Albany Government Law Review

After setting forth a basic overview of the issue, the Article analyzes the amendments to the regulations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) relating to service animals that became effective in March 2011. The Article then considers recent case law and other indications of how agencies of the federal government interpret the issue. The Article continues by examining state laws enacted to allow for a right for students with disabilities to be accompanied by service animals in schools. The Article concludes by providing guidance for student advocates and school administrators dealing with this issue.

This paper contends that much of the understandings and perceptions within postindustrial societies of both nonhuman animals and practices that they are subjected to are derived from conflicting representations generated within mass media. These representations, including narratives and imagery, may be disseminated through mediated spectacles that promote particular moral understandings or vocabularies regarding what are appropriate considerations for nonhuman animals. Building on Nibert’s theory of oppression, this paper suggests that within postindustrial capitalist societies, the communication of mediated representations of nonhuman animals and practices that they are subjected to may serve as vehicles for challenging and undermining legal statures and economic activities involving nonhuman animals, and not simply act as reinforcing mechanisms for existing economic practices and the legal statutes and practices surrounding nonhuman animals. This paper considers six case studies of how mediated spectacles have served to challenge existing societal practices involving nonhuman animals – the destruction of African ivory by Richard Leakey and the Kenyan Wildlife Service, the controversy surrounding professional football player Michael Vick, controversy over the production of foie gras, one of the first cases of mass protest over the use of primates in scientific research, the anti-whaling activities of the Sea Shepherds and efforts to end “fur farming” by Richard Coronado – and discusses how these spectacles served as vehicles for communicating alternative moral understandings about nonhuman animals. This paper suggests that spectacles surrounding nonhuman animals may be an emerging cultural, societal, and legal site for conflicts over future perceptions of the moral standing of nonhuman animals.

This article is about pet trusts, the legal documents that secure an animal’s uninterrupted care. The goal is to guide the reader through the process of writing a definitive pet trust, and to highlight the potential mistakes and pitfalls that could invalidate these documents.

Preventing law-abiding homeowners from obtaining insurance is not the answer to the problem of dog bites. Better and more effective alternatives exist so that there is no need for insurance exclusions. Part I of this article reviews the rise and fall of Breed Specific legislation. It discusses how highly-publicized dog attacks resulted in the legislature’s quick-fix solution now commonly known as Breed Specific Legislation. It then addresses how this legislation did not achieve its desired goals and the current trend, evidenced by a growing minority of states, to ban Breed Specific Legislation. Part II discusses insurer’s continuing breed based bans and the faulty assumptions that insurers rely upon to justify these bans. Finally, Part II concludes by identifying more reasoned and effective practices available to insurers.

This article will explore the origins of America’s tiger crisis in existing federal statutory, regulatory, and policy deficiencies, the paradox of how growth in private ownership of tigers is actually harmful to tiger survival, and then illustrate why loopholes in the ESA implementing regulations and application of AWA safe handling requirements must be closed in order to further meaningful species conservation efforts.