Rutinel discusses ballot initiatives, legislation, and state-level political strategies as powerful tools for advancing animal-rights policies.

“We don't see that reflected in our legislative process because everything related to animals goes through the ag committee.”

Transcription:

Would you mind saying your name in school before your question? Thank you for waiting. Thank you. My name is Anthony. I'm coming from FIU law too. Well, right now, first I want to shout out of course our saldiv chapter President, Yesenia and then our E word including Gavi, Victoria. And then remember Jeff, like me, I wanted to ask in relation to a lot of what y'all were talking about. So we're from Florida and this year we're going to be voting on an amendment. To constitutionalize the right to fishing and hunting.

I didn't realize until 5 minutes ago that that's already a thing in 22 other states. So I wanted to know in that regard when it comes to state either guarantees or state legislation that guarantees, you know, one would argue a certain level of exploitation of animals, how you work within that state system and alternatively, what ways you kind of work around those policies to still fight for, you know, either?

Better Treatment of Animals within that, or alternatively removing that exploitation in the first place.

I can get us started. Thanks for that. Thanks for that question, Anthony.

So first I'll I'll say that I think that some of the biggest wins that the animal movement has had has been at the state level. Like the cage free movements for instance, is the the big one that comes to mind. And these direct to voter ballot initiatives I think have been instrumental in that because what the animal rights movement does is it sort of gets some big wins like in California or Massachusetts on these confinement. Policies and then they win by like 70 to 30 or something like that, and then they can go to other states that have these direct to democracy. Opportunities and say, hey, do you really want to spend $10 million trying to oppose this thing that's ultimately going to pass 70 to 30 or can we just let this go through the legislative process and I'll give you a little extra year or two for implementation so. But clearly, like you said, it sort of can go both ways where, you know, the animal rights movement can propose policies at the ballot, but so can perhaps other groups. And I think that on net, it's a much bigger win for animals because I think the broader population is very much in favor of animal rights.

And we don't see that reflected in our legislative process because everything related to animals goes through the ag committee, which is. Dominated by even in very Democratic states. Dominated by rural Democrats that have more conservative entrenched farm interests. And so to your question about navigating these states rights issues, I'm not sure how that looks on the litigation side. All I've been able to see is the successes that we've been able to have with the Prop 12 Supreme Court case, even though it's a little murky based on the the decision. And it still leaves open the opportunity for the meat industry to come back in another way. But it seems to, it seems to be something that I think a lot of these groups are, are navigating. So curious to hear if you all have any additional thoughts. Yeah, I mean.