman, editor

Mr. Holzman’s illustrious career in film spans three decades, marked with numerous awards for his work, including: two Emmy Awards, a Cable ACE Award, and a Peabody Award for his work as director-editor for Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Holocaust; an American Cinema Editors Eddy Award for his feature documentary Old Man River, and a combined eight “best documentary film” awards for Old Man River and Sounds of Memphis. He served as editor for The Paw Project documentary.

Mr. Holzman is a graduate of Bennington College and The American Film Institute. He teaches a course in graduate film editing at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he has made documentaries on visualizing film with Steven Spielberg’s production designer Rick Carter.

David R. Ginsburg, UCLA School of Law

David R. Ginsburg is the Executive Director of the UCLA School of Law’s Entertainment, Media, and Intellectual Property Law Program, where he teaches courses on entertainment law, entertainment law research and writing.  Mr. Ginsburg has also guest-taught at UCLA the motion picture and television law segments of Film and Television: Entertainment Law, Business Practices, and Negotiation Strategies, and a “Deals” segment as part of the joint Law and Management seminar, Elements of Economics Organizations seminar.

In the motion picture industry, Mr. Ginsburg was an independent producer and executive, among his work in film, he served as the President of Artisan Pictures and Executive Vice-President of Artisan Entertainment prior to its December 2003 acquisition by Lionsgate Films.  In television, Mr. Ginsburg served from 1986 to 1997 as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Citadel Entertainment, a company which he co-founded and where he produced over 50 films, and has been nominated personally three times for the Emmy and four times for the Golden Globe.  His television production credits include several Emmy-winners, and many of those productions have been nominated for and won numerous other awards (including the Golden Globe for Rasputin in 1997 and the Humanitas Prize for Between Mother and Daughter in 1995).  For a more complete online IMDb production resumé, see http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0320134/

To register for this FREE conference, please visit the Claremont Lincoln University’s Jain Studies website at http://jain.claremontlincoln.org/2012-conference-2/registration/.

The UCLA Animal Law Program is proud to announce its upcoming conference, Animals and the Law: Multiple Perspectives, which will be held at the UCLA School of Law on May 16, 2012 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. As detailed below, we have an exciting series of panels featuring leading scholars and practitioners in the fields of philosophy, food policy, and First Amendment law. Admission to the conference is free; parking is $11.00. Seating is limited, therefore those interested in attending are asked to R.S.V.P. using our online form at http://tinyurl.com/multipleperspectives. Parking and directions to the event will be provided upon receipt of registrations.

PANEL ONE: Moral Philosophy: Implications for Animals and Animal Law

Our first panel examines moral philosophical theories that consider the moral importance of animals and humans’ behavior in regards to animals, which is important for guiding and justifying legal reform on behalf of animals. Speakers include: Matthew Calarco, Alice Crary, Gary L. Francione, and Gary Steiner.

PANEL TWO: Food Policy: Implications for Animals and Animal Law

Our second panel considers specific aspects of food law and policy, such as private agreements between food retailers and their suppliers, regulation of antibiotics, and antitrust law enforcement in contexts that affect animals. Speakers include: Michael Roberts, Susan A. Schneider, and William H. Stallings.

PANEL THREE: First Amendment: Implications for Animals and Animal Law

Our third and final panel focuses on the First Amendment. First Amendment law is a factor in many animal contexts, including the legality of proposed laws that would limit access to agricultural business practices and computer game/applications that invite users to engage in animated activities, such as training dogs for dog-fighting, that may desensitize the user or otherwise exacerbate the problems of commodification of animals and permission to engage in cruelty. There is also the question of whether there is a disproportionate silencing of First Amendment speech of those who engage in protest on behalf of animals and those who care about animals. Speakers include: Sherry F. Colb, Michael Dorf, Claudia Haupt, and Seth Kreimer.

Speaker Biographies (listed in alphabetical order):

Matthew Calarco is Associate Professor of Philosophy at CSU Fullerton. He specializes in contemporary Continental philosophy and animal and environmental ethics. He is the author of Zoographies: The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida and co-editor of The Death of the Animal (with Paola Cavalieri, J. M. Coetzee, Harlan Miller, and Cary Wolfe) and Animal Philosophy (with Peter Atterton).
Sherry F. Colb is Charles Evans Hughes Scholar and Professor of Law at Cornell University Law School, where she teaches and writes on constitutional criminal procedure (especially the Fourth Amendment), animal rights, sexual equality, evidence, and mental health law. In addition to her scholarship in academic journals and books, she composes a bi-weekly column for Justia’s Verdict and posts regularly on the blog Dorf on Law.
Alice Crary is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. She is a moral philosopher who writes and teaches about ethics and animals. She is the author of Beyond Moral Judgment (Harvard, 2007) and is currently finishing a book entitled Inside Ethics, about resituating human beings and animals inside ethics.
Michael Dorf Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law at Cornell University Law School, where he teaches and writes on constitutional law and related subjects. In addition to his scholarship in academic journals and books, he writes a bi-weekly column for Justia’s web magazine Verdict and posts several times per week to his blog Dorf on Law.
Gary L. Francione is Distinguished Professor of Law and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Scholar of Law and Philosophy, Rutgers University School of Law, Newark, New Jersey. He is the author of numerous books, including Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation, Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? and The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation? He is the co-editor (with Gary Steiner) of a series, Critical Perspectives on Animals: Theory, Culture, Science and Law, published by Columbia University Press. His website: www.abolitionistapproach.com.
Claudia Haupt has been teaching as a Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School since 2009, which also included a two-year appointment as International & Comparative Law Fellow. Her primary research interests are in the areas of constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, jurisprudence, EU law, and the legal profession. She has published articles in numerous academic journals and her book Religion-State Relations in the United States and Germany: The Quest for Neutrality was published by Cambridge University Press in 2012.
Seth Kreimer is Kenneth W. Gemmill Professor of Law at University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he teaches and writes on constitutional law, civil rights law, and constitutional litigation. His scholarship has shaped analysis of privacy of information, abortion regulation, assisted suicide, and gay marriage. He has explored the implications of DNA testing in criminal justice, free speech on the Internet, and the dangers of abuse in the “war on terror.” Among his recent works is the article Pervasive Image Capture and the First Amendment: Memory, Discourse, and the Right to Record, which was published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review in 2011.
Michael Roberts teaches consumer food law and policy at the UCLA School of Law. He has contributed to numerous books and academic journals on food regulation, trade, and policy issues. He is currently writing a treatise provisionally titled, The Oxford Commentaries on American Law: Food Law, to be published by Oxford University Press, Inc. He also serves as Director of the Center for Food Law and Policy (CFLP), a newly formed non-profit organization that advances thoughtful policymaking through innovative legal scholarship on food law and policy. The current focus of CFLP is on the role of food law and policy in dealing with the obesity epidemic.
Susan A. Schneider is Professor of Law and Director of the LL.M. Program in Agricultural & Food Law at University of Arkansas School of Law. She recently published the casebook, Food, Farming & Sustainability: Readings in Agricultural Law, is a regular contributor to the Agricultural Law blog on the Jurisdynamics Network, and manages the LL.M. in Agricultural & Food Law blog.
William H. Stallings is the Chief of the Transportation, Energy, and Agriculture (TEA) Section of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division. TEA has responsibility within the Department of Justice for the enforcement of the antitrust laws and the promotion of competition for matters involving transportation (including airlines and railroads), energy (including electricity generation and oil field services), and agricultural commodities such as livestock, grain, and seeds.
Gary Steiner is John Howard Harris Professor of Philosophy at Bucknell University. He is the author of Anthropocentrism and Its Discontents: The Moral Status of Animals in the History of Western Philosophy and Animals and the Moral Community: Mental Life, Moral Status, and Kinship. His newest book, Animals and the Limits of Postmodernism, will be published by Columbia University Press this fall.

Unfortunately, as a result of poaching and habitat destruction, viable orangutan populations are on the edge of extinction and could be gone within the next 10 years.  As President of OFI, Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas has studied orangutans longer than any other person in human history and has worked ceaselessly to save orangutans and forests, and to bring orangutans and their plight to the attention of the world.

Please join us for this special event!

This event is sponsored by:

UCLA GSA Sustainable Resource Center
UCLA Center for Tropical Research
The Animal Law Society at UCLA School of Law
The Environmental Law Society at UCLA School of Law
UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Best of luck to all of the competitors!

1. Legislative Drafting & Lobbying Competition;
2. Closing Argument Competition; and,
3. Appellate Moot Court Competition.

To view a schedule of the events, please click HERE. Members of the public are invited to attend the final competition rounds taking place at the UCLA School of Law on Sunday, February 26, 2012, as well as the NALC Awards Ceremony that will follow.

Nathan J. Winograd

Nathan is the Director of the national No Kill Advocacy Center. He is a graduate of Stanford Law School, a former criminal prosecutor and attorney, held a variety of leadership positions including director of operations for the San Francisco SPCA and executive director of the Tompkins County SPCA, two of the most successful shelters in the nation. He has spoken nationally and internationally on animal sheltering issues, has written animal protection legislation at the state and national level, has created successful No Kill programs in both urban and rural communities, and has consulted with a wide range of animal protection groups including some of the largest and best known in the nation. Nathan is the author of three books, Redemption, Irreconcilable Differences, and All American Vegan (co-written with his wife, Jennifer). Redemption won five national book awards and redefined the animal protection movement in the United States.

In his presentation, Nathan will discuss ways to get animal control to shift from a reactive, public health model of sheltering based on killing, to a proactive one which saves over 90% of all animals, returning “euthanasia” to its dictionary definition. He will also explore how to reform your local shelter to end the killing through an advocacy and political campaign, debunking the myths that allow the current paradigm of killing to continue.

Please join us for this event, which will be held on March 13, 2012 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Room 1347 at the UCLA School of Law. There is no charge to attend the event, but it costs $11.00 to park at UCLA. Space is limited to individuals who have pre-registered due to the size of the room in which the event will be held. To submit a request to register for this event, please complete our online registration form at http://bit.ly/zbJo04. If you are an attorney attending the event and wish to receive MCLE credit, please indicate such in the form. Attorneys wishing to receive MCLE credit should arrive early so that we can process the necessary paperwork.

Registrants will be notified of the status of their requests within one week of the submission. For further details about this event, please contact the UCLA Animal Law Program at animallaw@law.ucla.edu.

Directions to the UCLA School of Law:
Take the 405 to the Sunset Boulevard exit.
Sunset Boulevard (east) to Hilgard Avenue, turn right.
Follow Hilgard Avenue to the Westholme Drive (second light) entrance to the campus.
Turn right on Westholme Drive.
The parking kiosk is immediately on the right.
Please tell the attendant that you are attending an event at the Law School, and you will be directed to the nearest available parking lot. The parking charge per vehicle is $11.00.

UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider.