At the bitter end of the Monkey Selfie case, I pointed out that the “animals are people” genre of animal rights litigation isn’t just a feel-good resume builder for bright 2Ls in the animal rights clinic. It has real victims. In the Monkey Selfie case, the victim was David Slater, the photographer, who went broke […]

The Monkey Selfie case has come to a depressing and cynical end. The case had to do with a photograph of an Indonesian monkey. David Slater, a professional photographer, set up a camera on a tripod in the monkey’s habitat and left the camera’s remote trigger near the camera. One monkey, Naruto, picked up the […]

When I was a law clerk, a lawyer filed a civil rights action in my judge’s court (the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio) against an Ohio municipality, several police officers, and Lieutenant Bars. When I read the complaint, I was momentarily confused. Who was Lieutenant Bars? Why, the police dog, of […]