Animal Law

UPDATE: Hemingway’s Six-Toed Cats Remain

As I mentioned in July 2007 (and again that November), a legal dispute was then raging as to whether the descendants of Ernest Hemingway's six-toed cat Snowball could stay on the grounds of the Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West. Snowball's…


Berkeley Boys Busted for Bird Beheading [Updated]

This: We are one of the most selective law schools in the nation. Of the more than 7,000 prospective J.D. students who apply annually, Berkeley Law enrolls about 270. In choosing our students, we don’t stop at brilliance. We drill…



Please Don’t Hurt Nessie, Either

Speaking of cryptozoology, Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources would like whoever put a sculpture of the Loch Ness Monster in the Chippewa River to come get it out of there. I guess this would be pseudocryptozoology. According to the report, the…


Man Ticketed After Cat Won’t Jog

One reason dogs are (arguably) better than cats: you can take them out jogging. According to the Boulder Daily Camera, a 19-year-old man was ticketed in nearby Lafayette, Colorado, last week "on suspicion of tethering his cat to a rock after…


Norwegian Legal Update

It appears to be illegal to transport reindeer in your car, even in Norway, at least without special permission. According to this report (via Dave Barry), police in Lapland noticed antlers inside a Subaru Forester, and found three live reindeer…


Governor Praises Legislature for Mountain-Lion-Stuffing Bill

Here's the right way to use a "signing statement": To the Members of the California State Senate: I am signing SB 769, which allows for a dead mountain lion to be stuffed and displayed. This presumably important bill earned overwhelming support [from] both…



Further Reactions to the Turtle Code Controversy

I want to end this week with one more follow-up on last week’s revelation that the new set of federal insurance billing codes has some real gems in it, the most puzzling to me being the code for “struck by…


Greased-Pig Contests Illegal in Minnesota

343.36 GREASED PIG CONTESTS AND TURKEY SCRAMBLES No person shall operate, run or participate in a contest, game, or other like activity, in which a pig, greased, oiled or otherwise, is released and wherein the object is the capture of…