New Zealand Animal Law Association

Improving the welfare and lives of animals through the legal system.

Auckland

The New Zealand Animal Law Association works to improve the welfare and lives of animals in New Zealand through the legal system. We are an organisation of nearly 500 lawyers, law students and law graduates that has grown dramatically since we were founded in 2014. We use our legal skills to assist animal rescues and other charities by linking them to lawyers who provide free legal advice to the organisations. We also encourage the development of animal law within the New Zealand legal profession, and encourage lawyers to consider their practice areas through an animal focussed lens.

NZALA's recent activities include:

- commencing judicial review proceedings in partnership with SAFE, challenging the legality of the use of farrowing crates in New Zealand

- commencing a private prosecution against a rodeo cowboy who electrically shocked calves at a rodeo event

- commissioning a 100-page report detailing inconsistencies between the Animal Welfare Act and the Code of Welfare for Rodeos

- offering seminars in Auckland and Wellington on the link between domestic violence and animal abuse. The seminars featured litigators, social workers and police prosecutors.

- offering a seminar in Auckland on the use of the Fair Trading Act to reinforce animal welfare standards, particularly egg labelling and the "pigcare" label

- hosting the inaugural New Zealand Animal Law Conference in 2016, with keynote addresses from Hon Michael Kirby and Dame Jane Goodall, and papers on animal sentience, personhood and prosecutions for animal related offences

- submitting to central government agencies on a range of animal welfare issues

- assisting SPCA in reviewing prosecution files

As New Zealand's only legally focused animal charity, your donation will be greatly appreciated as we continue our work.

If you want your donation to be allocated to the farrowing crates judicial review, please include "judicial review" in your comments!

More about us

The New Zealand Animal Law Association is a new coalition of lawyers working to improve the welfare and lives of animals through the legal system. We currently have nearly 500 lawyers and law students throughout the country signed up, from Whangarei to Timaru, spanning various practice areas, including lawyers working for large commercial law firms, criminal and civil litigators, in-house counsel, lawyers working for government and the judiciary, and even a Queens Counsel. The Association also has a number of honorary patrons, including the Honourable Michael Kirby AC CMG Australia.