Animal advocates often work to pass legislation ensuring that animals are protected from harm. These efforts include animal protection laws, conservation laws, and commercial trade bans all over the world. The Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School has long championed the importance of advancing legal protections for animals, including by educating and training students who seek to make change by lobbying for animal protection.
Animal Law Legislation and Lobbying Course
The Lewis & Clark Animal Law Program has expanded its offerings to include an online animal law course that teaches LLM and MSL students–students pursuing an advanced degree in animal law–how to draft animal protection laws and how to lobby for animals. The course is also offered in-person for JD and advanced degree animal law students studying on campus. This course builds on students’ animal law education and experience as lawyers and non-lawyers by centering the practical skills needed to navigate the legislative process.
The new online Animal Law Legislation and Lobbying course is taught by Professor AJ Albrecht, the Chief Operating Officer at the Animal Legal Defense Fund. She was the inaugural Managing Director for Mercy For Animals US and Canada, where she built a government affairs team and oversaw corporate and public campaigns to advance farmed animal protection. In the course, Professor Albrecht teaches students animal advocacy strategies to take proposed legislation from start to finish. The legislative drafting portion of the course relies, in part, on a book created by Professor Russ Mead, who teaches the in-person Legislation and Lobbying course: Step by Step Legislative Drafting for Advocates.
Students learn how to define a problem that impacts animals and work to frame the problem in a way that can pull in audiences that may not prioritize animal welfare. They also learn techniques to explore the advantages and disadvantages of potential solutions, gather evidence, and tell a compelling story to win public support. Next, students draft jurisdiction-specific legislation, honing the practical skills that both lawyers and non-lawyers can use to propose the creation or amendment of laws at all levels of government.
Once students have drafted their proposed legislation, Professor Albrecht teaches lobbying techniques to turn student proposals into enacted legislation. Students work on identifying and implementing strategies for effective media engagement and public relations, including drafting an action alert to send out to potential supporters. Finally, they practice preparing and presenting testimony in support of their own legislation.
Students explore topics of their own choosing, ranging from breed-specific dog bans to the debeaking of farmed chickens, turkeys, and other birds. As part of the advanced degree program, students bring unique experiences and expertise from their existing legal practice or from their careers in fields including veterinary medicine, government, and animal sanctuary management. Professor Albrecht works with each student individually to refine their project, and students help one another develop their approaches to animal welfare legislation and animal protection lobbying.
Legislation and Lobbying Animal Advocacy Tips
Professor Albrecht says that her approach to teaching students “centers around empowerment, and prioritizes pragmatism.” “The majority of the students enrolled in the course are interested in working on the policy issues that they have identified as their focus for the semester. My goal is to arm them with the resources, skills and knowledge to do this work once the semester ends. It has been incredibly inspiring to see each of the students–many of them subject masters in their own right–explore policy solutions to problems they have long known about but not had the tools to address.”
While working on their proposals, students learn tips to effectively advocate for animals, such as:
Familiarize yourself with your region’s legislative processes.
Consider attending local meetings or town halls, reaching out to local leaders and staff, and using resources like the National Conference of State Legislatures’ website to learn about the legislative processes in your area. State and local governments can vary in structure and in season. For example, Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral system (i.e., a single legislative chamber), and Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, and Texas hold legislative sessions only every other year.
Consider other angles.
Consider what arguments might appeal to voters and policymakers who may not consider animal protection a priority. Step into the shoes of someone who disagrees with you about the problem you want to solve. What would they say to challenge you? How would you respond?
Try taking the position of someone who is neutral on the issue and isn’t particularly interested in animal welfare. Are there economic or public health benefits to your proposal? Are there workers or other human communities that you can bring together in support of your cause?
Make it accessible.
Practice explaining the problem and your proposed solution to someone who has no background knowledge. What background information would they need to understand your proposal? What language in your proposal might be unclear to someone without specialized knowledge, and how can you clarify it?
To identify places where you may need to simplify, enlist friends or family members to listen as you explain your proposal and ask them to stop you if something is unclear or confusing. You also might ask them to explain the proposal back to you to check for miscommunication.
Support your claims.
Gather evidence to support that the problem you’ve identified needs to be addressed and that your proposal will effectively address it. Locate documents to back up your claims and seek out people to interview for more information. Information-gathering interviews can also help you start a longer conversation with key stakeholders. Once you set up an interview, come prepared with questions. Try to avoid asking anything that you could answer yourself another way and treat all interviewees with respect.
Draft jurisdiction-specific legislation.
Whether you’re drafting language to serve as a new statute or to amend an existing one, research your target jurisdiction’s requirements and guidelines for legislative drafting. Most jurisdictions have publicly available drafting manuals, and some counties, towns, or cities have their own local guidelines. If you can’t find a manual for your jurisdiction, look at existing legislation to see if you can identify any drafting trends.
Contact your legislator.
You can contact your legislator by email or by phone, and you may be able to visit in person or make an appointment to do so. Be polite and brief, explaining your proposal with the knowledge that the legislator is likely busy and may be unfamiliar with the issue. Clearly say what you are asking from the legislator, leave information containing a summary of your proposal, and follow up with a thank you to the legislator and any support staff.
Animal Law Legislation and Lobbying Careers
Both lawyers and non-lawyers can build careers involving animal law legislation and lobbying, with opportunities to work with constituents through grassroots organizing and to work with policymakers as a lobbyist for a non-profit or political action group. Volunteers can also make a meaningful impact by supporting animal law legislation through gathering signatures, raising support and awareness, and contacting legislators.
If you’re interested in furthering your animal law education and launching a career in animal law, consider an advanced degree in animal law through the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School offered on campus in Portland, Oregon, or online. Our comprehensive course offerings can help you figure out where you fit in this growing movement. The online animal law advanced degrees’ asynchronous delivery model makes online study available around the globe to individuals with a variety of professional backgrounds.