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The
December issue of Arizona Attorney magazine features
a 14-page cover story on the Animal Law Section of the State
Bar, a specialty section co-founded and chaired by ADLA's
board president Stephanie Nichols-Young.
This
evolving area of law is important to those of us who care
about animals. Arizona is only one of six states that have
animal law sections as part of their state bar associations.
Associate membership in the section is open non-attorneys.
The
mission of the Animal Law Section is to promote the study
and understanding of laws, regulations, and court decisions
involving animals. Some of the types of cases related to animal
law include prosecution of animal cruelty, estate planning
for the care of companion animals after a person's death,
and civil disputes involving pets.
For
a resource listing of websites and books related to animal
law, visit the Animal Law Section website at: http://www.myazbar.org/content/SecComm/Sections/AN/Resources.htm
We
thank the editors of Arizona Attorney magazine for
granting us permission to reprint this article in its entirety
here on our website for our members and supporters to read.
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EXCERPT:
Lawyers looking to animal law for a centuries-old jurisprudence
— as is found in contracts, property and even criminal
law, for example — are barking up the wrong tree. First
off, the section had to assure the Board of Governors and
fellow lawyers that the new group would not be an animal rights
section. There would be no lobbying against cosmetics companies,
no call for animal suffrage, no blood thrown on fur coats.
As Nichols-Young points out, “We are a mandatory bar,
and we can’t be an advocacy section; we have to be an
academic section to consider the law.”
But
when that fear was allayed, there still was the question:
What is animal law?
Animal
law is really an interrelated web, as well as the process
of weaving that web. According to section member Chris Wencker,
a lawyer with Hochuli & Benevides PC in Tucson, identifying
those interrelations is a vital part of practicing in the
area.
“To
me, the area of animal law [addresses] the way the law deals
with animals, because they’re different from property,
they’re different from humans. And they’re widespread—there
are companion animals, wildlife, animal research—and
there’s a lot of interaction with them, but we really
don’t have a substantive body of law dealing with animals.
To me, the area of animal law is trying to develop that body
of law.”
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Article
posted with permission from Arizona Attorney magazine.
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