CALS honors Congressman Earl Blumenauer with Animal Law Achievement Award

The Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) announced Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) as the inaugural Animal Law Achievement Award Recipient. The award recognizes achievements in the field of animal law, including the creation, enforcement and skillful litigation of animal protection laws. Congressman Blumenauer is an alum of both Lewis & Clark College and Lewis & Clark Law School and a national leader in food policy.

Blumenauer has sponsored and cosponsored bills to improve the lives of farm animals, companion animals, research animals and wild animals. He also co-chairs the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus along with Representative Vern Buchanan (R-FL), working across the aisle to protect animals.

At the intersection of food law and animal law, Blumenauer has been working to improve the lives of animals raised for human consumption and reduce the negative impacts that animal agriculture has on the environment.

Blumenauer is passionate about Farm Bill reform, calling it “the most important bill that most Americans have never heard of.” He has been working to make the next Farm Bill more visionary, equitable and cost-effective by fostering innovation in our food system, encouraging sound conservation practices and outcomes, and ensuring access to healthy foods for all Americans. These priorities can be found in H.R. 4425, the Food and Farm Act, which Blumenauer introduced in November 2017.

Blumenauer is a national leader in the effort to ban animal fighting, including the introduction of the Animal Fighting Enforcement Prohibition Act of 2007. He is also committed to wildlife conservation. To this end, the congressman was chief petitioner on Oregon’s Measure 100 in 2016, which successfully banned the sale of parts of 12 critically endangered species around the world—ensuring that Oregon does not provide a market for endangered species products resulting from wildlife poaching and trafficking.

His commitment to animal protection stems from his belief that “the way we treat animals reflects the values … we hold, and has a large impact on the livability and vitality of our communities.”