UCLA Animal Law Program

According to PETA, Impossible Foods and Hampton Creek were under no obligation to test their products on animals but chose to do so. While these companies might not explicitly represent their products as vegan, they should know that this is important information for vegan consumers of their products. Please consider contacting restaurants that purport to be vegan and inquire if they serve Impossible Foods, such as the Impossible Burger, or Hampton Creek foods and, if so, if they will continue to serve those products in light of this information. Then, sharing the answers you receive would be a big help to the vegan community.

Urge Impossible Foods and Hampton Creek to Stop Testing on Animals Please urge Impossible Foods CEO Patrick Brown and Hampton Creek cofounders Josh Balk and Josh Tetrick to ensure that no more animals suffer in tests for their products.

Blood Lions is a new documentary about canned lion hunting in South Africa. There is a special screening and discussion this coming Wednesday, October 26th, from 6:30 to 9:30 pm at Sundance Cinemas, 8000 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles 90046. This event is hosted by the Humane Society of the United States.

Documentaries can have such a powerful effect on viewers. Please spread the word about this event so that it can reach as many as possible!

HIdden in Plain Bite: The Surprising Impact of our Food Choices. October 25th (Tuesday) from 2 pm in room 208 of Kaufman Hall on UCLA Campus.
This is the first event sponsored by a new group at UCLA called the UCLA Food and Social Justice Working Group. It is independent of any department on campus, and its membership is open to faculty, staff, and graduate students.
Please come to meet others who share your interests and to hear an informative presentation!

The Puppy Mills Amongst US

People often think of puppy mills as cruel dog breeding facilities somewhere far away, such as the midwest. They are, in fact, very much among us. They take root in backyard breeding operations and in companies offering to supply puppies for use at parties for kids. Lately there has been a trend to use puppies for “stress relief” on school campuses, where students may not realize that they are promoting and purchasing some of the worst cruelty around. We understand that just such a proposal has been made for a “student stress relief” event at UCLA Law School.

Party companies often keep breeding stock for the purpose of producing puppies exclusively to be passed around at kids’ parties. Those breeding conditions can be as bad as any breeding conditions in large scale puppy mill operations anywhere in the world; the animals kept there are no better than resources used to produce money-making opportunities. The breeding dogs and their puppies are not given the care and attention that dogs require to be healthy physically or psychologically. In particular, such puppies have utility only so long as they are puppies. As soon as they get “too old” they are dispatched in any number of cruel, but cheap, methods or they are sent to animal shelters. At such shelters these puppies stand only a dismal chance of being adopted because they have not been properly or lovingly socialized. They are often killed after any mandatory holding period has passed. What a sad life they have led for the sake of being living toys!

Our view is that schools should not be participating in the furtherance of cruel activities and purveyors of cruel abuses of animals. This is all the more sickening when there are so many loving, healthy rescue dogs yearning for an opportunity to spend time with people, including students.

Please, if you or any organization you know is considering the use of a “party company” to supply puppies or any living animal, opt for rescued animals. They are loving, generous in spirit, and more than happy to express love to people going through a period of stress, such as illness or final exams.

Submission: Gene Block’s support of animal research ignores just criticism | Daily Bruin Submission: Gene Block’s support of animal research ignores just criticism November 7, 2014 12:00 am More stories in Community, Opinion Tweet Share Tweet Share By Eric Tracy On Nov. 3, Chancellor Gene Block sent UCLA students an email in which he voiced his support of animal researchers at UCLA. The…

Call for applications for the Animal Law Academic Fellowship, which is part of the Animal Advocacy Program at Harvard Law School. Applicants must have an advanced degree in law (JD, LL.M., or SJD) by the start of the fellowship on July 1, 2015. Completed applications must be submitted by January 19, 2015. Additional details are in the letter shown here. Good luck to our Bruins who apply!

Prizes:
1st Place - $2500 cash prize (plus round-trip airfare, one-night accommodation and ground transportation) to attend the American Veterinary Medical Law Association's Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts in July 2015
2nd Place - $1000 cash prize

Animal Law Writing Contest The AVMA and other associations offer law students an opportunity to engage in a scholarly discussion on two animal law topics

Excellent post by Professor Sherry Colb on in vitro meat. Folks who attended our UCLA Animal Law Program conference "Animals and the Law: Multiple Perspectives" will remember Professor Colb and her terrific presentation on the First Amendment, along with fellow panelists Professors Michael Dorf, Claudia Haupt, and Gary Steiner.

What’s Wrong With In Vitro Meat? Justia columnist and Cornell law professor Sherry Colb argues that eating meat from a laboratory culture does not allow diners to evade the ethical problems that otherwise arise from eating meat. ...

Nathan Winograd has generously made the e-versions of all four of his books available for FREE this week, through Friday, April 4, 2014. Don't miss out on this kind offer! Links for the downloads are below.

FREE TO GOOD HOME: As a way of thanking you for being a part of the conversation, I promised that when my page hit 100,000 people, I would make the e-book versions of all four of my books available for FREE on Amazon. They are now free. This offer is good M-F of this week only.

Redemption is available here: http://amzn.to/1iOeJY3

Irreconcilable Differences is available here: http://amzn.to/XTUmul

All American Vegan is available here: http://amzn.to/1hOFAzE

Friendly Fire is available here: http://amzn.to/12gHgNw

You do not need a Kindle to download them. You can read them on any computer, smartphone, or e-reader if you first download the free kindle reading App from Amazon: http://amzn.to/11JcJtl. Friendly Fire is only available in the U.S., but the other three (Redemption, Irreconcilable Differences, and All American Vegan) are available worldwide.

If everyone on this page downloads each of them and shares the posts so that others do to, I could easily give away half a million books. Please help me do that. In addition to your friends and rescuers, please send the links to your local shelter directors, county commissioners, and other people of influence in your community even if they are hostile to No Kill and here’s why.

First, it won’t cost them a dime. Second, and more importantly, a year or two ago, I was dropped off at a Kentucky airport by an animal control director who volunteered to drive me. She wanted to talk about how we could work together to improve the animal welfare landscape in Kentucky. She told me how an advocate in her community gave her a copy of my book Redemption. But every time the advocate asked her if she read it, she said “No.” She told the advocate she started to do so, but that I was “angry.” The advocate would not relent. Finally, to prove me wrong, she read it. She told me when she finished, she was the one who was angry. She was angry at herself for spending the last 15 years as an animal control director doing it wrong. She was angry at HSUS because they defended her when they should have been challenging her to do better. And she was angry that they chose to sacrifice the animals in order to do so. The county shelter is now doing offsite adoptions, adoption promotions, and the other programs of the No Kill Equation. She can’t change the past, she said, but she can change the future, which she is committed to doing for the animals of her community. I can’t promise that your local shelter director would do the same thing, but it is worth a shot.

We are 108,000 strong and growing at a rate now of almost 700 people a day. Together, not only will we save lives; but we will create a future where every animal will be respected and cherished, and where every individual life will be protected and revered.

Free Screening of The Ghosts in Our Machine The Animal Legal Defense Fund-Los Angles (ALDF-LA) is hosting a free screening of the documentary The Ghosts in Our Machine on Thursday, April 3, 2014 at 7:30 p.m., which will be followed by a spec...

Lawsuit Filed Today on Behalf of Chimpanzee Seeking Legal Personhood : The Nonhuman Rights Project This morning at 10.00 E.T., the Nonhuman Rights Project filed suit in Fulton County Court in the state of New York on behalf of Tommy, a chimpanzee, who is being held captive in a cage in a shed at a used trailer lot in Gloversville.

Kindle Daily Deal: Check out Steven D. Wolf's "Comet's Tale: How the Dog I Rescued Saved My Life" - only $1.99 today!

Comet's Tale: How the Dog I Rescued Saved My Life Comet’s Tale is a story about a friendship between two former winners, both a little down on their luck, who together stage a remarkable comeback. A former hard-driving attorney, Steven Wolf has reluctantly left his job and family and moved to Arizona for its warm winter climate. There he ...