And the Devil's Handmaidens (Lawyers & Bambiology believing humans) seem to be making animals the most important portion of God's Kingdom.
Charlotte Observer (NC)
EMERGING AREA OF PRACTICE
Animal lawyers unleashed on courts
Family pets gain rights as heirs to fortunes, subjects of lawsuits
SARAH OVASKA
Mar 18, 2008
http://www.charlotte.com/local/story/541614.htmlRALEIGH --Fido is getting a new name -- several, in fact: "plaintiff,"
"trustee," "beneficiary" and even "defendant."
Dogs, cats and creatures of all sorts are being redefined in an
emerging area of legal practice known as animal law.
Once considered property, animals are being invested with legal
standing as they're increasingly being named as partial beneficiaries
of estates, subjects of lawsuits and victims of abuse.
As animals rise in the law, so does the profile of animal lawyers, or
lawyers who practice animal law.
Of the 196 law schools in the country approved by the American Bar
Association, 92 now offer courses on animal law, up from the nine that
offered classes in 2000, according to the Animal Legal Defense Fund.
"You're seeing this real snowball effect," said Pamela Alexander,
director of the defense fund's animal law section.
Part of the push has come from animals' rise in prominence in people's
lives, with owners routinely spending thousands of dollars to give a
cat chemotherapy and sending dogs to day care, therapists and
groomers.
High Point publisher Randall Terry Jr., who donated $20 million toward
a new veterinary hospital at N.C. State University in Raleigh, also
left $1 million to care for his six golden retrievers after he died in
2004.
After her death last year, New York hotel queen Leona Helmsley left
$12 million to her Maltese, Trouble.
A number of top law schools, including those at Duke, Harvard,
Stanford and Columbia universities, bolstered animal law offerings
after receiving $1 million from a foundation set up by Bob Barker,
former host of "The Price Is Right" and animal philanthropist
superstar.
North Carolina is warmly regarded by animal-rights activists. They
point to a state statute that allows people to bequeath money to pets
and clears the path for lawsuits against animal abusers.
Lawyer Calley Gerber is among North Carolina's pioneers in
representing four-legged clients. She gave up a job as a corporate
lawyer to start a practice dedicated to animals.
She switched after deciding she had made the best use of her law
degree when she spent five years as an animal cruelty prosecutor in
Colorado.
"Everyone says you can't make a living doing it," Gerber said. "But I
decided, well, I'm going to try."
As the awareness of animal law grows, practitioners like Gerber are
finding more need for their expertise.
Animal law disputes still take place in largely uncharted legal
territory and revolve around questions about the inherent rights of
animals, said William Reppy Jr., a Duke law professor.
Reppy, who started Duke's animal law clinic, said the newness of
animal law is inviting to activists who see a chance to define new
rights.
"Here's an area where it's still bad," Reppy said. "People with an
activist mentality can see there's room to do something."
Terry, the High Point publisher, set up a trust, worth about $1
million, for his six golden retrievers, and arranged for caretaker
Robin Groban to live in his house and care for them until the end of
their lives, Groban said.
The dogs were family to Terry, and he wouldn't have it any other way,
Groban said.
"You know that they're being taken care of, they're not being farmed
out," Groban said.
North Carolina law generally views pets as property, but that idea is
slowly changing, said Lee Rosen, a Raleigh divorce attorney. Rosen has
seen judges start to address pets in the same way as children in
custody disputes.