By Menachem Wecker
Joan Schaffner has always loved animals but didn’t become a full-blown animal advocate until fall 2003 when she co-founded the Animal Welfare Project at GW Law School with her colleague Mary Cheh, who serves on the D.C. Council. Ms. Schaffner, associate professor of law, has since been part of a team that helped convince the council to pass some of the country’s toughest animal protection laws, introduced by D.C. Councilmember Cheh, last year and is an active volunteer foster mom with the Washington Humane Society. “My entire world changed, and I am the better for it!” she says.
Not only has Ms. Schaffner also turned her house into a “feline sanctuary,” she has also been researching the intersection of her two passions: pets and the law. Ms. Schaffner is an editor of and contributing writer to the new book “A Lawyer’s Guide to Dangerous Dog Issues,” published by the American Bar Association.
Along the lines of George Orwell’s famous quote from “Animal Farm,” Ms. Schaffner found that some breeds of dogs are treated more equal than others through “canine profiling.” While the headlines surrounding NFL star Michael Vick’s involvement in illegal dog fighting rings raised awareness of the horrors associated with dog fighting, it also encouraged people to view pit bulls suspiciously, she says.
“Moreover, the media has biased the views of the public to a certain extent, often giving a story far more attention when the dog causing the injury is a pit bull rather than a retriever, for example.” Ms. Schaffner says.
This bias has led to “breed discriminatory laws” and has resulted in dogs being euthanized “often based purely on their perceived breed and not on their temperament and/or actions,” she adds. “Dogs, like people should, be judged as individuals,” Ms. Schaffner said.
Though the Constitution says nothing about canine rights (dogs are not constitutionally protected, Ms. Schaffner clarifies), certain laws that target individual breeds may be a violation of their owners’ rights to due process and/or equal protection
Animal law has only been embraced as a legitimate field of legal scholarship and practice over the past decade, according to Ms. Schaffner, though lawyers have been engaged in “animal law” for much longer. Still, American law holds animals to be personal property, or “things that humans possess and use for their own purposes,” despite animals’ varied roles, including companion, research subject and farmed animal.
“Each of these human uses of animals raises different legal issues and, thus, different legal regimes have developed to govern each,” Ms. Schaffner said. “The result, of course, is that a given species of animal, say a dog or horse, is treated differently under the law depending upon its owner’s use of the animal.”
“A Lawyer’s Guide to Dangerous Dog Issues” addresses a variety of topics related to dog ownership, including a review and analysis of current laws governing “dangerous” dogs, views on prosecuting and defending dangerous dog cases, and addressing breed-discriminatory restrictive covenants in homeowners and condominium association bylaws and homeowner’s insurance policies.
“The basic theme of the book is that breed discriminatory laws are unfair, inefficient and ineffective. The laws must target conduct not breed,” Ms. Schaffner explains. “Moreover, it is the reckless owner who does not properly care for or train her or his dog who is the culpable party, not the dog.”
GW is a natural hub for animal legal activism, according to Ms. Schaffner. “D.C. is the place to be when it comes to the law, and it is no different in the area of animal law,” she says, noting that most of the national humane organizations have offices, if not headquarters, in the District. There is also a local, private, public interest firm, Meyer, Glitzenstein & Crystal, which handles prominent animal protect cases and hires student interns to help.
“Moreover, the government entities that enact and enforce federal laws that govern animals are here,” Ms. Schaffner adds. “I can think of few other locations that are as rich in a variety of opportunities for students interested in animal law.”