Winners
Winning articles in the student writing competition are published every year in Laws and Paws, the publication of the Committee on Animals and the Law, available on this webpage under Publications.
2022
First place – Christian Suarez, student at UCLA School of Law. Suarez received $500 for his winning paper entitled “Decolonizing Captivity: ‘Repatriation and Reconciliation’ for Corky the Orca.”
Second place – Vanessa Beane, student at Vermont Law School. Beane received $250 for her winning paper entitled “The Big Cat Public Safety Act: Why the Legacy Clause Needs to be Amended.”
Third place – Bailey Soderberg, student at Vermont Law School. Soderberg received a certificate of recognition for her paper entitled “Sealing the Deal: Continuing Protections for Cape Cod’s Seal Population Post-MMPA.”
2021
First place – Andrew Kim, student at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Kim received $500 for his winning paper entitled “Animals as Copyright Holders: Discovering Rights for the Artistic Animal.”
Second place – Kai Mindick, student at Cornell Law School. Mindick received $250 for her winning paper entitled “Law and De-extinction: How the Current Legal Landscape Inadequately Considers the Revival of Extinct Species.”
Third place – Áine Dillon, student at Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Dillon received a certificate of recognition for her paper entitled “Human Pandemics Can Kill Animals Too.”
2020
No competition in 2020.
2019
First place – Amanda McAree, student at George Washington University Law School. McAree received $1,000 for her winning paper entitled “Local Ballot Initiative: Sowing the Seeds to Free the Sow from her Cage.”
Second place – Caitlin M. Ens, student at Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Ens received $500 for her winning paper entitled “Finding a Middle Ground: Can We Maximize the Welfare of Captive Animals Without Abolishing Zoos and Aquariums?”
Third place – Brennan Foy, student at University of Tennessee College of Law. Foy received a certificate of recognition for his paper entitled “Animal Welfare and India’s Constitution: A Blueprint for the United States and the World.”
2018
First place – Katherine E. Wenner, student at Wake Forest University School of Law. Wenner received $1,000 for her winning paper entitled “Pulling the Wool Over Our Eyes: How Inconsistent and Misleading Voluntary Animal Welfare Food Labels are Failing Consumers and Animals.”
Second place – Alexandra Monson, student at Emory University School of Law. Monson received $500 for her winning paper entitled “A Case for Animal Welfare Act (AWA) Regulation of Captive Hunt Facilities.”
Third place – Mahalia Kahsay, student at University of Michigan. Kahsay received a certificate of recognition for her paper entitled “Steaks, Syringes, and Silence: How Freedom of Speech and Expression Restrictions Keep Animal Abuses Hidden and Stifle Animal Welfare Activism in Europe and the United States.”.
2017
First place – Allison K. Athens, student at University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Athens received $1,000 for her winning paper entitled “Stepping up for Horses: In the Absence of Strong Federal Regulations, Can California End Institutionalized Abuse?”
Second place – Ann Linder, student of Stanford law School. Linder received $500 for her winning paper entitled “The Black Man’s Dog: The Social Context of Breed Specific Legislation.”
2016
First place – Laura Beth Jackson, student at Emory University School of Law. Jackson received $1,000 for her winning paper entitled “Giant Injustice: The Illegality of Elephants in Captivity.”
Second place – Erin Brady, student at University of Texas School of Law. Brady received $500 for her winning paper entitled “Fearsome and Fragile: The Paradox Challenging Shark Conservation Law.”
2015
First place – Ann Linder, student at Stanford Law School. Linder received $1,000 for her winning paper entitled “Mens Rea and McKittrick: The Unraveling of the Endangered Species Act.”
Second place – Sarah Lukas, student at Southern Illinois University School of Law. Lukas received $500.for her winning paper entitled “Punish the Deed, Not the Breed.”
2014
First place – Alison Jane Trejo, student at Nova Southeastern University Broad Law Center. Trejo received $1,000 for her winning paper entitled “Killer Soup: The Brutality of Shark Finning and the Wildly Profitable Shark Fin Industry.”
Second place – Heidi Mehaffey, student at Nova Southeastern University Broad Law Center. Mehaffey received $500 for her winning paper entitled “A Comparative Analysis of United States and European Farming Standards: How the U.S. Grossly Disregards the Quality of Life of Farm Pigs and the Need for Amended USDA Federal Guidelines.”
2013
First place – Kristina Fretwell, student at California Western School of Law, expected graduation December 2013. Fretwell received $1,000 for her winning paper entitled “Death by Dog Food: A Critical Examination of Pet Food Regulation in the United States.”
Second place – Larissa Liebmann, May 2013 graduate of the American University Washington College of Law. Liebmann received $500 for her winning paper entitled “Fraud And First Amendment Protections Of False Speech: How U.S. V. Alvarez Impacts Constitutional Challenges To Ag-Gag Laws.”
2012
First place – Nicole Pakiz, student at Vermont Law School, graduation expected in 2012. Pakiz received $1,000 for her winning paper entitled “Why The ALI Should Redraft The Animal-Cruelty Provision Of The Model Penal Code.”
Second place – Caitlin Giaimo, student at Columbia Law School, expected graduation in May 2013. Giaimo received $500 for her winning paper entitled “Caged Speech: The Agricultural Industry’s Gag Legislation And Its Implications For Investigative Journalism.”
2011
First place – Véronique Jarrell-King, student at Vermont Law School, graduation expected in 2012. Jarrell-King received $1,000 for her winning paper entitled “Wildlife, Water Quality And The Public Trust Doctrine: A Means Of Enforcing Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution Management Plans.”
Second place – Tabitha Nicole Mitchell, student at University of Maryland School of Law, graduation expected in 2011. Mitchell received $500 for her winning paper entitled “Cage-Free, Free-Range, Organic? Why Animal Welfare Depends On A New Government Labeling Scheme.”
2010
First place – Lesley Peterson, student at Brooklyn Law School, graduation expected in 2011. Peterson received $1,000 for her winning paper entitled “Talkin’ Bout A Humane Revolution: New Standards For Farming Practices And How They Could Change International Trade As We Know It.”
Second place – Dana Marie Pannella, student at Case Western University School of Law, graduation expected in 2011. Pannella received $500 for her winning paper entitled “Animals Are Property: The Violation of Soldiers’ Rights to Strays in Iraq.”
2009
First place – Allison L. Westfahl Kong, student at New York University Law School, graduation expected in 2010. Kong received $1,000 for her winning paper entitled “Improving the Protection of Species Endangered in the United States by Means of a Revision of the Distinct Population Segment (DPS) Policy.”
Second place – Andra Waniek, recent graduate of Brooklyn Law School. Waniek received $500 for her winning paper entitled “Protecting Woman’s Best Friend from Family Violence: Proposal for a Model Statute Including Animals in Protective Orders.”
2008
First place – Laurel McNeill, student at Hofstra University School of Law, graduation expected in 2010. McNeill received $500 for her winning paper entitled “Giant Steps: The African Elephant and the United States’ Effect on The Survival of The Species.”
Second place – Rachel Wechsler, student at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, graduation expected in 2009. Wechsler received a certificate of recognition for her paper entitled “Blood on the Hands of the Federal Government: Affirmative Steps It Has Taken That Promote Animal Cruelty.”
Third place – Deborah Dubow Press, student at Cornell Law School, graduation expected in 2009. Press received a certificate of recognition for her paper.