Our interview with Marsha Baum

1. How did you become involved in the field of animal protection law?
This is a difficult question to answer since there is not one particular event or situation that led to my interest and involvement with animal protection law and animal rights activities.  While the interest has probably always been there, the research and teaching activity has come to the fore in the past decade.  I began researching animal law in the early 1990s for my own edification and as a possible scholarship and teaching agenda.  In the past five years, I have become the voice for animal law on the law school faculty, working to ensure that the national animal law moot court and the course offerings begun by my colleague Sheryl Wolf have continued beyond her retirement.  The students at UNM have been an inspiration and a supportive force in keeping the momentum alive and continuing administrative focus on the need for animal law courses and activities for law students.  As part of my involvement with the students, I have helped them to re-establish a chapter of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund at the law school; that organization has been helpful in my efforts to bring in speakers such as Marc Bekoff and Gene Baur to speak in public lectures as well as to classes in the law school. 

A spill-over effect, if you want to call it that, of these activities is that my other courses have an animal law or animal rights component.  My first year property course includes a module discussing the concept and origins of property law; one element is, of course, animals as property.  My course on weather in U.S. law and society included discussion of animals during weather disasters and the impact of factory farming on global warming.  My sales class looks at animals as property.

But, the most recent development and the one that has gotten the most active involvement in the community has been the Animal Law class offered in Spring 2008.  Each student was required to complete a experiential component, which got them into the community acting on cases and legislation and regulatory changes on behalf of animals.  These activities raised the profile of the law school’s program with animal advocacy leaders in the state and has brought opportunities to our students and to the law school to work on legislation, regulation, and case law at ground level.

2. Can you tell us a bit about your work at the intersection of weather law and animal law?
My interest in weather and law began in 2005, with research for a book on the intersection of law and weather, a topic which had not been written on previously.  This research led to a connection to treatment of animals in times of disasters as I examined the concept of animals as property and the impact that that legal status had on law and policy regarding evacuation of animals.  The horrors of animals left to die during and after Katrina demonstrated clearly the impact of a lack of adequate planning and a lack of care for non-human animals.  My current focus is on the models of animal rescue and protection plans that exist or are being drafted in various states around the U.S.  By comparing the language of those plans with the actual implementation when a disaster occurs, I hope to focus attention on measures that are still needed.  The two models of evacuation (livestock v. companion animals) present interesting counterpoints, with livestock evacuations focusing on economic interests (the animals as commodities) and the companion animal evacuations focusing on rescue of humans who refuse to leave their household companions behind (the animals as property of humans we need to rescue).

3. Are there any particular ‘weather events’ in the US that have raised animal law issues? What kind of issues were they?
Katrina is the most vivid recent example of lack of planning for evacuation and lack of understanding of the bonds that humans have with non-human animals.  Until the huge public outcry about the animals left in New Orleans to die, the biggest concern of policy makers was the health and public safety issues that arose as the result of animal carcasses and terrified animals. Wildfires in California the following spring and flooding in the Midwest this year also pointed to the need to provide processes and law to enable rescuers to evacuate or remove non-human animals and to ensure safety of humans.  Fortunately, the processes in place in California allowed for effective removal in advance of fires and the livestock model in the Midwestern states ensured that trained personnel would be available to aid with removal so, while problems such as pigs killed trying to top a levee still occurred, the newsworthy and visible devastation was less than with Katrina.  The focus has become one of creating facilities for housing animals during disasters so that plans that look great on paper can be implemented.  This focus worked well in California and the Midwest and also in evacuations made in New Orleans in advance of Hurricane Gustav this fall.

4. Can you give us an overview of the US Pets Evacuation and Transport (PETS) Act and its significance?
The PETS Act is the first federal legislation that mentioned evacuation of animals in times of disasters but mentions the evacuation of animals as a way to ensure human safety.  As an amendment to the Stafford Act, which provides for federal rescue and relief aid to states during disasters, the PETS Act requires states to “consider” household pets when developing emergency operation plans.  (The EOPs are required from a state for the state to be eligible for FEMA funds.)  Although the PETS Act was reported by some organizations and in some news articles as requiring animal evacuation, this is not the requirement of the act.  As stated above, the act requires that states consider the rescue of household pets when that rescue will not affect human safety.  The debates on the bill in Congress made clear that no money would be taken from human safety to rescue non-human animals.   So, although this is a major step forward in federal legislative activity and has brought the issue of companion animals in times of disaster to the public consciousness and given animal protection organizations seats at the policy-making tables, the act is largely symbolic and without enforcement mechanisms.  Fortunately, the states such as Louisiana had already taken on the issue and drafted their acts or regulations regarding evacuation of non-human animals in disasters, some of which are more directive than the federal act.

5. You’ve previously visited Australia to undertake some comparative research on the legal status and treatment of animals during weather disasters. Have you found any significant differences between Australia and the US?
My research in Australian law and policy is still in the early stages.  My concentration in 2007 was on bushfires.  I hope to gain much more information on this trip and to have the opportunity to talk with various organizations and agencies about treatment of animals during disasters.

6. You teach an undergraduate seminar on animal advocacy. What areas is such advocacy focussing on in the US at the moment?
The class is a skills course on advocacy and not a pure lecture or discussion class.  In the class, we covered a range of topics as background for the students, who are now working in the field to develop strategies for implementation of their proposed solutions to problems each identified for their white papers.  The range of white paper topics selected includes breed specific bans, dangerous dog prohibitions, better treatment of chickens on egg farms, inclusion of reptiles in the Albuquerque city ordinance which mandates specific treatment of different types of animals, and the need for greater protection of animals in circuses.  The general focus of the course has been on development of reasoned and solidly grounded arguments for positions that can make positive change for animals.

7. Have your views on animal protection been influenced by particular individuals? If so, who are they?
There are so many that it would be impossible to identify a particular individual or two whose writings or work have influenced my own.  However, I have found that people such as Marc Bekoff and Gene Baur who live their views and who are able to share those perspectives in reasoned and reasonable ways with friendly and unfriendly audiences alike are those I would like to emulate.

8. Do you have any words of wisdom to share with Australia's budding animal lawyers?
I feel presumptuous in even attempting to answer such as question.  I had the pleasure of meeting some of Australia’s animal lawyers during my visit in 2007.  I am hoping to continue the associations and to gain words of wisdom from them!

Did you like this article? Share it!