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Despite growing concern for animal protection, harm to animals remains widespread. Therefore, animal advocates employ a broad range of approaches to try to prevent and reduce animal suffering, such as lobbying for improved animal welfare laws, educating the public, securing corporate commitments, and conducting direct rescues. But when these and other measures fall short or are not feasible, advocates turn to the courts.
Litigation can have broad impacts as a form of advocacy for animals. At the individual level, it can save the lives of dogs who are the subject of dangerous dog proceedings and protect companion animals and people from domestic violence through civil restraining orders. Additionally, similar to other social justice issues, strategic litigation has also proved to be an effective tool to protect farmed animals from cruelty, wild animals from exploitation in roadside zoos, and to push the law towards justice for animals. By establishing legal precedents, raising awareness, and highlighting the limitations of current animal protection laws, strategic litigation or “impact litigation” can produce change beyond the immediate case.
To effectively use litigation in animal cases, however, requires knowing the basic elements of court procedures in addition to understanding the specific challenges animal cases present. Advocates must know the key parts of a trial, including different types of witnesses (fact witnesses, expert witnesses, or hybrid witnesses), effective direct and cross-examinations, jury selection and more. Additionally, animal advocates need to understand the unique challenges and risks that animal cases pose. As animal issues can implicate many areas of law, such as animal cruelty laws, property law, and constitutional law, and more, advocates are required to know many areas of law and be prepared to advocate in various venues before a variety of decision-makers.
Additionally, animal advocates can play various roles in litigation, as attorneys, clients, witnesses, or an amicus party, just to name a few. In each of these roles, animal advocates have to overcome the inherent species bias of judges and juries, and find creative ways to apply laws written by and for humans, to the interest of animal clients who cannot participate in their own advocacy. Similarly, as animals’ interests are often vastly different from humans’, advocates must consider what a successful outcome would mean, and whether the justice system is able to produce such a result.
These challenges are also compounded by significant costs and risks inherent in litigation. There are high financial and emotional costs, as well as the risk of sanctions, counterclaims, setting bad precedent, and reputational risks. Thus, advocates must assess the likelihood of a favorable outcome, and whether that outweighs the known and potential drawbacks.
The skills and knowledge needed to overcome these challenges in order to effectively advocate for animals in court are the focus of the Animal Law Trial Advocacy course in the Lewis & Clark online animal law advanced degree program. Taught by Professor Sarah Thompson, a litigator and Animal Law LLM alum, the course uses both hypothetical and real world cases to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of litigation for animal advocacy, including what considerations are necessary to determine whether to pursue litigation, how to overcome potential bias, the anatomy of a trial, and critically, how to effectively tell the story of an animal client. Students also study the use of strategic litigation and the systemic impact individual cases can make. In doing so, this course prepares the next generation of advocates to effectively give voice to the interests of animals, in and beyond the courtroom.