CBC Radio animal law interview

CBC Radio's The Current did an episode on animal law in Canada this morning interviewing parties on both sides of the debate about whether or not we need more animal protection laws and/or animal rights laws and what they should be.

If you're familiar with the animal rights debate, there's nothing much new here but if you're unfamiliar with the trend, there's some nuances to both sides that would very quickly affect the welfare of dogs.

From the CBC website:

Animal Law - Advocate

In the United States animal law is the fastest growing field of pro bono work. Here in Canada, more than a dozen Canadian law schools have added animal law courses to their curricula over the last two years. And the British Columbia branch of the Canadian Bar Association has just set up the first animal law subsection in Canada.

Daphne Gilbert is one of the people pushing for changes to animal law in Canada. She's a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. She teaches a course called "Animals and The Law" and she was in Ottawa.

Animal Law - Critic

But not every animal lover is crazy about expanding the field of animal law in these ways. Victor Schwartz is a liability expert and a dog-owner for the record. He's also a lobbyist who has worked for groups such as the Animal Health Institute. And he thinks the efforts to expand animal law could backfire on pet-owners. Victor Schwartz is a lawyer with Shook, Harley and Bacon and he was in Washington D.C.

You can listen to the interview here under "Part 3: Animal Law"