Chris Green (Animal Legal Defense Fund), “The Evolution of Animal Advocacy: Alternative Strategies to Achieve Animal Welfare Policy Advances” (Law, Ethics & Animals Program)

As animal advocates have attempted to win policy advances through the traditional vehicles of legislation and regulatory action, they often have run into roadblocks within the relevant legislative committees and agencies. These barriers persist despite polling that shows the overwhelming majority of voters support such animal welfare measures. Accordingly, animal advocates have had to creatively develop alternative avenues to ensure such public sentiment is effectively translated into positive policy advances for animals. These alternative means have enabled many in the animal protection movement to achieve concrete successes for farmed animals, captive wildlife, animals used in research, and the availability of alternatives to animal products. Chris Green has been involved in several of these victories, including as a leader of the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), the inaugural executive director of the Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School, and a former Chair of the American Bar Association’s TIPS Animal Law Committee. In this talk, moderated by LEAP Senior Litigation Fellow Daina Bray, Chris will discuss the evolution of modern animal advocacy and the strategies needed to advance animal-forward policy in the future.

 

Chris Green is the executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF). He rejoined the ALDF in September 2023 after establishing the organization’s Legislative Affairs Program and serving as its director from 2013–2015. Prior to rejoining the ALDF, Chris was the inaugural executive director of the Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School, where he helped launch the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Clinic and grew the Program from an initial staff of three to over 30 faculty, staff, lecturers, scholars, researchers, and fellows. During his animal law career, Chris has helped defeat Ag-Gag legislation in several states, helped pass and defend farmed animal protection ballot measures, directed efforts that led SeaWorld San Diego to halt the breeding and import of new orcas, served on a National Academies committee that caused the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs to stop using dogs in biomedical research, and persuaded the top three U.S. airlines to cease transporting African hunting trophies. Chris helped inaugurate the American Bar Association’s TIPS Animal Law Committee in 2005 and served as its chair in 2015. In 2022, the American Bar Association honored Chris with its award for “Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law.” His academic scholarship has been published in the Animal Law Review, and he has consulted on animal legal issues with dozens of major media outlets. Chris is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where he took the school’s first course in Animal Law, and the University of Illinois, where he created the school’s first Environmental Science degree. Chris also currently manages an Illinois farm that has remained in his family for 185 years.

 

This event is part of the Law, Ethics & Animals Program at Yale Law School’s Spring Speaker Series. It is co-sponsored by the Yale Animal Law Society, the Yale Environmental Law Association, and the Yale Sustainable Food Program.