Direct action, protests and demonstrations have their place in every important social movement, but I believe lasting change must arrive through education, legislation, and litigation. Ours is a system of laws, and laws are organic and always evolving. Its progressive potential must be used to enforce the basic interests of all nonhumans. How does this happen? From the standpoint of an animal law attorney, through effective representation of individual clients. I try to help people whose animals have been injured or killed by the negligent or intentional acts of others, including animal care professionals, boarding facilities, and other such businesses. I support lawsuits that require government agencies to enforce animal welfare regulations. I encourage law enforcement agencies to aggressively prosecute violations of anti-cruelty laws.

Some might say this process is too gradual. There are a few animal rights activists who propose to abolish the property status of animals and allow domestic species to become extinct. Must the human-animal relationship be extinguished in order to give animals protection from abuse? In my opinion, no. I believe animals, both wild and domestic, enrich the lives of people. I also believe humans have the capacity to greatly enrich the lives of animals. Human civilization has much to gain by saying no to animal abuse and extending a hand of kindness to our nonhuman friends.

What constitutes animal abuse? Any human activity that causes sentient animals to suffer and die needlessly is abuse. Killing animals for their fur is abuse. Killing animals in the name of sport is abuse. Killing animals in wasteful and horrific laboratory tests is abuse. Raising animals in factory conditions for slaughter is abuse. Killing or hurting animals out of angry or sadistic impulses is abuse.

Lawyers throughout the world are fighting for animal protection and making important strides. One of my favorite efforts is the Great Ape Legal Project. Because chimps, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans share so many of our emotional and cognitive features, GALP lawyers argue they should be granted basic civil rights. The legislative assemblies of Great Britain, New Zealand and Germany have considered important legislation granting great apes protection from experimentation, and other countries have considered the issue of giving great apes the status of quasi-citizens. If great apes are recognized by the law as possessing basic rights, that could be the first step toward more protection for other animals as well.

A growing number of lawyers and law students are questioning the property status of animals. But if animals are not considered property, what are they? Should they be given the same status as children or incompetent persons, whose interests are enforced by guardians ad litem in courts of law? Some say animals may in some respects benefit by their status as property, because it guarantees at least some minimum level of care, albeit for economic reasons. Others believe so long as animals are property, humans will abuse them at will. Perhaps the answer is to create a special kind of property status, one that recognizes the capacity of sentient animals to feel happiness, pain, joy, and sadness, but that also allows humans to make decisions for the mutual well-being of humans and nonhumans alike.