MinnLawyer Blog

On Friday, the Minneapolis law firm of Mansfield Tanick & Cohen sponsored a roundtable discussion on an issue that is near and dear to my heart — the no-kill animal advocacy movement.

The speaker for the hour-long event was Nathan Winograd (at right), an attorney, author and executive director of the Oakland, Calif.-based No Kill Advocacy Center, which is working to end the systematic killing of animals in U.S. shelters.

Winograd is an interesting guy. He started out his career as a criminal prosecuting attorney but also worked as a corporate attorney before finding his true passion — saving animals. His first book, “Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation & The No Kill Revolution in America” was the winner of five national book awards. He has recently released a second book, “Irreconcilable Differences,” a collection of essays that examines the question of whether we can do better as a society when it comes to our stewardship of companion animals.

During his presentation last week, Winograd pointed out that millions of healthy cats and dogs are put to death each year. He argued that this mass killing can be avoided and debunked the idea that a no-kill nation isn’t possible. The goal of the movement, according to Winograd, is to save all healthy animals, as well as those that are sick but treatable.

This was an important discussion on a topic that, judging by the number of

Pilgrim was adopted from Feline Rescue in St. Paul in January 2006.

lawyers who attended the event, many people in the legal community care about. I sincerely hope attendees were inspired to do what they can to move the conversation forward and work towards real change in this area. In fact, simply encouraging friends and family to adopt their pets from shelters rather than buy them from breeders would make a tremendous difference in this battle.

Thanks to Mansfield Tanick & Cohen for bringing an important topic to the attention of the legal community.