Law Group Defends Animals in Trouble

NEW YORK —  When the plaintiffs are people and the defendants are beasts, being a lawyer can be pretty hairy--unless it’s your specialty.

For five years, Joleen Marion has been the pet set’s Perry Mason. She runs Legal Action for Animals, a Manhattan-based, nonprofit group that advises on and litigates a range of animal issues, including pet privileges, lab experimentation and malpractice lawsuits against veterinarians.

“We get about 70 calls a week from across the country on complaints about everything from experimental torture done on animals to elderly people who want to know if they can bring their cats to a nursing home,” she said.

In one instance, a New York man claimed that a beaver dam had backed up a septic tank, resulting in a foul overflow at his home.

“Unfortunately, he wanted to exterminate the creature and would have gotten a permit to do so if it weren’t for our intervention,” she said.

Marion alerted a group that specialized in beaver behavior and they were able to scare off the animal without harming it.

In another case, a student objected to experiments on marsh turtles being done at his community college. Marion investigated and the labs were closed because they weren’t registered with the state Health Department.

“I’ve always had a love for animals and a deep concern over how many of them were homeless. I eventually ended up going to law school because of it,” said Marion, who keeps two big dogs and five “loveable” cats in her Queens home.

She attended Seton Hall University Law School, where she studied environmental law. Today, she teaches animal law at Pace University.

She opened her practice in 1984, with an office in her living room. Now, she and four part-time interns--assisted by 20 volunteer attorneys on call around the country--work out of a 42nd Street office donated by United Action for Animals.

Although she has prosecuted people-animal cases, Marion says that most of the time, litigation isn’t necessary. “It’s more a matter of the law and a person’s constitutional rights,” she said.

For example, she took up the case of a high school student who refused to dissect a frog. She claimed that the student’s First Amendment rights were at issue. Ultimately, an alternate assignment was made.

Marion said there are few malpractice cases against veterinarians, but courts have become willing to grant punitive damages for emotional distress suffered by the owners of pets that died under veterinary care.

“There is very little on the books for ‘animal rights,’ but courts are very sympathetic to animal cases. Judges are beginning to realize that animals are not just inanimate objects,” said Marion.