A Litigation Article from All-Creatures.org

Harvard Law Professor Submits Amicus Brief Declaring Necessity Defense Applies to Animals

From Cassie King, DxE Direct Action Everywhere
August 2023

Amicus brief asserted that animals are 'someone,' and that ordinary citizens therefore can use the necessity defense when they are charged in connection with animal rescue.

Yesterday, Harvard’s Animal Law and Policy Program Director and Law Professor Kristen Stilt submitted an amicus brief in our Sonoma animal rescue case asserting that animals are “someone,” and that ordinary citizens therefore can use the necessity defense when they are charged in connection with animal rescue.

An amicus curiae (Latin for “friend of the court”) is a brief filed by a non-party in a court case to assist the court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case.

In this case, Professor Stilt is offering an expert opinion that the necessity defense, which protects citizens when they act to prevent “significant bodily harm” to “someone” who is facing an emergency, should apply in the case of animal rescue.

It might seem obvious to many of us that an animal is someone, but prosecutors defending animal agriculture have tried to argue that they aren’t and that laws like the necessity defense can’t be used to defend the rescue of animals from abuse.

This new amicus brief supports what we already know: that animals are individuals and they have the right to be rescued from situations of neglect and cruelty. You can read the full amicus brief here.

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