Massachusetts is looking to become the ninth state to standardize a framework for judges to use in determining care and custody of companion animals during divorce.
Pets are property. As much as owners, individually, give their animals value akin to children or siblings, the legal system still considers them property. Yet, pets are continually recognized…
by Jesse Stavis
On February 6, 2025, Judge John A. Woodcock, Jr. of the District of Maine issued an eighty-five-page opinion denying a motion to dismiss filed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation (“Monterey Bay”) in a case concerning allegedly defamatory comments about the environmental impact of Maine’s lobster industry. At issue in Bean Maine…
On March 18. 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that a work created with artificial intelligence (AI) using a machine cannot be registered in the name of the machine itself because the Copyright Act requires that a copyright owner be a human being. Thaler v. Perlmutter,…
The Beach Boys wrote a song called “Pet Sounds.” In a recently filed federal lawsuit, animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment Animals (“PETA”) claims that it has a First Amendment right to receive monkey sounds (as well as monkey movements).
The lawsuit, filed on March 6, 2025 in the U.S. District Court for…
By Michelle C. Pardo
On February 3, 2025, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report of an audit that OIG had performed of the Animal Care Program Oversight of Dog Breeder Inspections. Audit Report 33601-0001-22 (Audit Report).
OIG’s objective? To determine: (1) whether selected dog breeders…
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Lackey v. Stinnie, No. 23-621 (U.S. Feb. 25, 2025), clarified for plaintiffs what it means to be a “prevailing party” for recovery of attorney’s fees. While the case arose under the attorney’s fee provision for civil rights cases – 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b) – the holding has…
Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) runs a facility that it calls an animal “shelter” in Norfolk, Virginia. All animal shelters in the Commonwealth of Virginia must report annually the number of animals the shelter takes in and what happened to them. These reports are filed with the Virginia Department…
“Julie Fershtman is considered by many to be the nation’s leading expert on equine activity liability acts. Her 30-minute presentation for a recent educational webinar on equine activity liability acts for the American Horse Council is available for viewing. Please take a look, here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCROISSPMJs
Fershtman’s Equine Law Book Wins Fourth National Award…
by Michelle C. Pardo
Southern Californians have been reeling from the devastation caused by the recent record-breaking wildfires and now face the daunting task of rebuilding their lives. As is the case in the wake of many disasters, a need for answers and accountability as to what caused or contributed to the disaster remains paramount. …
On January 21, 2025, the Supreme Court of Colorado affirmed a lower court ruling that elephants maintained in a zoo were not properly the subject of a habeas corpus petition pursued by the animal rights group, Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP). Nonhuman Rights Project, Inc. v. Cheyenne Mountain Zoological Society, No. 24SA21 (Colo. Jan. 21, 2025).…
