Events

How to Think bout Wild Animal Suffering

It has been widely reported that more than a billion animals have been killed in Australia in the fires that have been raging since late last year. The Australian grandmother who risked her life to save a Koala from a burning tree is widely seen as a hero. Yet in the normal course of events billions of animals die every day (including about 150 million for food). Are we obliged to do what we can to save them all? The logic of at least some animal protection philosophies seems to say “yes:” We should eliminate suffering whenever and wherever we can, whether it is caused by human action, by the predation of one animal on another, or by the impersonal workings of nature. But to many environmentalists and others, this vision of “policing nature” seems mad or worse. Questions about wild animal suffering not only threaten to disrupt alliances between animal protectionists and environmentalists, but go to the very heart of what it is to be human living in a natural world. While I do not purport to provide the correct answers to the many questions in this area, I do hope to clarify some of the issues and contribute to thinking clearly about them.

Dale Jamieson is Professor of Environmental Studies and Philosophy, Affiliated Professor of Law, Affiliated Professor of Medical Ethics, Director of the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection, and Affiliated Professor of Bioethics. His most recent books are Discerning Experts: The Practices of Scientific Assessment for Environmental Policy (Chicago, 2019, with Michael Oppenheimer, Naomi Oreskes and others), Love in the Anthropocene (OR, 2015), a collection of short stories and essays with Bonnie Nadzam, and Reason in a Dark Time: Why the Struggle to Stop Climate Change Failed – and What It Means for Our Future (Oxford University Press, 2014).

More information may be found here. 

*This is a Brooks Animal Studies Academic Network (BASAN) affiliated event.

On Tuesday, February 4, 2020, the Yale Law, Ethics & Animals Program Inaugural Lectures will feature talks by Dr. Sheila Jasanoff and Dr. Timothy Pachirat. Together, these lectures will resonate with aspects of LEAP's mission and will speak to the importance of the field of animal law. The lectures will be back-to-back from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm followed by a reception for faculty, students, friends and supporters of LEAP from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm in the Yale Law School Alumni Reading Room. Please RSVP. 

Dr. Sheila Jasanoff is the Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Harvard University. For decades, she has been one of the nation’s leading scholars studying the interactions of law, science and politics in democratic societies. She is the author or editor of more than 15 books, including The Fifth Branch, Science at the Bar, Designs on Nature, and The Ethics of Invention.

Dr. Timothy Pachirat, Yale PhD ’08, is an Associate Professor of Political Science at U. Mass. Amherst. He is the author of Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight and Among Wolves: Ethnography and the Immersive Study of Power.

More information may be found here. 

*This is a Brooks Animal Studies Academic Network (BASAN) affiliated event.

The 10th annual Yale New Directions in Environmental Law Conference will focus on state and local solutions to the climate crisis. As part of the conference, LEAP Faculty Co-Director Jonathan Lovvorn will moderate a panel focused on climate change and food systems. Registration link & panelist details TBA.

New Directions in Environmental Law (NDEL) is an annual student-run conference that is organized jointly between the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Yale Law School. Inaugurated in 2010, NDEL is a forum for novel approaches to the practice of environmental law and the creation of environmental policy. By convening academics and practitioners, NDEL brings together a new community to solve environmental challenges.

More information may be found here. 

*This is a Brooks Animal Studies Academic Network (BASAN) affiliated event.

LEAP Faculty Co-Director and YLS Professor Doug Kysar will present “Living with Owning,” a talk about the 2011 Zanesville, Ohio, animal massacre based on a paper co-written with former YLS student Matt Ampleman. In this lunch-hour presentation, he will speak about Terry Thompson, who committed suicide in October 2011 after cutting open the cages of fifty-six exotic animals on his farm in Zanesville, Ohio. Through an examination of the events leading to Thompson’s suicide and release of his animals, Professor Kysar will discuss theoretical underpinnings of property rights, stewardship of animal life, and social organization in regulated societies. 

More information may be found here.

*This is a Brooks Animal Studies Academic Network (BASAN) affiliated event.

Our inaugural Brooks Congress will take place February 14-16, 2020. The Congress will host approximately 80 of the most influential participants in the animal protection community. This invitation-only event is designed to create an environment of new thinking, inspiration, community building, and collaboration on the theme of bigger thinking in affecting change. It features three renowned presenters and a breakout session for small group discussion, strategically paced for rejuvenation, and individual interaction – a marked contrast to a large conference in which every minute is occupied by a panel session.

We look forward to a synergistic event of immense collaborative and relationship building opportunities all in service of pursuing a paradigm shift in human responsibility towards, and value of, animals.

NYU Animal Studies Workshop on Ending Factory Farming

Factory farming causes massive and unnecessary harm to humans, animals, and the environment. Yet global support for factory farming is increasing, not decreasing, over time. This workshop will feature five award-winning presentations from early-career scholars working on topics related to ending factory farming. The presentations will cover a wide range of topics -- including production, consumption, and policy -- from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives -- including the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. The workshop will also include a keynote address from Timothy Pachirat, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of the acclaimed Every Twelve Seconds.

More information may be found here. 

Join the YLS Law, Ethics & Animals Program and the Yale Animal Law Society for a conversation with Gene Baur, President and Co-Founder of Farm Sanctuary.

For over 25 years, Baur has been a pioneer and national leader of the farm animal protection movement. Time magazine called him “the conscience of the food movement.” Farm Sanctuary is one of the nation’s largest farm animal rescue and protection organizations. Since its founding in 1986, the organization has rescued thousands of animals and cared for them at sanctuaries in New York and California, educated millions of people about the abuses of industrialized factory farming, and advocated for laws and policies to prevent farm animal suffering.  An early pioneer of undercover investigations, Gene Baur has visited hundreds of farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses documenting their deplorable conditions. His pictures and videos exposing factory farming cruelties have aired nationally and internationally, educating millions about the plight of modern farm animals. Baur has also testified in courts and before local, state, and federal legislative bodies, advocating for better conditions for farm animals.

More information may be found here. 

*This is a Brooks Animal Studies Academic Network (BASAN) affiliated event.

On Tuesday, March 10, Dr. Kristen Stilt will be giving the Inaugural Lecture in Animal Rights, Law, and Policy at the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria.

More information may be found here.

*This is a Brooks Animal Studies Academic Network (BASAN) affiliated event.

Animal Law and the Modern Political Landscape

Animal Law Review invites you to join us at Lewis & Clark Law School’s 9th Annual Animal Law Review Symposium on Friday, March 13, 2020. Every year our Annual Animal Law Symposium reflects the dynamic and groundbreaking nature of the animal law field.

More information may be found here. 

Jodey Castricano, Associate Professor, Faculty of Creative & Critical Studies, UBC Okanagan. Author of Critical Perspectives on Veganism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

More information may be found here. 

*This is a Brooks Animal Studies Academic Network (BASAN) affiliated event.