National teachers meet on animal safety held

Hyderabad: Animal Law Centre at NALSAR University of Law at Hyderabad, in collaboration with Michigan State University College of Law (USA), conducted a three-day national teacher training on animal protection laws March 16-18.

The programme, which was supported by Humane Society International/India, was the first of its kind to train law professors on animal law.

The workshop focused on a structured and updated view of animal protection laws that participants can take back to their respective universities.

The programme saw 40 participants, which included professors and academicians from law schools and National Law Universities across the country.

The training was led by MSU Professor David Favre, HSI/India Managing Director NG Jayasimha and HSI/India Deputy Director Alokparna Sengupta.

Topics covered included Indian animal protection laws, history of animal law, international treaties and more. Participants were also given guidelines to create a pedagogy for their students.

Professor Favre said, "The MSU College of Law is very pleased to join with the Animal Law Center at NALSAR University in raising the visibility and legal focus on the issues surrounding the legal relationship between humans and animals.

This topic is now part of the curriculum in most law schools in the United States and we want to support NALSAR University in its leadership efforts to foster the creation of a community of professors who will be willing to initiate the building of animal law courses across your country."

Jayasimha said, "We are delighted to support this training program, which was viewed positively by all the participants.

The goal is that the professors in attendance will be able to go back to their universities and implement a structured methodology of teaching animal laws, which is a field of law that is growing and getting more recognition on a daily basis."

ALC is the first center in India dedicated to the study and teaching of animal welfare and animal protection.

It was established in 2016 at NASLAR University of Law in collaboration with Humane Society International/India, which has been conducting animal law sensitization workshops for the police and judicial magistrates across the country for the past five years.