November 03, 2025 The Runaway Monkeys Upending the Animal-Rights Movement
The Animal Welfare Act almost entirely excludes rats and mice, the most common research animals. It outlines minimal standards for housing, food, and pain management—and is minimally enforced. “Facilities can get consistent warnings and violations, but it’s almost never followed up with any sort of action,” Mary Hollingsworth, a former senior trial attorney at the Department of Justice who now leads Harvard Law School’s Animal Law & Policy Clinic, said.
October 23, 2025 Program Advocates who rescue animals in grave danger should qualify for ‘necessity defense,’ argues Harvard Law expert
Professor Kristen Stilt says that California policy points to a view that ‘animals are sentient beings whose harm is something we want to avoid.’
October 08, 2025 Clinic Animal abusers are getting let off the hook. Trump and his Supreme Court are partly to blame.
Mary Hollingsworth, Faculty Director of Harvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Clinic and a former Justice Department trial attorney, told Vox what’s most needed to deter violations is stronger fines. For that to happen, the Animal Welfare Act needs to be amended to allow the Justice Department to take violators to federal court, where judges are “much more likely to impose a reasonable fine,” Professor Hollingsworth said.
October 03, 2025 Program Avian Flu Shows the Need for Transformative Meat Governance
This contribution by Professor Kristen Stilt argues that we must add zoonotic disease risk to the list of reasons for transformative meat governance. Serious zoonotic risks are inherent in intensive animal production and also in non-intensive animal production. Production scale does not make one type more or less dangerous or immune. Zoonotic disease risk is one compelling justification, among many other reasons discussed in the other contributions to this debate, for transformative meat governance. The issues are urgent, and the time is now. We cannot wait for the next major crisis, the next pandemic, or the next headline news of another animal cruelty exposé in the animal agriculture industry.