Animal Legal Defense Fund

The Animal Legal Defense Fund was born of a bold vision: that one day the interests and legal rights of animals – in laboratories, on factory farms, in the wild, and in our own homes – would be recognized and protected by law. Since then, Animal Legal Defense Fund has blazed the trail for stronger enforcement of anti-cruelty laws and more humane treatment of animals in every corner of American life.

Every day, Animal Legal Defense Fund works to protect animals by:

• Filing groundbreaking lawsuits to stop animal abuse and expand the boundaries of animal law.
• Providing free legal assistance to prosecutors handling cruelty cases.
• Working to strengthen state anti-cruelty statutes.
• Encouraging the federal government to enforce existing animal protection laws.
• Nurturing the future of animal law through Student Animal Legal Defense Fund chapters and our Animal Law Program.
• Providing public education through seminars, workshops and other outreach efforts.

The national nonprofit Animal Legal Defense Fund is the preeminent legal advocate for the protection of animals. Since 1979, Animal Legal Defense Fund's unique mission has been to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. We use the full force of the law to ensure animals everywhere receive the justice they deserve. From small town cruelty cases to lawsuits against the federal government, we may be the only lawyers on earth whose clients are innocent.

It has been over forty extraordinary years since the founding of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. In that time, we have helped establish greater protections for companion animals through the nation's first mandatory animal abuser registries, filed friend of the court briefs in animal custody disputes, assisted in the recovery of adequate damages for wrongfully killed companion animals, helped change the law to establish trusts for the care of beloved animals in our lives, and accomplished much more. For example, in one of the largest civil animal cruelty cases in history, ALDF v. Woodley, we won a landmark victory for animals and were awarded custody of over 300 dogs rescued from nightmarish conditions from North Carolina dog hoarders.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund has also stopped hunts of bears and mountain lions as well as the violent removal of burros from federal lands. We have tackled such diverse topics as challenges to the intensive confinement of farmed animals and the “patenting" of genetically altered animals, as well as cases under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and federal Animal Welfare Act. From our earliest cases, saving more than 5,000 wild burros from certain death and stopping the importation of 71,500 monkeys for use in laboratory experiments, to our most recent victories striking down Ag-Gag laws across various states, winning labeling laws, and filing a groundbreaking case on behalf of Justice the Horse against his abuser, the Animal Legal Defense Fund is winning the case against animal cruelty.

The fundamental problem facing animals in the U.S. is that the law often in many cases considers animals mere property, no different than inanimate objects like tables and chairs. Only in the past few decades have vile acts against animals become felonies, and the Animal Legal Defense Fund has been central to such improvements. Yet, in some states, no matter how badly an animal is abused or harmed, animal abusers cannot be charged with a felony. Even when protective laws do exist, they are often insufficient, rife with loopholes, and inadequately enforced. For example, the federal Animal Welfare Act—the primary law governing the use of animals in laboratory experiments explicitly excludes birds, rats, and mice, even though they account for nearly 95% of animals used in laboratories. In addition, no federal laws protect the billions of farmed animals in the U.S. from egregious abuses on factory farms.

In these ways, the justice system does not reflect the true values of society. This is why the Animal Legal Defense Fund focuses its animal protection work exclusively on the legal system and it is essential that Animal Legal Defense Fund's critical work continue. Truly, today's state of affairs for animals is dire—and Animal Legal Defense Fund is needed to win the case against animal cruelty.