Yale University Launches "Law, Ethics & Animals Program"

                Yale University’s law school is launching a new Law, Ethics & Animals Program (LEAP) to address what it calls America’s “outdated” and “insufficient” animal rights policies. The program will be headed by law professor Doug Kysar, in conjunction with Jonathan Lovvorn, Humane Society chief counsel for animal protection litigation, and an associate research scholar.

                Kysar claims that recent changes in what we know of—and how we view-- animal intelligence are helping to “overturn past beliefs about human exceptionalism,” though “our laws regarding animals” are often “outdated” or “nonexistent.” (It’s good to debunk that silly old “human exceptionalism” claim again. As if we are somehow more intelligent, aware, feeling or competent than a jellyfish, beetle or Wildebeast)! Kysar notes that: “At the same time, our power over animals has been amplified exponentially by industry and technology.” He is teaching an “Animal Law” course this fall in which students can earn three credits as they “examine the application of the law to non-human animals.”

   This coming spring semester, Lovvorn will teach a Climate, Animal[s], Food and Environmental Law & Policy Lab (CAFE Lab), with the hope of developing “innovative law and policy initiatives to bring systemic change to the global food industry, which is one of the top contributors to climate change, animal suffering, human exploitation, and environmental degradation worldwide.” (Bringing “systematic change” to the global food industry means banning it, just as the left wants to do with oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear energy. And how does the global food industry exploit humans)? Lovvorn opined via news release: “The damage wrought by industrial agriculture is staggering and rapidly expanding.” He added that he believes “the CAFE Lab presents a unique opportunity to develop new strategies to understand, respect, and protect those who have been left behind by the current legal system.” Like aborted babies? Conservative Republicans? Probably not.

               According to the course description, students will discuss the “problems of litigating on behalf of animals,” rethink animals’ classification as property, and debate the merits of recognizing “legal rights” for animals. Make no mistake, the Animal Rights Movement (ARM) is one of the primary civil rights issues of our time, even though, by definition, it can’t be one. Per Merriam-Webster, the definition of civil rights is: “the rights of personal liberty guaranteed to U.S. citizens by the 13^th and 14^th amendments to the Constitution and by acts of Congress.”  

               Manny Rutinel, Yale Animal Law Society Co-Chair, remarked that “The topic of animals and the law quickly reaches some of the deepest questions of what it means to be a good human.” Leftists believe a “good human” is a leftist that desperately tries to limit the amount of other humans in existence.

               So, what of animal rights? Should a hyena be allowed to sit at the front of a bus? Should vultures not be kicked out of restaurants? Do maggots have the same right to your salmon filet as you do? Do mosquitoes have an equal right to your daughter’s blood? If you believe they do, what does that say about you? Tolerant or callous and insane?

  And what of transgender animal rights?