Who speaks for the animals?

“I believe that if we’re going to find a way to co-exist and not just kill those animals and species that are in our way, we really have to go back and look at zoning.”

Michael Harris is a former DU Sturm College of Law professor who 2 years ago helped found the Wildlife Law Program, part of the larger advocacy group “Friends of Animals.” Harris says that the way our current laws are written has helped to cause some of the conflict we’ve seen between human development and the rights of wild animals.

Harris says that there is an array of local, state, federal and international environmental laws that can serve as a means to protect the rights of animals to live free from human interference. He adds that while environmental activists often utilize these laws, they do so to achieve broad environmental objectives that may not always protect the rights of free-living animals. The Wildlife Law Project utilizes the law for a singular purpose: to ensure the right of all wildlife to live in an ecosystem free from human manipulation, exploitation, or abuse.