Animal Rights Advocacy Is a Growing Field

"Fighting for animal rights is as important as fighting for other social justice issues," said Nuncio, a second-year student at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. "It's literally fighting for the underdog."

Nuncio and two of her like-minded classmates were preparing for a trip to Boston this weekend, where they will debate animal rights issues in a national moot court competition.

The event is the second of its kind held at Harvard Law School and reflects growing interest nationally in animal rights advocacy.

"The upcoming generation of lawyers takes this field seriously," said Sherri Woo, a second-year Loyola Law School student who volunteers for the Los Angeles city attorney's animal protection unit. "It shows that [animal rights] is growing and expanding and on its way to becoming an established area of law."

Topics of interest include animal testing for medical and cosmetic research, regulation of factory farms and veterinary malpractice.

Practitioners also see growth as traditional areas of the law expand to accommodate litigation involving pets, such as prohibitions on cruelty to animals, and pet owners who write pets into their wills and expect compensation in the event of injury or death of their animals.

In the last year, Loyola Law School, Chapman University School of Law and Massachusetts School of Law began offering an animal law course after students petitioned for it.

Of the more than 30 law schools that now offer a course in animal law, said professor William A. Reppy Jr. of Duke University School of Law, five benefited from grants from the Bob Barker Endowment Fund for the Study of Animal Rights Law. Barker has donated $4 million to UCLA School of Law, Duke University School of Law, Columbia Law School and Stanford Law School.

"My whole object is to make it a better world for animals," said Barker, the longtime host of "The Price is Right." "To improve life for animals, we must have more stringent laws to protect them and more effectively enforce the laws already on the books."

With the $1-million Barker endowment that Duke received in December, the law school will offer an animal law course and add an animal law clinic, allowing students to work on real cases, next January.

Students "love to get the practical experience," Reppy said. "They can go into court. It's the real world as opposed to the academic world."