Climate change is profoundly impacting our planet. As our environment transforms and global warming continues, ecosystems around the world are disrupted by extreme weather events and otherwise inhospitable conditions. In response to the urgent need for climate change solutions, environmentalists and animal advocates have found new ways to collaborate at the intersection of environmental and animal law.
Farmed Animal Protection
Animal advocates and environmental lawyers have found common ground challenging concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. CAFOs are a leading source of greenhouse gases and subject billions of animals each year to highly confined, stress-inducing conditions and mutilation. Animals farmed for food are excluded from the federal Animal Welfare Act and some state anti-cruelty laws exempt recognized agricultural practices, regardless of how those practices harm farmed animals. Beyond animal welfare concerns, CAFOs have devastating environmental impacts. CAFOs are significant sources of harmful greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to a warming climate. Today, animal agriculture accounts for nearly twenty percent of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions. The massive amount of waste generated by CAFOs also contaminates water sources and the air with particulate matter. Just one CAFO can produce as much raw sewage annually as the entire city of Philadelphia.
The environmental harms created by CAFOs and limited welfare protections for farmed animals have led animal and environmental advocates to collaborate in order to address these adverse impacts. To highlight the potential for collaboration, the Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS), the Environmental Law Program, and the Environmental Law Review at Lewis & Clark Law School co-sponsored the ninth annual Environmental Law Spring Symposium, “Animal Agriculture and Climate Change–The Really Big Cow in the Room.” The Symposium featured Animal Law Program Professors Joyce Tischler and Rajesh Reddy, as well as opening remarks by CALS Assistant Dean and Executive Director Pamela Byce.
Leading the fight to combat industrial animal agriculture, CALS offers students numerous pathways to improve the lives of animals while combating the existential threat posed by climate change. In-person students can participate in the Farmed Animal Protection Project: a two-semester experiential learning course that incorporates topics including climate justice and environmental protection. For online and in-person students, CALS’ Industrial Animal Agriculture Law course delves into the myriad welfare concerns and environmental harms created by CAFOs. CALS also offers in-person and online courses in Aquatic Animal Law, which explores the industrialization of aquatic animal farming, and Food Law, which considers how to safeguard animal welfare and environmental health in food production.
Wildlife Protection
Wildlife conservation and habitat protection have long been nexuses for animal and environmental law, and climate change has motivated further work at this intersection. Wild animals face a number of human-created, or anthropogenic, threats, including urban development, poaching, and overhunting and overfishing. Human-created climate change aggravates animal habitat destruction by making certain areas uninhabitable. In addition to these habitat threats, wild animals are affected by shifts in temperature and weather patterns. These shifts interrupt animals’ natural cycles, disturbing breeding and migration patterns and diminishing biodiversity.
Wild animals are excluded from many animal rights and animal cruelty laws around the world. For example, the U.S. Animal Welfare Act applies only to captive, warm-blooded wildlife–a limitation that leaves free-roaming wild animals and captive reptiles, fish, and amphibians without welfare protections. But environmental laws and regulations can provide an inroad for animal advocates seeking to protect wild animals and their habitats. The Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and Marine Mammal Protection Act provide protections for specific animals and their habitats, and more general environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) can be leveraged to require U.S. government agencies to consider impacts on wildlife.
Noting the overlap between issues affecting wild animals and the environment around the world, CALS and the Environmental Law Program at Lewis & Clark Law School collaborated to create the Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment in 2020. The Global Law Alliance works to develop, implement, and enforce international law to protect wild animals and wild spaces. In-person JD and LLM students can participate in two clinics through the Global Law Alliance: the International Animal and Environmental Law Clinic (JD) and the International Wildlife Law Clinic (LLM).
For online MSL and LLM students, CALS offers a Global Wild Animal Law course, which explores wildlife law and animal protection in the context of the global extinction crisis. Students learn how to use treaties and other legal tools to address international wildlife issues, including those created or exacerbated by climate change. CALS’ online and in-person courses in Aquatic Animal Law and International Animal Law also equip students with legal concepts and strategies to protect wildlife in a changing climate.
Animal Disaster Rescue
As climate change continues to accelerate, extreme weather events–like deadly wildfires, floods, and hurricanes–are increasing in both frequency and intensity. The UN has reported that climate change has more than doubled the number of natural disasters since 2000. When natural disasters strike, thousands of animals can be left stranded. These animals include companion animals like dogs and cats who escape, are abandoned, or are left homeless after the destruction of family homes and animal shelters, as well as farmed animals who are left behind. Hurricane Florence–a 2018 hurricane made larger and more extreme by climate change–claimed the lives of 3.4 million chickens and turkeys and over 5,500 pigs who were abandoned in CAFOs.
These catastrophic effects illuminate the need for more advocates and organizations who can provide disaster rescue, veterinary treatment, emergency shelter, and more to animals. To help drive these efforts, CALS offers a course in Nonprofit Animal Law both in-person and online for LLM and MSL students who want to learn how to create and represent animal-related nonprofits. The course covers substantive legal issues relevant to animal rescue, like care and transport of live animals across state lines and animal disaster relief. CALS also offers Companion Animal Law in-person and online, where advanced degree students learn a range of legal strategies relevant to animal rescue and sheltering.
Future of Climate Change and Animal Law
Anthropogenic climate change puts humans, animals, and the rest of our environment at serious risk. But these risks also provide an opportunity for those advocating on behalf of animals and the environment to come together and pursue change through litigation, legislation, nonprofit work, and other avenues.
If you’re looking to connect with a global network of animal and environmental advocates and to join the fight for climate action and animal protection, consider an MSL or LLM in animal law through the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School. Both programs are offered on campus in Portland, Oregon and online, letting you explore the opportunities and challenges of animal law from around the world.