Public interest in PALS@PILCH
Several years ago, American animal protection lawyer Bruce Wagman assisted People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in a claim against the California Milk Advisory Board. PETA argued the Board’s 'Happy Cows' advertising campaign, which depicted dairy cows in idyllic pastures, misled consumers about the real conditions of cruelty in which dairy cows are raised. The courts dismissed the claim on a technical point without considering the merits, but the case served to educate the Californian public about cruelty in industrial farming.
Bruce Wagman shared this story, and a number of other stories about the animal protection cases he has litigated in the United States, in a capacity crowd event on 14 May 2024 at the offices of Mallesons Stephen Jaques. It was at this event that PILCH officially launched its new pro bono animal law service, PALS@PILCH.
Why is PALS@PILCH necessary?
As in the United States, animal laws in Australia fail to fulfill their stated aim of protecting animals from cruelty. Instead, a raft of exceptions and exemptions guarantee that most animals are entirely unprotected by the cruelty statutes. For those animals who remain protected, the enforcement mechanisms are poor and sentences are manifestly inadequate.
Accordingly, PALS@PILCH was established to:
- improve access to legal advice and representation to animal protection organisations and individuals committed to animal protection to advance animal welfare through the legal system;
- increase public awareness of the need for better animal protection;
- ensure that existing animal welfare legal protection mechanisms are enforced; and
- mobilise the legal community around animal welfare as a legitimate public interest issue.
PALS@PILCH aims to undertake policy and law reform work on significant animal welfare issues, participate in matters of public debate on animal law, and refer case work to pro bono lawyers at member firms.
In launching PALS, Guy Donovan, the PALS project officer, commented that the program will complement the range of other pro bono and public interest services coordinated by PILCH and will respond to the growing interest among lawyers in pro bono animal law work.
Future Directions
Rather than dealing with routine 'dogs and cats' cases (which PALS recognises are important), the service aims to tackle topical and systemic issues in animal protection, such as intensive farming, animals in entertainment, kangaroo culling and the live animal trade.
In order to further develop our strategic priorities, the PALS@PILCH Advisory Committee met with Bruce Wagman on the day of the launch to obtain his insight into animal protection lawyering based on his experiences in the United States.
Bruce discussed the challenges with obtaining standing in animal protection cases. In particular, animals themselves do not have standing, and animal welfare organisations often have difficulty demonstrating that they have a sufficient interest in the subject matter of the proceeding, beyond a mere emotional or intellectual concern for the animals. Bruce also discussed strategic litigation and concentrated particularly on consumer protection claims such as the Happy Cows case. He provided advice on how issues of animal cruelty can be ventilated in a misleading or deceptive conduct claim by using creative arguments.
Given the exponential growth of animal law advocacy in the United States, we are hopeful that PALS@PILCH will contribute to a similar progression in Australia, and that the suffering of animals will increase in profile as a legitimate public interest issue.
- David Glasgow, PILCH Secondee Solicitor