Law students Sarah Newman and Melissa Knoll, with Sarah Kossew.

Students can be a powerful voice for animals
Animal law is only just beginning to emerge in Australian law schools. This means that every student that speaks out for animals has the potential to make a real difference. When students work together, they can become a powerful force for social change. In recent history, students have spoken out against apartheid, nuclear weapons, civil rights violations and destruction of the environment. The animal protection movement represents another area in which students, particularly those with legal training, can make a difference.

Play your part
If you are one of Australia’s 25,000 law students, you may well have embarked on your course of study with the intention of making the world a better place through the application of principles such as justice, fairness, and equality. Many laws that regulate the treatment of animals in Australia fail to give effect to those principles.

It is an unfortunate fact that everyday across our continent under current laws, thousands of animals are killed, beaten, shot, tortured, imprisoned, harmed and allowed to suffer in unthinkable ways. Last year an astonishing 540 million animals were used for food or food production in Australia. Millions of kangaroos and native species are annually on quota to be killed for commercial purposes, while countless other animals are used in research, testing, education, sport and entertainment. Please take a look at the animal protection issues that Voiceless believes to be of the highest importance.

Law students have a role to play in educating the legal profession and the broader community about the suffering of animals. They can provide valuable research support for non-profit organisations that protect animals. Law students can assist with lobbying efforts and importantly, through academic scholarship and leadership they can influence discussion and debate about animal rights and animal welfare in this cutting edge legal movement.

Remember that although you may be a ‘mere’ law student today, you and many of your fellow students will most likely go on to become the lawyers, judges and politicians of tomorrow.

Follow this link to read an article ( pdf) written by Voiceless's Corporate Counsel, Katrina Sharman, which appeared in the ANU Law Students' Society Careers Guide 2008.
(Reproduced with the consent of ANU LSS.) 

Interested in finding out more?

Follow one of these links to find out how you can give a legal voice to the voiceless

• Where to study Animal Law 
• Learn more about Animal Law and key Animal Protection issues
• Careers in Animal Law
• Get Active on Campus
  

Voiceless acknowledges that it has relied on information provided on the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) and Center for Animal Law Studies websites in preparing these pages.

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