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2008 Animal L. Comm. Newsl. 1 (2008)

handle is hein.journals/anilawcn2008 and id is 1 raw text is: Spring 2008 Animal Law Committee ANIMALS AND BIOENGINEERING CONFERENCE AT DUKE: AN OPEN DIALOGUE ON SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION AND ANIMAL ADVOCACY Jane Graham Six months ago, I would have never imagined being in the same room as scientists and bioethicists, Gilda Mariani, Chair of the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section Animal Law Committee, stated, as she opened the conference Animals and Bioengineering: A Consideration of Law, Ethics, and Science at Duke University School of Law. The first of its kind, this conference, last November, engaged the speakers and audience in a calm and informed dialogue on the issues of ethics, bioengineering, and cloning. It was a motley audience, composed of animal rights activists, scien- tists, government regulators, and a Canadian Supreme Court Justice, among others. One might have expected a riot to break loose due to the variety of opposing viewpoints in the room. On the contrary; conference attendees cordially exchanged viewpoints and business cards, forging relationships spanning across their fields of expertise. The curiosity of scientific innovations and the love of animals were mutual. The conference started with a panel about the legal history on the subject. Betty Goldentyer, the Eastern Regional Director of the Animal Care Program of the USDA, traced the history of the Animal Welfare Act from its inception in 1965 to present day, including such issues as the 2002 Helms Amendment. The Helms Amendment has been of concern to animal activists recently because it excludes birds, rats and mice from Continued on page 35