American Bar Association Tort, Trial & Insurance Practice Section Animal Law Committee

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1 American Bar Association Tort, Trial & Insurance Practice Section Animal Law Committee MINUTES Business Meeting New Orleans, Louisiana February 3, 2012 Student Co-Vice Chair Aimee Gong taking minutes Present in person: Ledy VanKavage, Rebecca Huss, Yolanda Eisenstein, Joan Schaffner, Sarah Myers, Chris Green, Daina Bray, Stacey Evans, Caroline Griffin, Yolanda Alvarez, Barbara Gislason, Laura Nirenberg, Kim Mellow, Bonnie Lutz, Julie Fershtman, Kara Gilmore, Aimee Gong, Ariel DiGiulio, Ettie Ward Present via telephone: Sharon Coleman, Brenda Mansfield, Marta Richards, Michelle Welch, John Kerr, Phil Goldberg, Shannon Martinis Ledy VanKavage calls the meeting to order. A motion to approve the minutes from the Fall Meeting (October 14, 2011) was made, and passed unanimously. Public Service Project Joan Schaffner reports about our public service project vaccination and microchip clinic with the SULA Foundation. There will be 3 shifts, and people can sign up for shifts on the second floor of the Marriott. We will meet in the lobby before each shift and coordinate taxis to and from the 9th Ward where the clinic will be. Disaster preparedness packets for the public service event will also be handed out. Ledy VanKavage reports that for the microchipping, volunteers will write the information for dog owners legibly so that it can be entered into a database. Joan Schaffner asks if there will be a volunteer training. Rebecca Huss reports that volunteers will be given directions once they arrive at the clinic. Bonnie Lutz asks how we will handle the possibility that there is already a microchip in the dog.

2 Ledy VanKavage reports that we will be scanning the dogs to make sure they are not already microchipped. She also reports that volunteers will sign liability waivers. Rebecca Huss suggests that when we are talking to people in other ABA meetings, we can invite them to volunteer as well. We are trying to reach out to other sections. Ledy VanKavage reports that we want people working, and that volunteers get a free t-shirt. Kara Gilmore notes that the theme of the t-shirt is based on the Due Process Resolution. A group discussion about the t-shirts ensues. Technical Web Issues Chris Green reports that there is a problem with the modules and that for some, photos and documents can be uploaded, but for some they cannot. Some you can only put up a link, but not the actual document. He is storing documents on his own company server and linking to them, and he has purchased domain names for Animal Law Committee so that people can go to the website and not see a different name. Another problem is that TIPS gave us extra pages for the Animal Law Committee for our history and awards, but now that they have a do-it-yourself module, they don t respond. We were able to replicate the awards page, but we don t have access to the history site. Chris Green reports that he can find someone to house not only outside documents, but also outside pages. Good news is that in every webinar they have, they use the Animal Law Committee website as a model, but it is still a work in progress. Chris Green reports that the webinar with Adam Karp will be uploaded around May of this year. Resolution Updates Ledy VanKavage reports that there are two (2) pending resolutions, and that the Due Process and Public Safety Resolution will be up for vote at 11:00 am today. The resolution asks communities to enact breed neutral dangerous dog laws and also make sure there are due process provisions in those laws, and that they repeal any breed discriminatory laws. Ohio is only state that discriminates against a breed of dog.

3 A group discussion about the Ohio HB 14 ensued. In December Adam Karp had a case regarding a dangerous dog ordinance that was deemed unconstitutional. If the resolution passes it will go to the House of Delegates in August. The Service Dog Resolution was added to the House of Delegates Agenda, but we are going before the Rules Committee to explain the late filing. The bill number is 303. Rebecca Huss notes that because the resolution came in late, some of the House of Delegates do not know about it, and that if we see someone with a House of Delegates ribbon, we should talk to them about the resolution. Barbara Gislason notes that if it doesn t go through this meeting, then we can get it in during the August meeting. Kara Glimore notes the SAK case. In this case, Aurelia, Iowa had a ban on pit bulls and a man who had a pit bull-type service animal was required to take his dog away, which prompted the lawsuit. The new ADA guidelines state that breed discriminatory laws cannot trump the ADA regulations that allow service animals for people who need them. The lawsuit is in federal district court, which issued a preliminary injunction and Sak, a retired Chicago police officer, got his dog back. The dog had been trained to perform tasks. CLE Update Yolanda Eisenstein reports on the webinar that she, Barbara, Randy Turner and Adam Karp did. It was on pet custody and disaster issues post Hurricane Katrina. It was very successful. There were 42 people who attended the webinar and they gave excellent evaluations. The ABA production person said to come to him with ideas and he would be happy to do more webinars. Ledy VanKavage notes that webinars are relatively inexpensive and that people from numerous places can attend, so we can encourage people to sign up for webinars. Julie Fershtman reported on the webinar on livestock and equine insurance - 75 people participated. The downside was that speakers who didn t have experience doing webinars and didn t manage their time, so they talked for too long. There was not much time for questions, but feedback was excellent. Many people there wanted more on animal insurance and someone asked if we could do something just on animal insurance. GP Solo would bring out the numbers (attendees). Ledy VanKavage noted that we would be interested in doing that. Chris Green noted that he could do something on health insurance as well. Bonnie Lutz noted that she has contacts with the ASPCA, among other organizations and would help.

4 Ettie Ward reported that for the March 23 st ADR and Animal Disputes program at St. John s law School we are all set, and are doing a program co-sponsored by several committees. It will be a three (3) hour program marketed to law students in the New York City area, practitioners, and non-lawyers. There will be CLE credit provided by St. Johns at 25 dollars per credit. If an attendee isn t getting CLE credits, it s free. It s on a Friday from 9:00am-12:00pm. The format includes a range of animal law disputes, ADR, and 90 minutes on a panel of litigators and mediators, and will look at a series of hypothetical scenarios under litigation and ADR. We have all the speakers lined up, which include Lauren Martin, who is a St. Johns animal law teacher who came out of the ASPCA, and Deborah Hamilton. Ettie Ward reported that Linda said she would get brochures for the Animal Law Committee. Joan Schaffner reports information on using the QR code. Ledy VanKavage reports that for the annual meeting, Katie Bray Barnett has a program approved on shelter liability. Jane Mcbride, Joan Andrews, are doing this program. Ledy VanKavage reports that Jim Riddle contacted us about doing a conference on shelter/recue law, similar to the transportation mega-conference. She would like to coordinate this with another conference because people would already be there. We could get rooms for free after the No More Homeless Pets Conference, and advertise through Best Friends. Best Friends Animal Society (BFAS) is interested in partnering on this, but would probably have to find sponsors for funding for getting transportation for speakers to get there. We would like to make this an annual event in conjunction with the No More Homeless Pets conference. Joan Schaffner moves to explore possibility of an annual conference about shelter law in conjunction with the No More Homeless Pets conference. All in favor. Ledy VanKavage notes that we need people to help work on this project. Bonnie Lutz and Kara Gilmore note that they will help. Publications Joan Schaffner reports that we have enough articles for the newsletter, and ideas for summer and going into fall. Rebecca Huss reports that she has gotten more people willing to write articles. Joan Schaffner notes that she doesn t get a lot of feedback about the newsletter, so that people should tell her if there is something they want to see on it. The general deadlines for spring, summer, and fall newsletter articles are March 1, May 15, and September 15.

5 Rebecca Huss notes that TIPS likes us to have newsletters, but the content has to be good. Joan Schaffner reports that we have been posting them on the website and we can potentially get more outreach. Rebecca Huss reports from publications that we are doing the annual survey and it is submitted. Adam Karp and Yvonne will spearhead it again next year. Joan Schaffner reports on book. She spoke with the ABA publications individual, and he said that the dangerous dog book is doing better than the other publications. Joan suggested that we take the litigation book, narrow it down and have 100-page books on different topics. Sheltering or torts would be good, but she needs help from people in practice to give information about which short books they would like to have. The idea is to carve out TIPS-related topics with shorter book proposals. Julie Fershtman asks how this will move forward. Joan notes that she needs a Publication Committee, and that if we could put people together that we could make it happen. The new books will be slightly different and updated from the long book. A discussion on book proposals ensued. Joan Schaffner suggests to get input from animal law and non-animal law practitioners as to what would be useful, like divorces and pet custody. Barbara Gislason notes that her book is coming through the Family Law section. Bonnie Lutz suggests that we thing about a publication on administrative procedures, and that AVLMA always brings up new things happening, and that the boards are going after the veterinarians more now. Because damages aren t there for malpractice, they are reporting more vets to veterinary medical boards, and they are becoming more aggressive. They can file complaints online. Different boards handle things differently and it s becoming a huge issue. Chris Green suggests that if we are going to a book about veterinary issues, we could also do something about medical malpractice. Bonnie Lutz notes that this is different than administrative cases, because it s within the boards. Chris green notes that it would be great to have it all in one spot under malpractice. Yolanda Eisenstein suggests it could be animal wrongful death and injury. Group discussion ensued. Ariel DiGiulio suggests a book on 1983 suits and dog shootings. She will talk to Joan about it later. Other Business Ledy VanKavage notes that for resolutions, our Recommendation and Report (R&R) is something we can do and make a difference, so that if someone sees a need for an

6 R&R and would like to spearhead it, to write one. She suggests considering one on the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Chris Green reports that he has half of an R&R written on ownership of exotic animals. Rebecca Huss suggests that we discuss the timing of these at the next meeting. Barbara reports that West publishers approached her to speak on exotic animals and to talk to Delci about it. Motion to adjourn. All in favor.

SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS* KERN COUNTY ANIMAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT ANIMAL CONTROL COMMISSION

SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS* KERN COUNTY ANIMAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT ANIMAL CONTROL COMMISSION Kern County Administrative Building 1115 Truxtun Ave., Bakersfield, CA 93301 3 rd Floor, Multipurpose Room 6:00p.m.