5th Edition of Animal Protection Laws of the United States and Canada Now Available

The Animal Legal Defense Fund has released the 5th Edition of its Animal Protection Laws of the United States and Canada.  The compendium is more than 3,800 pages and contains a detailed survey of the general animal protection and related laws for almost every jurisdiction you can think of in the U.S. and Canada.  You can run searches or click on the particular geographical area you are interested in researching.   Best of all, its available as a complimentary download, (or for the modest price of $8.99 you can get it on CD).  If you've used this before, you know what an excellent resource it is and should get the new edition.  If you haven't used it previously, what are you waiting for?

New Animal Law Blog : Law, Politics, & Animal Rights

I've been cleaning up broken links over the past week and doing some general maintenance.  One of the new additions to the Animal Blogs is worth noting.  Be sure to check out the new Law, Politics & Animal Rights blog.  The blog's author is Tampa attorney Mindi Lasley who works for various animal charities and lectures on topics related to Florida animal law.  Her early posts are incredibly informative and focus on diverse subjects such as the 2010 Whaling Commission Conference, reasons to boycott the circus, and wild animals in captivity.  There is also a post on the Supreme Court's recent decision striking down the federal law that prohibited the sale and trade of depictions of animal cruelty.

Public meetings on fox and coyote penning in Tallahassee & Gainesville

As noted in previous posts here and here, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission ("FWC") is considering a ban on fox and coyote pens.  FWC plans to hold meetings to collect public in Gainesville on April 26th and in Tallahassee on May 4th.  
The barbaric practice involve throwing foxes and coyotes that have been captured in the wild inside enclosures where they run for their lives from dogs who are judged on how they chase the fenced foxes and coyotes. The dogs often injure or kill the animals, leading to a constant demand for fresh wildlife to restock the enclosures.

Hope that you can attend.  The dates, times, and locations of the meetings, as well as links to RSVP from HSUS are listed below.

Gainesville:
Date: Monday, April 26, 2010
Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Address:
Hilton University of Florida Conference Center
1714 SW 34th Street
Gainesville, FL 32607

If you'd like to attend this Gainesville event you can RSVP here.

Tallahassee:
Date: Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Address:
Holiday Inn, North I-10 & US 27
2725 Graves Road
Tallahassee, FL 32303

If you'd like to attend this Tallahassee event you can RSVP here.

Bioengineering as a substitute to animal testing

Science Daily is one of my favorite websites.  Yesterday they had an article about new research in the area of tissue engineering that should reduce the number of animals used in tests.  The article mentions that current USDA regulations mandate animal testing for new drugs.  Tens of millions of animals are killed or maimed each year in the name of researching the safety and effectiveness of new drugs, agricultural chemicals and consumer products. Animal testing slows the ability to get new products to market and is often not an accurate way to predict human reactions to drugs.

Scientists and regulators concerned about diseased bushmeat entering the country

Earlier in the week, the Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article about the discovery of strains of a virus related to HIV in illegal shipments of bushmeat from Africa.  The article quotes Richard Ruggiero who works on international bushmeat issues for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

It is like "any other illegal commodity," Mr. Ruggiero said. "It's a clandestine industry. They sell it in clandestine networks." He added that many of the smuggled meats are from endangered species.
"In Africa today, many wildlife populations are being eaten to extinction," Mr. Ruggiero said. "The greatest impact to wildlife populations in Africa is the bushmeat trade."

Part of the problem in eradicating the bushmeat trade are the low fines and lack of prosecutions for those that are caught.  The article notes that a Liberian immigrant on Staten Island that was charged was only given probation for smuggling and selling meat from monkeys.

8 Law schools offer Animal Law courses in Florida

I had previously posted that seven of Florida's ten law schools now offer classes in animal law.  A commenter noted that one of the schools I didn't mention, Barry Law School in Orlando, is offering an animal law seminar this Spring.  See a list of all the courses offered nationwide at the Animal Legal Defense Fund's website.