Harvard animal law program aims to protect more than wildlife
According to Harvard Law School lecturer Jonathan Lovvorn, saving the planet and its inhabitants from climate catastrophe begins with the world’s most vulnerable population: animals. “We have populations everywhere around the world in environmental distress, in economic distress, in political distress,” said Lovvorn, who is senior vice president and chief counsel for the Humane Society of the United States’ division of animal protection litigation. “In those countries, especially in terms of climate change, what we see regarding the exploitation and destruction of wildlife is deeply intertwined with the exploitation or destruction of people, communities, and cultures. We can learn a lot about our own social and legal problems by studying our legal problems with wildlife.” In a conversation on the Harvard Law campus, Lovvorn also discussed how the School has been leading the charge on animal law in recent years, backed by gifts in 2014 and 2016 from donors concerned about legal safeguards...