Join us for another conversation in our Adjunct Teachers in Animal Law Series. In this session, we will be talking about handling political, or politicized, legal issues in different types of animal law classes. We will discuss the sensitivities in both addressing and ignoring relevant political matters. Because animal law topics are often seen as inherently political it is important to carefully consider how best to make decisions in this context. We will consider the impacts of these decisions on students, public and private schools, and on faculty members as well as others (the public, donors, etc.).

Although this series is designed for adjunct teachers, all are welcome including full-time teachers, students, and others.

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Panelists

Shelby Bobosky, Texas Humane Legislation Network

Shelby Bobosky has been the Executive Director of the Texas Humane Legislation Network since 2019 and the Texas Humane Network since 2020, but she began her volunteer service with THLN in 2011 as a board member. Since 2011 and under her leadership as President, Vice President and Executive Director, THLN has had five successful legislative sessions wherein THLN successfully passed the Anti-Gassing Law (passed in 2013), the Mandatory Canine Encounter Training Law (passed in 2015), the Animal Cruelty Enhancement Law (passed in 2017), the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act (passed in 2021) and strengthening the Licensed Breeders Program (2023). At the same time, Ms. Bobosky’s leadership helped kill many bad bills including a repeal of the Licensed Breeder Program, bringing back horse slaughter and taking certain animal cruelty crimes from misdemeanors to felonies. In 1999, Ms. Bobosky moved from Chicago to Dallas to begin her law practice in commercial litigation and continued practicing general civil litigation until 2017 when she decided to do only pro bono work putting in hundreds of hours for THLN as well as assisting animal welfare advocates and rescues when possible. She teaches Animal Law and Wildlife Law at the Southern Methodist University College of Law and travels the state teaching animal cruelty laws and Texas animal laws. She shares her animal kingdom with three boys, one spouse and three rescued dogs and two rescued prairie dogs

Nancy Perry, ASPCA

Nancy Perry is Senior Vice President of Government Relations for the ASPCA, spearheading legislative and regulatory engagement to end animal suffering. She has led policy reforms for animal protection in the halls of Congress and on the ground for grassroots campaigns for more than 25 years. Ms. Perry's testimony before state legislatures as well as in U.S. House and Senate committees has helped codify key policy reforms for animals. While overseeing legislative affairs for the HSUS, she provided leadership for more than 20 statewide ballot campaigns on puppy mills, cruel hunting and trapping practices, animal fighting, farm animal abuse, and dog racing. Ms. Perry serves as an advisory board member for Lewis & Clark Law School’s Animal Law Review and she has served as an adjunct law professor for more than 20 years teaching the Animal Law seminar at the George Washington University Law School.

Priscilla Rader Culp, Animal Legal Defense Fund

Priscilla Rader Culp is the senior law school programs attorney for the Animal Legal Defense Fund. There, Priscilla develops, implements, and manages the organization’s law school initiatives, including its student chapter programmatic work, the annual Student Convention, scholarship series’, mentorship, student events, law professor assistance, and more. Priscilla is passionate about empowering law students and professionals to expand the emerging field of animal law in all spaces. As a 2016 Lewis & Clark Law School graduate, she served as co-director for her school’s student chapter, student coordinator for the Animal Law Conference, and clerked with Mercy for Animals, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School. Priscilla was awarded the Animal Law Leadership Award and the Richard J. Peppin Scholarship for Animal Rights. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and their beloved cat, Wesley, who has them both wrapped around his paw.

Kathy Hessler, GW Law

Kathy Hessler is the inaugural Assistant Dean for Animal Legal Education at George Washington University Law School (GWU), and Director of the Animal Legal Education Initiative (ALEI), working with Joan Schaffner and Iselin Gambert, in a program made possible by generous support from ALDF. Dean Hessler has been a clinical law professor for 30 years and has been teaching animal law for 22 years. She is the first law professor hired to teach animal law full-time. She received her JD from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary and her LLM from Georgetown University Law Center. Dean Hessler helped develop the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School (L&C). For fourteen years she taught there and directed the Animal Law Clinic, which was named one of the top fifteen most innovative clinics in 2015. She also created and directed the Aquatic Animal Law Initiative and is the co-founder of World Aquatic Animal Day along with Amy P. Wilson.

Andrew Murphy, GW Law (moderator)

Andrew Murphy is a third-year law student at GW Law. Andrew has worked with the Animal Welfare Project to develop legislation for the DC Counsel regarding affordable housing for people living with animals and a potential ban on the production and sale of new animal fur products. He's also gained further animal law experience through internships with the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the U.S. Coast Guard. In his free time, Andrew enjoys hiking, photography, and skiing.

About the Adjunct Teachers in Animal Law Series

Adjunct, rather than full-time, law professors do the majority of animal law teaching in the U.S. and globally. Yet this community does not have the same access to academic resources and support as their full-time counterparts. That can make developing and maintaining animal law courses more challenging. This series is designed to remedy some of that inequity and offer support and resources to expand and improve animal law teaching. The series will focus pragmatic as well as pedagogical matters designed to help those interested in starting or continuing to teach animal law.