Christopher Berry

@CandideSurLaMer @kantbulldog Is “just theater” an intentional or accidental brilliant pun?

@kantbulldog Would be tragic if we woke up one morning and discovered none of us had rights, natural or otherwise. It may turnout to be just theater.

You're an animal rights philosopher and they ask, do animals have rights? Don't go the positive-law route of "no, but". Go the natural-law way: yes, and keep it focused on that. youtube.com/watch?v=_QnI6O…

@MikeJShowalter Brilliant personal marketing

@scottastevenson @writeclimbrun 🦧⚖️🤖

Law Twitter is Back Please like if you are a lawyer or into legal/legaltech on here, so that I can follow you. Need more of this on my feed!

@sentientism Circular logic from the 5-2 majority opinion in Happy's case. At least the court was upfront about its prejudicial reasoning: Nonhuman Rights Project v. Breheny: nycourts.gov/ctapps/Decisio…

“Simply because we’re human” is not a good answer for why we should have rights.

@kantbulldog @radicalisnt @dab_chick I’d add that if animals can’t bear duties then how does one justify animal exploitation, e.g. captivity at a zoo or breeding in a puppy mill? Such exploitation resembles a one-sided “contract” imposed by a powerful party against a non-consenting one. Tyrannical and unjustified.

@radicalisnt @dab_chick Our duties to animals. You don't need to be morally rational or have duties yourself to qualify for direct object of duties.

“To be "for animals" is not to be "against humanity." To require others to treat animals justly, as their rights require, is not to ask for anything more nor less in their case than in the case of any human to whom just treatment is due.”

@WTKraic @drcrystalheath @ValerieAnne1970 Consider the rainforest where it would be much better to have a rainforest there sucking up CO2 instead of growing livestock feed

@drcrystalheath @ValerieAnne1970 well doesnt the crops anyway suck in co2. we all know fertilizer is made from petrol etc so your cycle dont exist but still massive hectares of say corn would offset the cows in the feedlots? you also get no till farming so plenty ways to skin that onion

🚨FACT...Cows Are Actually CARBON NEGATIVE. The University of Nebraska study proves grazing beef cattle are CLIMATE HEROES – pulling MORE carbon from the air than they emit!

@drcrystalheath @ValerieAnne1970 Heroes

Here is video I shot of cows pulling more carbon from the air than they emit and turning it into protein. About 30–40 million acres of U.S. cropland are effectively devoted to producing feed for beef cattle. Roughly ~650–750 million acres in the U.S. are tied to beef cattle when you include pasture + feed crops. Currently U.S. cattle use that land to provide enough protein to meet the protein dietary requirements 175 million people, but they provide 0 fiber. What if instead of growing cattle feed on those 30-40 million acres of arable land, we chose to grow high protein plants to feed people? Assuming a soybean yield of 50.7 bu/acre and weight of 60 lb/bu, dry soybeans yield 36.5 g protein + 9.3 g fiber per 100 g. Assuming 50 g/person/day or 18,250 g/person/year, dry whole soybeans provide enough protein to meet the needs of 830 million to –1.10 billion people/year on 30-40 million acres of land. But they also meet the dietary fiber needs of ~278–563 million people/year assuming a dietary fiber requirement of 25–38 g/day (NAM AI) or 9,125–13,870 g/person/year. But you say, well, soybeans alone, thats boring. Of course there are other crops we could grow. What about peas? If we grew some peas on that land we could meet the protein needs of ~306–408 million people/year and fiber needs of ~386–783 million people/year. We could also grow lentils and meet the protein needs of ~184–245 million people/year and fiber needs of ~105–213 million people/year, or chickpeas and meet the protein needs of ~174–233 million people/year and fiber needs of ~137–278 million people/year. But you say, that's not what the public is demanding. That's because there is no incentive structure in place to support corporations increasing access to whole foods, high-protein, animal-free meals, but there are plenty of grants and subsidies available to support the conversion of highly subsidized feed crops into animal protein. So that's what corporations market to people. And they have spent billions fostering consumer trust in protein produced via animals.

@BCLegalScholar @superwuster Yeah you can tell the person you’re responding to has never read the Article III Constitutional Avoidance Clause

@superwuster Nope. It’s based on the canon of constitutional avoidance because otherwise these power grabs would be struck down as unconstitutional delegations of legislative power.

I was a law clerk for the first major questions doctrine case. It was and remains an unprincipled hack for when textualism risks yielding undesired results

@OurHonorVets When?

Urgent action needed to save eight former research horses at Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Eight former USDA research horses are scheduled to have their lives ended for student training at Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine. These horses could go to sanctuary. Instead, students will perform exploratory laparotomies, procedures usually done by boarded equine surgeons, followed by ending their lives before recovery. This denies post-anesthesia training and doesn’t expand access to care. At UC Davis, I learned on animals who actually needed procedures. That model is more effective. Watch. Share. Then sign our letter below. #horsegirls #VeterinaryStudents #AccessToCare #OneHealth #vetschool

@DietCoke_Esq Finally, unconditional love from the legal system.

Venue is proper wherever you are ❤️

@drcrystalheath It is misleading for @AVMAvets to hold itself out as an animal welfare organization.

It's absolutely maddening. Naive veterinarians applauded the AVMA for passing a resolution updating their sow housing guidelines; meanwhile, the NPPC still evokes the AVMA as a reason to support the new language in the Farm Bill that would overturn Prop 12. Most veterinarians disagree with confining mother pigs to gestation crates; the AVMA does not represent us! This article says: “'Prop 12 ignores expert veterinary advice and chips away at sound veterinary options,” NPPC wrote. “The American Veterinary Medical Association says Prop 12 does ‘not objectively improve animal welfare and may unintentionally cause harm.’” #vettwitter #onehealth #prop12 #animalwelfare

Signed. I left the working group box unchecked @drcrystalheath but lmk if you want my help to identify legal strategies.

@drcrystalheath It was nice seeing you at Sentient Futures! Thank you for documenting and speaking out for animals <3

In the last 5 days, I've filmed 3 zoos, the Sentient Futures Conference, countless dairies, a handful of calf ranches, and the World Ag Expo. Lots more content to come. This is the red wolf exhibit at the Fresno Zoo. There is a male and a female here. They breed them, and I was told there's a possibility their puppies will be returned to the wild. Not sure how cattle ranchers and anti-predator vegans will feel about that. Despite the zoo staff's efforts and care, I don't think these wolves are living their best lives here. Lots of pacing and hypervigilance. People want to work in zoos because they care about animals, but they end up stuck in a system that often isn't in the animals' best interest. #animalwelfare #onehealth #vetmed #zoovet #veterinarian

What's it like to adopt a dog who was used in a research lab? My colleague Nives Ilic wrote a beautiful piece about how her beagle, Mack, is adjusting to life outside a cage. It's time to move past animal experimentation! cbc.ca/news/canada/lo…

A group of “gifted word learner” dogs can learn new words that label objects by overhearing their owners talking with each other, according to a new study in Science. ⁠ ⁠ These dogs can map a new word to a new object even when the word and object are not presented simultaneously. Together, these abilities put these special dogs at the same word-learning level as 18 to 23-month-old children, the researchers conclude. ⁠ ⁠ Their findings suggest that humans are not the only animals that can learn new labels by overhearing third-party interactions.⁠ ⁠ Learn more: scim.ag/450OFai

Lord Denning explicitly says this in a memoir—he picked the outcome then found the law to go with it and did not believe there would be a conflict. (He thought "fiat justitia ruat cælum" was nonsensical). He has many successors in this approach on the English bench.

@OGNadales @ReichlinMelnick The case should have been decided on abuse of discretion standard. Raise the bar a bit on what constitutes an abuse of discretion rather than categorically eliminating the option.

@ReichlinMelnick I think nationwide injunctions were being abused. But I also think they do serve a purpose. I hope Congress picks up the matter, but it is really just wishful thinking.

Good thing the Supreme Court got rid of nationwide injunctions, because now we have nearly 150 habeas petitions filed PER DAY on average! /s in case that wasn't obvious.