Ecology Law Currents

A National Injustice: The Federal Government’s Systematic Removal and Eradication of an American Icon

Bruce Wagman[*] & Lisa McCurdy[**]

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Brutal captures and deaths of American wild horses are occurring on the range. This is not a fictional western gone bad but federal policy. The government tries to justify this cruelty with junk science and is sheltered in its actions by procedural barriers and judicial deference. For nearly four decades, federal contractors have been capturing wild horses and burros across the western United States under the guise of “management” pursuant to the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.[1] The horses are often chased down by helicopters, sometimes for miles through rough terrain in the heat of summer, lassoed, and forced to the ground and then into trailers.

Wild horses are driven down a steep slope by a helicopter during the Twin Peaks Roundup, August 15, 2010. Video credit to Humane Observer.

Promoting the Urban Homestead: Reform of Local Land Use Laws to Allow Microlivestock on Residential Lots

 

Mary Wood, Jeremy Pyle, Naomi Rowden, & Katy Irwin*

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Introduction

Over the past several decades, Americans have divorced themselves from the ages-old endeavor of growing and harvesting their own food. During this era, the food system has undergone a radical change from its traditional makeup that predominated even just a few generations ago. Today, global distribution systems transport food thousands of miles before it reaches its final destination. While this model provides convenience and selection for consumers, the consolidation and centralization of food production has come at a high price. The U.S. food system is highly polluting, vulnerable to adversity, unsustainable, and, in some cases, unsafe for consumers.[1] For these and other reasons, citizens are increasingly urging their local officials to initiate regulatory and policy changes to encourage local food production on both public and private property. This Article explores some of the law and policy considerations for reforming city codes to allow for “urban homesteading” on residential city lots, focusing in particular on regulations pertaining to husbandry of microlivestock.

Backyard goat.  Photo credit to pinkhippodesign.

Whale of an Opportunity: Coast Guard Study of Los Angeles/Long Beach Port Access Routes Holds Great Potential for Reducing Ship Strikes within Santa Barbara Channel

Brian P. Segee*

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Introduction

As global whale populations slowly recover from historic hunting that brought numerous species to the brink of extinction, the increasing number of whales killed by collisions with ships threatens to slow or even reverse this recovery in some areas. Along the west coast of the United States, this conflict is most clearly evident in the Santa Barbara Channel, which not only provides essential habitat for numerous whales, including the densest seasonal population of blue whales on the planet, but also serves as the primary formal shipping lane for traffic into and out of the nation’s busiest port complex at the Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors (LA/LB). While ship strikes have been implicated in the deaths of blue whales off the California coast since as early as 1980, the incidence of strikes has steadily risen, and in 2007 an unprecedented five blue whales were struck and killed in the Santa Barbara Channel.[1]

Levine v. Vilsack: When “Likely” Actually Means “Definitely”

Bruce Wagman & Lisa McCurdy*

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Sometimes procedural rulings allow courts to avoid important decisions that would otherwise make social and ethical declarations about the duality of American values with respect to animals. Stark evidence of that comes with the recent Ninth Circuit opinion in Levine v. Vilsack.[1] The Ninth Circuit ruled only that plaintiffs had no standing to sue because they did not meet the “redressability” requirement of standing under Article III, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution.[2] With this holding, the opinion may signal a new hurdle for plaintiffs to clear. The opinion also leaves in place a federal policy that has mandated the humane treatment of animals before they are slaughtered for food for over fifty years, but applies it to only one out of every ten animals who reach the slaughterhouse. The opinion thus delivers two unfortunate messages. As a nation, we care about animals—but not 90 percent of them. And if you are working to protect animals in the courts, that work could become more difficult.