Joyce Tischler (vegan): A Trailblazer for Animal-People Law, Part 2 of 2

For more than four decades, Professor Tischler has worked nonstop to protect animal-people through the legal system. From its humble beginnings, the Animal Legal Defense Fund has grown, and now has more than 300,000 members and supporters. Professor Tischler explains why the interest in animal-people law has increased so rapidly. “One of the big changes is that our society is changing how it views animals. And it's not just Americans. I've been to China several times and I see how that society is changing. It's happened in Europe.”

In 2008, through collaborations between the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) and the Lewis & Clark Law School, the Center for Animal Law School (CALS) was founded. Professor Tischler later joined to help educate the next generation of animal-people lawyers. “The field of animal law has grown from nothing to something that is now happening throughout the world. There are lawyers in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Australia, New Zealand. Everywhere that there are animals, there are now lawyers who are protecting animals.”

“I have faith that we will be in a world where animals have rights someday. I look forward to a world in which we don't eat them, we don't torture them, we don't use them, exploit them, where we allow them to be who they are. A vegan cruelty-free world in which our brethren, and our brethren are the animals, have lives that are meaningful to them. And, they're no longer controlled or tortured or killed by us.”

Supreme Master Ching Hai frequently reminds us that the only way to truly protect the lives of all animal-people is through a global shift to the vegan lifestyle. She encourages leaders to implement worldwide vegan laws, banning slaughter and meat consumption. “So, I think the governments of these countries who advocate for animal-people laws and protections are very, very good already. Maybe one day they will ban altogether any form of torture or killing of any kind, then it would be perfect. I would give that country hundreds of Shining World Leadership Awards for Compassion, for Love, for Wisdom, for Hero, for whatever, the best. And I hope other countries also follow suit, to make more laws to protect the weak and innocent, as well as to implement it, to practice it.”