Featured Speakers #4

How Litigation can be Used to Protect Animals

Joyce Tischler
"the mother of animal law"
www. aldf.org

The social movement has always been trying to change our societies, but the momentum for change has never been fast and straight forward. So how do we change this dynamic? How do we create short term victories and long term changes? Social activists have a very long history in creating an integrated approach to change and the tools to this mean are three.

The first tool is public outreach; the second legislation; the third is litigation. Litigation is often called public interest litigation and it is the tool to make tool number two more dynamic, since legislation often remains on paper. Suing is not easy, progress is very slow, a lot of law suits are lost, and it is in general not a very attractive option. Litigation is often dismissed as something that only Americans do and that it does not apply to the rest of the world, but it is not true; some very successful lawsuits of other countries show how litigation can be a tool also outside the USA. So if there is no law what do you do? You use litigation. Hundreds and hundreds of lawsuits have been and are being filed in the USA. But the United States is not the only country. We have some examples coming from:

1. The Israeli Supreme Court (the association NOAH to ban foie gras in Israel, one of the largest world producers of this product);

2. East African Court of Justice at Arusha (the african Network fro Animal Welfare against the paving of a road across the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania);

3. Supreme Court of India (the Animal Welfare Board of India claiming the cruelty of Jallikattu bull fighting against human beings and bullock-cart races).

To conclude we can affirm that the concept of litigation is confined to the USA is false. This practice should be undergone more often when and where possible around the globe.

Martina Pluda
Communications Officer
Master in Animal Law and Society
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

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