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SARA AMUNDSON
Sara Amundson is the Executive Director of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, the 501(c)4 political organization affiliated with The Humane Society of the United States. In this capacity, she will be directing political and legislative activity for HSLF. She was previously the Deputy and Legislative Director of the Doris Day Animal League where she directed local, state and federal legislation to protect wild horses and burros, prevent the slaughter of horses for human consumption, require the use of non-animal, alternative tests, promote spaying and neutering, and require appropriate federal regulation of breeders.
Sara primary area of expertise is in the use of animals for testing
and, as such, she has been the principal lobbyist behind the acceptance
of Corrositex® as the first federally approved non-animal, alternative
test; passage of the ICCVAM Authorization Act; passage of the California
alternatives law, the first federal appropriation for research, development
and validation on non-animal, alternative tests and the first federal
appropriations for research and development of non-animal, alternative
methods and the first Congressional mandate for a five-year plan for
implementation. She also had led DDAL’s legislative activity
and litigation to require USDA to regulate breeders of dogs and cats
sold directly to the public and breeders of hunting, breeding and
security dog
BOB BARKER
Bob Barker will retire from CBS' THE PRICE IS RIGHT
in June, 2007, after 35 years as the show’s host. Barker
has won a total of 17 Emmy awards -- 13 as TV host, more than any
other performer, three as Executive Producer of “The Price
Is Right” and
the Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award for Daytime Television in 1999.
He was installed into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Hall
of Fame in 2004. He has also received the coveted Carbon Mike Award
of the Pioneer Broadcasters and was named the most popular game
show host of all time in a national poll.
In recent years, Barker has become the most visible figure in the
animal rights movement and one of its most eloquent speakers. The "Fur
Flap" surrounding the 1987 Miss USA Pageant attracted more
media attention than any single event in animal rights history. If
the swimsuit contestants wore real furs, as planned by the pageant
producers, Barker said that it would be impossible for him to participate
in the telecast. Barker prevailed, and synthetic furs were
substituted for the real thing.
In 1988, Barker was again the subject of media attention coast
to coast when, after hosting the Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageants
for 21 years, he resigned because the producers refused to remove
fur coats from the prize packages. As an interesting sidelight,
the first telecast of the Miss USA Pageant without Barker as host
resulted in a decline in rating of 29%, an incredible loss for a
special that airs from one year to the next. Barker also resigned
as host of "The Patsy Awards" when he learned that trainers
frequently use cruel methods to force animals to perform in movies.
A man of conviction who fights animal exploitation in all of its
grisly forms, he has refused offers to do commercials for sponsors
because of the animal cruelty involved in the development and manufacture
of their products. He turned down a lucrative offer to use
his name and likeness in print advertising by one of the nation's
best known hospitals because the institution was conducting animal
experiments. He also spearheaded the investigation of the movie
PROJECT X that led to a request by the Los Angeles Department of
Animal Regulation that criminal charges be filed for animal cruelty
during the production of the picture.
Bob Barker has established the DJ&T Foundation, the purpose
of which is to help control the dog and cat population. He is funding
the foundation through his own resources to support low-cost or
free spay/neuter clinics. According to Barker, over population is
one of our most tragic animal problems. The foundation is named
in memory of his wife Dorothy Jo and his mother Matilda (Tilly)
Valandra, both of whom loved all animals.
In June of 2001, the Harvard Law School established the Bob Barker
Endowment for the Study of Animal Rights Law to support teaching
and research in this emerging field. He has since established similar
endowments at Stanford, Columbia, UCLA, Duke and Northwestern University
law schools. His work on behalf of animals has garnered him a long
list of awards from prestigious humane organizations across the
country. In fact, a columnist wrote that Barker has become
a part-time television host and a full-time animal rights advocate. But
Barker assures us that there is room in his busy life for both television
and animals.
SARAH BAECKLER
Sarah Baeckler is a primatologist with degrees in primate behavior and anthropology
whose research focuses on chimpanzee communication and cultures of captive management.
After several years of working with captive chimpanzees in zoos and sanctuaries,
Sarah spent 14 months undercover at a Hollywood animal training compound, where
she witnessed and reported on institutionalized abuse of chimpanzees by the trainers.
She spent five years working with the Chimpanzee Collaboratory on a campaign
to end the use of great apes in entertainment, including both public education
and legal initiatives. She is now a second year law student at Lewis & Clark
Law School.
LAUREEN BARTFIELD
Laureen Bartfield, DVM, is the Program Director and Surgeon for the Spay Neuter Assistance Program of North Carolina, a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing North Carolina’s pet overpopulation problem by offering low-cost spay-neuter surgeries to those in need of financial assistance.
Dr. Bartfield received her degree from the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in St. Kitt’s, British West Indies, after which she performed an additional year of study at Oklahoma School of Veterinary Medicine. It was the time spent in “shelter rotations” at Oklahoma, that Dr. Bartfield’s eyes were opened to the plight of millions of shelter animals in this country.
In addition to running the SNAP-NC Program, Dr. Bartfield is the Contract Veterinarian for Wake County Animal Shelter and Control in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is also the Veterinarian for Chatham County, North Carolina, and is a Certified Cruelty Investigator. She has worked with the Animal Legal Defense Fund on the case of ALDF v. Woodley, and has assisted the Humane Society of the United States with several puppy mill investigations.
Dr. Bartfield resides outside of Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and four legged and feathered “children” – almost all of whom are rescued animals, whether from the street, a shelter, or a Premarin farm.
PAUL BERRY
Paul Berry is the Chief Executive Officer for Best Friends.
Paul joined Best Friends in 2001 as Chief Information Officer, overseeing the
rebuilding of the computer information systems for Best Friends and as part of
the national No More Homeless Pets campaign.
In 2005, Paul assumed the role of Chief Operations Officer, overseeing Best Friends'
day-to-day operations and ongoing strategic planning.
Paul is an expert in the design and development of low-cost spay/neuter programs.
He has particular expertise with mobile spay/neuter clinics, having developed
new mobile clinics for the Spay Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP).
Paul is one of the founders of the Southern Animal Foundation in New Orleans,
Louisiana, and he started the SNIP mobile spay/neuter program. To sustain clinic
operations in a challenging local economy, Paul formed a regional coalition of
municipalities and humane groups who shared in clinic expenses and benefits.
Paul's background is in electrical engineering for the telecommunications industry,
with expertise in strategic planning and business development.
STEVE ANN CHAMBERS
Steve Ann Chambers is president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund and serves
as a member of the organization’s leadership team which is responsible
for program development, general marketing and communication strategies.
In addition Ms. Chambers heads the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s Major
Donor Development Program. She worked as a commercial litigation attorney
in private practice in Seattle , WA and
an Animal Legal Defense Fund volunteer attorney for over a decade before
becoming the president of the organization.
CARTER DILLARD
Carter worked as an attorney with the U.S.
Department of Justice and legal advisor to the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security before serving as General Counsel of Compassion Over
Killing, and finally in his current position as Director of Farm Animal
Litigation at the The Humane Society of the United States. Carter
is a graduate of Boston College and Emory School of Law.
LEN EGERT
Len is a founding member of the law firm Egert and Trakinski which specializes in animal law in New York and New Jersey . The firm represents national and grassroots animal advocacy organizations as well as individual clients in a variety of matters. Prior to starting his own practice, Len was a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society in New York City , practiced labor law and served as counsel for the Writers Guild of America, East. He is currently a member of the New York City Bar Association's Committee on Legal Issues Pertaining to Animals and serves on the Board of Directors of Compassion over Killing.
COREY EVANS
Corey Evans is the founding partner of Evans & Page, a civil litigation
animal law office located in San Francisco California. Mr. Evans graduated
from Santa Clara University. Prior to starting Evans & Page, Mr. Evans
worked as a corporate lawyer doing mergers, acquisitions, and stock offerings
for Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP. Evans & Page handles
civil suits brought by non-profits to stop the inhumane treatment of animals
raised for human consumption, civil suits brought on behalf of animal guardians
whose animals have been wrongfully injured, free speech litigation, California
Public Records’ Act litigation, and defending dogs in dangerous dog
hearings. Mr. Evans was co-counsel in the animal cruelty case against Sonoma
Foie Gras.
DAVID FAVRE
A professor of law, now at Michigan State University, since 1976 Professor Favre has written several articles and books dealing with animal issues including such topics as animal cruelty, wildlife law, the use of animals for scientific research, and international control of animal trade. His books include Animal Law and Dog Behavior, Animal Law: Welfare, Interest, and Rights, and International Trade in Endangered Species. He also has presented to international audiences on these topics. He was a national officer of the Animal Legal Defense Fund for 22 years. Presently he is the Legislative Chair of the ABA Committee on Animal Law. He created and is editor-in-chief of the largest animal legal web resource, www.animallaw.info .
CAMILLA FOX
Camilla Fox is a wildlife advocate and has been involved in
animal and environmental protection for more than fifteen years.
Her most recent position was as Director of Wildlife Programs
for the Animal Protection Institute where she worked for 10
years and oversaw API's national wildlife campaigns aimed at
reducing trapping cruelty, lethal predator control, and fostering
humane solutions to human-wildlife conflicts. A frequent speaker
on these issues, Camilla has also authored more than 50 publications
and is co-author of Coyotes in Our Midst: Coexisting with
an Adaptable and Resilient Carnivore and co-editor of Cull
of the Wild: A Contemporary Analysis of Trapping in the United
States. She also produced the award-winning documentary Cull
of the Wild: The Truth Behind Trapping. In 2006, Camilla
received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Marin
Humane Society. She has served as an appointed member on the
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture's National Wildlife Services
Advisory Committee and currently serves on various local, national,
and international coalitions and advisory boards/councils.
A magna cum laude graduate from Boston University,
where she co-founded Students for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals, Camilla is currently pursuing a Masters degree in
wildlife ecology and conservation from Prescott College.
PAMELA FRASCH
Ms. Frasch is an attorney and Vice President of Legal Affairs
for the Animal Legal Defense Fund. In that capacity, she
serves as ALDF’s general counsel and oversees ALDF’s
Criminal Justice and Litigation Programs. The Criminal
Justice Program (which Ms. Frasch created when she first joined
ALDF in 1996) assists prosecutors and others in law enforcement
in their efforts to investigate, prosecute and sentence animal
abusers. The Litigation Program brings civil actions to
advance and protect the interests of animals in the legal system. In
addition to her duties with the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Ms.
Frasch is the co-editor of the first American legal casebook
in the field, Animal Law, Cases and Materials (3rd Ed.,
Carolina Academic Press, 2006), and is an adjunct Professor of
Law at Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College
where she teaches survey and advanced courses in animal law. Ms.
Frasch is the author of Oregon’s first felony anti-cruelty
law, a frequent speaker on animal law issues and is the author
or co-author of various articles in the field.
BARBARA GISLASON
Barbara J. Gislason is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation,
a Super Lawyer and a Leading American Attorney who is
internationally recognized pioneer in the practice area
of Animal Law. In 2003, she was the founding Chair of
the MSBA Animal Law Committee. By 2004, Gislason taught
Minnesota’s first Animal Law course and advanced
the committee to the coveted section status.
On October 9, 2004, Gislason brought Animal Law to the
American Bar Association. By unanimous vote, the Council
for the ABA’s prestigious Tort Trial & Insurance
Practice Section made Animal Law a committee and Gislason
its first Chair. This is the only Animal Law Committee
in the ABA and its scope is broad, ranging from equine
law, endangered species law and wills and trusts, to torts
and insurance law.
When Hurricane Katrina devastated the gulf coast in the
fall of 2005, Gislason expanded her ABA efforts. She created
and now directs the ABA-TIPS Animal Disaster Relief Network,
and convened the ABA-TIPS Select Legal Panel on Emergency
Management Regarding Animals. Recently, Gislason was appointed
the ABA-TIPS Advisor to the National Conference of Commissioners
on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) regarding the Uniform Emergency
Volunteer Healthcare Practitioners Act (UEVHPA).
In addition to her extensive volunteer efforts, including
having served as editor-in-chief of the Animal Law Committee
Newsletter and publishing articles in ABA-TIPS’ The
Brief, TortSource and Tort Trial & Insurance
Law Journal. Gislason is actively involved in the
practice of Animal Law. Gislason recently spoke at the
Humane Society of the United States National Conference
on Animals in Disaster and the Virginia Animal Control
Association Conference, the Minnesota Disaster Animal
Relief Coalition, and the Lewis & Clark Animal Law
Conference, and is scheduled to speak at the Harvard University/Animal
Legal Defense Fund Conference. Recently, Gislason’s
contribution to Animal Law was acknowledged in the New
York Times, and Dr. Phil McGraw called her “the
top animal advocate attorney” on the “Dr.
Phil Show.”
CHRIS GREEN
Chris Green is a graduate of Harvard Law School, a Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Animal Law Committee, and on the Board of Advisors for the National Center for Animal Law. He is also a member of the American Veterinary Medical Law Association, the Committee on Legal Issues Pertaining to Animals–Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the Illinois Farm Bureau. Chris recently wrote The Future of Veterinary Malpractice Liability in the Care of Companion Animals, which was published in the 10th Anniversary Issue of the journal Animal Law, and he also won first prize at the inaugural National Animal Advocacy Competition held at Harvard in 2004. Green has consulted on animal legal issues for CBS News, 60 Minutes, Dateline NBC, Smart Money, the Chicago Tribune, and The Washington Post, and frequently lectures on civil damages/animal valuation matters at veterinary colleges and law schools around the nation. Chris participated in the California Veterinary Medical Association’s Non-Economic Recovery Task Force, helping the organization explore legislative options to address the profession’s increasing liability exposure, and later acted as an advisor to the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Task Force on the Legal Status of Animals, addressing those same issues at the national level. Chris currently divides his time between New York City and Illinois, where he manages a farm that has been in his family for 169 years. He additionally is the host of a PBS television program and has produced several award-winning documentary films.
LESLIE HAMILTON
Leslie Hamilton graduated from University of Wisconsin Law
School and has practiced law for almost 30 years. While in law
school, Leslie was one of the founders of the Dane County
Advocates for Battered Women, a not for profit agency that
currently provides a 24 hour crisis line, a 25 bed shelter and legal
and other support services for women and their children. For the
past 25 years, as an assistant county corporation counsel, Leslie has
worked in the areas of child welfare, public health and environ-
mental regulation. Leslie represents the county and the local
humane society when animals are seized due to abuse or neglect.
She advises the Board of Health when the Board hears appeals in
dangerous animal cases. As a volunteer, Leslie currently co-chairs
the legislative committee for the local humane society and lobbies
the legislature for improvements in Wisconsin’s animal protection
laws. Leslie recently assisted a Wisconsin agency in developing
new administrative rules effecting wildlife and she provides legal
counsel to a local group of animal advocates who are challenging
the University of Wisconsin’s use of primates in research.
SCOTT HEISER
Scott has been a prosecutor for seventeen years, serving the last eight years as the elected district attorney in Benton County, Oregon. While Scott has prosecuted all types of criminal conduct including capital murder, he has always found animal cruelty cases among the most compelling cases he has handled. His passion for holding animal abusers accountable for their crimes recently lead Scott to join the ALDF, serving as the Senior Staff Attorney in the ALDF’s Criminal Justice Program. Scott received his JD from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College and his undergraduate degree in Economics from Oregon State University. In 2006, Scott served as the President of the Oregon District Attorneys Association and as member of the Governor’s Drug and Violent Crime Advisory Committee. Scott is a regular instructor at trainings hosted by the Oregon Department of Justice and he has served on the Board of Directors of his local humane society animal shelter, helping to fund the construction of a new shelter.
KATHERINE HESSLER
Katherine Hessler joined the faculty of Case Western Reserve University School of Law in the Fall of 2000 in the Milton A. Kramer Law Clinic Center. She received her LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center and graduated with a J.D. from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary in 1987. She also holds a B.A. from George Washington University from 1985. Professor Hessler teaches in the Milton A. Kramer Law Clinic Center, and has taught in the Civil, Family, and Community Development Clinics. She is establishing a mediation component for the clinical program and teaches in the CaseArc skills program. She has created and continues to teach the first Animal Law course offered at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Professor Hessler joined the Case faculty after teaching in the legal clinics at Cornell Law School, the University of Dayton, and Capital University. During this time, she served as a consultant to the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation in Columbus and was, and continues to be, active in movements relating to clinical legal education, appropriate dispute resolution, peace and nonviolence, and animal rights. Professor Hessler also taught as a fellow at the Center for Applied Legal Studies at the Georgetown University Law Center, and taught classes on nonviolence at Georgetown and at the University of Maryland. Prior to beginning her academic career, she was a staff attorney at Legal Services of Northern Virginia.
Professor Hessler’s scholarly writing has focused on the suppression of free speech, animal rights clinical legal education and mediation. Her speaking engagements have focused on clinical legal education, animal law, and the legal implications of protest. In addition, she has experience as a mediator and has taught a mediation practicum, a mediation clinic, and an alternative dispute resolution course. Ms. Hessler is the Associate Director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Conflict and Dispute Resolution. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Clinical Legal Education Section of the American Association of Law Schools. She serves on the board of the Center for Teaching Peace, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and is a founding board member of the Cleveland Summer Legal Academy, and the Humanizing Legal Education Group.
ADAM KARP exclusively practices animal law statewide from Bellingham, Washington. Having been graduated from Gonzaga University with a B.A. Honors, and University of Washington with a J.D. and M.S. in statistics, this is Mr. Karp's seventh year actively practicing law. He founded and served as first chair of the new Washington State Bar Association's Animal Law Section for 2002-2003. He is a vice-chair of the American Bar Association's Animal Law Committee.
In addition to serving his fourth year as editor of the Animal Welfare and Law Enforcement report, produced by Animal Legal Reports Services (www.animallegalreports.com), he is a long-term member of the Animal Legal Defense Fund.
Further, he was graduated from the Washington Level One Animal Control Academy and is a member of the Washington Animal Control Association and National Animal Control Association. He regularly writes for bar association bulletins on the topic of animal law and routinely speaks around the nation about animal law, including at Yale, Vanderbilt, and Vermont Law School. Occasionally he appears on television, radio, and most notably in TIME magazine.
Mr. Karp is adjunct professor of animal law at the University of Washington School of Law and Seattle University School of Law.
Mr. Karp secured appellate victories in:
Mansour v. King County, 131 Wash.App. 255 (Div. I, 2006), pub.
Williams v. MacMahon, 110 Wash.App. 1031 (Div. II), unpub.
Wolverton v. Young, 2006 WL 165734 (Div. III), unpub.
Womack v. von Rardon, 133 Wash. App. 254 (Div. III, 2006), pub.
MINDY KURSBAN
Mindy Kursban is executive director for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a nationwide organization of physicians and laypersons that promotes preventive medicine, especially good nutrition, and addresses controversies in modern medicine, including ethical issues in research.
Ms. Kursban joined PCRM in 1999 as the organization’s first in-house counsel and, as general counsel through 2006, oversaw the growth of PCRM’s legal department to five litigators and one government relations specialist. She became PCRM’s first executive director in 2005. As executive director, Ms. Kursban oversees PCRM’s initiatives to replace the use of animals in medical education, research, and testing, and to promote plant-based diets to the general public, policy makers, and medical professionals.
As general counsel, Ms. Kursban focused on using the law to reform federal nutritional policy and to eliminate the use of animals in medical research. Ms. Kursban led PCRM’s successful lawsuit against the United States Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services. The lawsuit challenged the establishment and operation of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee because of the advisory committee’s inappropriate financial links to the dairy, meat, and egg industries. Major news outlets carried the story, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, ABC News, CNN, and CBS Radio.
Ms. Kursban also filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission requesting an investigation into the false and misleading health claims made in the ubiquitous milk mustache advertisements. In a third major action concerning nutrition policy, Ms. Kursban launched a challenge to the USDA’s meat and poultry inspection laws for failing to protect consumers from adulterated products.
In support of PCRM’s vigorous opposition to animal experimentation, Ms. Kursban brought a successful lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health under the Freedom of Information Act to gain valuable information concerning how taxpayer money is wasted to fund cruel and unnecessary animal research.
Before joining PCRM, Ms. Kursban, a graduate of the Emory University School of Law, worked at the Maryland law firm Meyers, Billingsley, Rodbell, and Rosenbaum, LLC, practicing general civil litigation.
CATHY LISS
Cathy Liss serves as president of the
Animal Welfare Institute and Legislative
Director of the Society for Animal Protective
Legislation (AWI's legislative division).
Cathy began working for the Animal Welfare
Institute and Society for Animal Protective
Legislation as an intern while attending
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University and began full-time employment
upon graduation in 1982. She was promoted
to executive director of the Institute in
1991 and elected president in 2002.
Cathy works on a variety of legislative
initiatives before the U.S. Congress and
various state bodies including federal legislation
to end horse slaughter, to prohibit interstate
and foreign commerce in steel jaw leghold
traps and furs obtained through their use and
to prevent the sale of dogs and cats by random
source dealers. She has particular
expertise regarding the federal Animal Welfare
Act and pushed for adoption of the 1985
Improved Standards for Laboratory Animals
amendment to the Animal Welfare Act. She
has extensive experience working with the
varied government agencies involved in use
of and/or oversight of animals.
Cathy has conducted site visits of animal
research laboratories, animal dealer premises,
animal auctions, animal factories and family
farms and has been involved in development
of less cruel alternatives to the steel jaw
leghold trap. Cathy is a member of
the National Wildlife Services Advisory Committee
(1992-1998, 2002 to the present) and a member
of the U.S. Te ch nical Advisory Group on
Humane Trap Standards, under the auspices
of the American National Standards Institute
(1992 to the present).
JONATHAN R. LOVVORN
Jonathan Lovvorn is Vice President of Animal Protection Litigation for The Humane Society of the United States, where he manages a nationwide animal protection litigation program with dozens of attorneys prosecuting more than forty cases in state and federal courts. Mr. Lovvorn has litigated extensively on behalf of animals, authored several articles concerning animal protection, and is an adjunct professor of animal law at George Washington University, Lewis and Clark, and George Mason University law schools. He also serves as the Co-Director of the George Washington University Law School’s Animal Law Litigation Project – a joint HSUS/GW Law School Animal Law Clinic. He is a 1995 graduate of University of California, Hastings College of the Law and holds an LL.M. in Environmental Law and Natural Resource Policy from Lewis and Clark Law School.
STEPHANIE NICHOLS-YOUNG
Stephanie Nichols-Young is an attorney in private practice
in Phoenix and chair of the Arizona State Bar Animal Law Section. She
also represents a number of animal advocacy organizations.
Over the years, she has represented the interests of companion
animals, animals in laboratories, wildlife and animals in entertainment.
GENEVA PAGE
Geneva Page is a partner at Evans & Page. Evans & Page
is a civil litigation animal law office located in San Francisco
California. Evans & Page handles civil suits brought by
non-profits to stop the inhumane treatment of animals raised
for human consumption, civil suits brought on behalf of animal
guardians whose animals have been wrongfully injured, free
speech litigation, California Public Records’ Act litigation,
and defending dogs in dangerous dog hearings.Ms. Page graduated
from Vermont Law School. Her studies at VLS focussed on animal
law, and shortly after graduating she began work at the Animal
Protection Institute in Sacramento as their Government Affairs
Coordinator. At API her responsibilities included lobbying
state legislators, drafting proposed legislation, legal research
and testifying at legislative hearings. Ms. Page received her
Bachelor of Arts from San Francisco State University and has
studied internationally in England and Costa Rica.
STEPHAN K. OTTO
Stephan K. Otto is an attorney and the Director of the Laws & Legislation Program of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. In this capacity, he oversees the development of animal protection laws at the local, state and federal levels. Mr. Otto is the author of various animal protection bills, statutes and ordinances, including a first-in-the-nation Oregon law which statutorily recognizes the connection between those who are violent toward animals and those who are violent toward humans. His articles on animal protection laws have been published in the Animal Law Review; he is the publisher and editor of the 2,100+ page state law compendium, Animal Protection Laws of the United States (currently in its 2nd edition, with the 3rd edition forthcoming in early 2007); and he speaks on a variety of animal-related issues at hearings and presentations across the country. Mr. Otto is a member of the Oregon and Washington Bars.
JEREMY RIFKIN
Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, is the author of seventeen books on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages and are used in hundreds of universities, corporations and government agencies around the world.
Mr. Rifkin holds a degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a degree in international affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Rifkin speaks frequently before government, business, labor and civic forums. He has lectured at more than 200 universities in some 25 countries in the past 30 years. Since 1994, Mr. Rifkin has been a fellow at the Wharton School's Executive Education Program, where he lectures to CEOs and senior corporate management from around the world on new trends in science and technology and their impacts on the global economy, society and the environment. Mr. Rifkin's monthly column on global issues appears in many of the world's leading newspapers and magazines.
Rifkin has been influential in shaping public policy in the United States and around the world. He has testified before numerous congressional committees and has had consistent success in litigation to ensure responsible government policies on a variety of environmental, scientific and technology related issues. He has been a frequent guest on numerous television programs, including CNN's Crossfire, Face the Nation, The Lehrer News Hour, 20/20, Larry King Live, Today, and Good Morning America. The National Journal named Rifkin as one of 150 people in the U.S. that have the most influence in shaping federal government policy.
Mr. Rifkin is the founder and president of The Foundation on Economic Trends (www.foet.org) in Washington, DC. The Foundation examines the economic, environmental, social and cultural impacts of new technologies introduced into the global economy.
IAN ROBERTSON
Dr. Ian Robertson began his professional career as a VETERINARIAN. He has over 10 years of media experience presenting 'all things animal' via radio, public speaking, 3 published books and television, which included being a PRESENTER of endangered species from around the world for Fox Television. Ian's experience with Fox prompted him to add a law degree to his roster and he is now a BARRISTER and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand, specializing in the area of animal law. As a university LAW LECTURER he teaches the subject of animals and the law at law schools and veterinary schools in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Ian is co-authoring an academic text and developing global education systems on animal law; he also runs an international animal law consultancy, and is the founder of the www.animal-law.biz website.
BERNARD ROLLIN
Bernard Rollin is the author of 14 books, including Natural and Conventional
Meaning (1976), Animal Rights and Human Morality (1981, 1993 & 2006)
and The Unheeded Cry: Animal Consciousness, Animal Pain and Scientific
Change (1988 &1998), Farm Animal Welfare (1995), The
Frankenstein Syndrome (1995), Science and Ethics (2006), Veterinary
Medical Ethics: Theory and Cases (2nd edition, 2006), Complementary
and Alternative Veterinary Medicine Considered (2003, with David Ramey), The
Well-Being of Farm Animals: Challenges and Solutions (2004, with John
Benson) and over 400 articles. He has edited a two-volume work The
Experimental Animal in Biomedical Research (1989 & 1995) and Harley
Davidson and Philosophy (2006). He writes a popular monthly
column on veterinary ethics for the Canadian Veterinary Journal and
edits an ethics column for Veterinary Forum.
He is one of the leading scholars in animal rights and animal consciousness
and has lectured over 1000 times all over the world in 28 countries.
Rollin is a founder and board member of Optibrand, an animal identification
company utilizing retinal images. He was a principal architect of 1985
federal laboratory animal laws. Rollin developed the world’s
first courses in veterinary medical ethics, ethical issues in animal
science, and biology combined with philosophy. The winner
of numerous U.S. and international awards, he is a weightlifter, horseman,
and motorcyclist.
TANYA SANERIB
Tanya Sanerib is an associate attorney at the public interest law firm of Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal, which specializes in federal and state litigation on a wide variety of public interest issues, including: wildlife and animal protection; environment and safe energy; and open government laws. Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal has obtained several successes in federal court that have expanded standing case law to enable animal protection organizations to bring an increased number of cases before federal judges. Ms. Sanerib has represented a range of animal protection organizations in federal and state court. Currently, she is one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in ASPCA v. Ringling Brothers, a case against Ringling Brothers’ circus over its “take” of the endangered Asian elephant under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and in Fund for Animals v. Hall, where the Court determined that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to consider all the cumulative impacts of expanding sport hunting on National Wildlife Refuges throughout the country on migratory birds and other wildlife under the National Environmental Policy Act. Ms. Sanerib received her J.D. from Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, and her B.A. in Environmental Science from Colorado College.
KATRINA SHARMAN
Katrina is the corporate counsel for Voiceless, the fund for animals in Australia. Voiceless is a non profit organisation founded by the Sherman Family in 2004 which is working to promote respect and compassion for animals, increase awareness of the conditions in which they live and take action to protect animals from suffering.
Katrina is a former Senior Associate at Minter Ellison Lawyers and a former Councillor of NSW Young Lawyers Executive Council. She chaired NSW Young Lawyers Animal Rights Committee which was the first group of Australian lawyers to speak out about animal law issues, for more than five years. Katrina is a former member of the Animal Research Review Panel (NSW) and the National Health & Medical Research Council, Animal Welfare Committee. In 2006, she was short-listed for the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association In-house Lawyer Young Achiever of the Year.
KENNETH SHAPIRO
Kenneth Shapiro is founder and coexecutive director of Animals and Society Institute; founder and editor of Society and Animals: Journal of Human-Animal Studies; cofounder and coeditor of Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science; and editor of Human-Animal Studies Book Series. Shapiro earned his BA from Harvard University and his PhD in clinical psychology from Duke University. He is the author of 3 books, most recently -- Animal Models of Human Psychology: Critique of Science, Ethics and Policy. He has been married for 27 years and is father of two children and grandfather of one. His interests include vegan cooking, jazz, history, and table tennis.
BEN STEIN
Ben Stein graduated from Columbia University in 1966 with honors in economics. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1970 as valedictorian of his class by election of his classmates. He helped to found the Journal of Law and Social Policy while at Yale. He has worked as a poverty lawyer in New Haven and Washington, D.C., a trial lawyer in the field of trade regulation at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., a university adjunct at American University in Washington, D.C., at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA.
In 1973 and 1974, he was a speech writer and lawyer for Richard Nixon at The White House and then for Gerald Ford. He has been a columnist and editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal, a syndicated columnist for The Los Angeles Herald Examiner and King Features Syndicate, and a frequent contributor to Barrons, where his articles about the ethics of management buy-outs and issues of fraud in the Milken Drexel junk bond scheme drew major national attention. He has been a regular columnist for Los Angeles Magazine, New York Magazine, E! Online, and has written for The American Spectator. He is also a frequent contributor to The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.
He has written and published sixteen books: seven novels, largely about life in Los Angeles, and nine nonfiction books, about ethical and social issues in finance, and also about the political and social content of mass culture. He is also an extremely well known actor in movies, TV, and commercials. His part as the boring teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off was recently ranked as one of the fifty most famous scenes in American film. From 1997 to 2002, he was the host of the Comedy Central quiz show, "Win Ben Stein's Money." The show has won seven Emmies. He appears regularly on the Fox News Channel talking about finance.
He lives with his wife, Alexandra Denman, his son, Tommy, four cats and two large dogs in Beverly Hills.
JOYCE TISCHLER
As one of the visionaries who co-founded the Animal Legal Defense Fund over a quarter century ago, California attorney Joyce Tischler has helped shape the emerging field of animal law. Joyce handled some of Animal Legal Defense Fund's earliest cases, including a 1981 lawsuit that halted the U.S. Navy's plan to kill 5,000 feral burros and a 1988 challenge to the U.S. Patent Office's rule allowing the patenting of genetically altered animals. She has tackled such diverse topics as challenges to hunting and trapping using the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA), enforcement of the federal Animal Welfare Act, standing to sue, animal custody battles, the right to kill animals pursuant to will provisions, landlord-tenant issues and damages and recovery for injury to or death of an animal. Joyce was the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s Executive Director for 25 years and now serves as the agency's Founding Director, responsible for writing, lecturing on and promoting the field of animal law.
AMY TRAKINSKI
Amy is a member of Egert and Trakinski, an animal law practice in New York City specializing in state and federal litigation. Founded in 1998, the firm has represented numerous national and grassroots animal rights and animal protection organizations as well as individual clients. Prior to starting her own practice, Amy was a law clerk for the Honorable Jose L. Fuentes, Superior Court of New Jersey and practiced civil litigation focusing in the areas of constitutional and employment law. Amy is a member of the New York City Bar Association's Committee on Legal Issues Pertaining to Animals and serves on the board of directors of the Animal Welfare Trust and Compassion Over Killing.
BRUCE A. WAGMAN
Bruce A. Wagman is the Chief Outside Litigation Counsel for
the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and a partner in the San Francisco
law firm of Schiff Hardin. He is a 1991 magna
cum laude graduate of Hastings College of the Law. While
attending law school, Mr. Wagman received American Jurisprudence
Awards in torts, property, contracts, civil procedure and federal
courts and was an articles editor on the Hastings Law Journal.
He was elected to the Order of the Coif in 1991 and the Thurston
Society in 1989. Mr. Wagman served as judicial clerk to the
Honorable William H. Orrick of the United States District Court
for the Northern District of California from 1991 to 1992 and
as an extern to the Honorable James Browning of the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals in 1990. His work has been published in the Hastings
Law Journal and in the University of San Francisco
Law Journal. He has been practicing animal law since
1992 and has represented in clients in state and federal courts. His
clients include private individuals in companion animal cases
and a wide range of animal protection organizations on national
issues affecting animals. In 2005, he represented the
Animal Legal Defense Fund in a civil animal cruelty case that
resulted in the rescue of 350 dogs suffering in a breeding/hoarding
situation. He is a coeditor of Animal Law, the
first casebook for animal law courses, which was first published
in January 2000; the third edition was published in August
2006. He teaches Animal Law at University of California,
Hastings College of the Law; University of California, Berkeley
School of Law (Boalt Hall); Stanford Law School; and the University
of San Francisco, School of Law. Mr. Wagman received
a bachelor of science degree from Cornell University College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a bachelor of science
in nursing from Columbia University School of Nursing.
PAUL WALDAU
Paul Waldau is Director of the Center for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts
University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. The Center is the
home of a highly successful graduate program in the study of nonhuman animals,
policy, and cultural values. Paul has a Doctor of Philosophy degree from University
of Oxford. He also has a Juris Doctor degree from UCLA Law School and a Master's
Degree from Stanford University in Religious Studies.
He is the author of The Specter of Speciesism: Buddhist and Christian Views
of Animals published by Oxford University Press in 2001, and co-editor of A
Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics published
by Columbia University Press in 2006.
He publishes widely, recent examples of which are the “Animals” article
in the prestigious Encyclopedia of Religion and the “Religion and Animals” article
in the revised edition of Peter Singer’s edited volume In Defense of
Animals.
Paul teaches ethics courses at the veterinary school, and has just completed
teaching the Animal Law course at Harvard Law School. He is also the Co-chair
of the Animals and Religion Consultation at the American Academy of Religion,
and the founder and president of the Religion and Animals Institute.
SONG WEI
Professor and attorney, law institute of University of Science
and Technology of China. Professor Song is the first one to
teach Animal Welfare Law in Chinese university. Since the spring
term 2000, professor Song has taught the course for six years.
Professor Song published the book KIND TO ANIMALS in 2001.The
book is also the first one about animal welfare legislation
in China. Apart from teaching and research, professor Song
has been very active in the activities to promote animal welfare
legislation and amending of animal law in
China.
STEPHEN WELLS
Stephen Wells is the Executive Director of the Animal Legal
Defense Fund. Over the past six years, until January, 2006,
Stephen founded and served as the director of ALDF’s
successful Animal Law Program which provides support and
resources to ALDF’s law professional and law student
members and pro bono opportunities for attorneys and firms
to assist ALDF with its mission. Prior to joining ALDF in
1999, Stephen served as the Executive Director of the Alaska
Wildlife Alliance in Anchorage where he became known for
his work to protect Alaska’s wildlife, particularly
wolves and bears, and its unique wild places. He has committed
himself to animal and environmental protection and over the
years, in addition to his full-time work, he has continued
to volunteer his time for local organizations and projects.
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