Last month in northeastern North Carolina, a district attorney, Frank R. Parrish, announced the state's first felony animal cruelty indictment. The case, which involved workers at a hog farm, was taken to a grand jury after an animal welfare group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, gave Mr. Parrish videotape that it had secretly recorded. Members of the group and their lawyers said the tape clearly showed hogs being beaten and skinned alive. The farm workers, who face sentences of up to 15 months in prison if convicted, have not yet entered pleas. Neither the farm nor Dr. Cunningham, a veterinarian, face charges.
Some lawyers say cases like the one involving the hog farm are legal milestones.
But even among animal lawyers there are sharp disagreements over strategy. Prof. Gary L. Francione, who teaches animal law at Rutgers University, said in an interview that animal lawyers should be much more aggressive than they are. For the moment, most animal lawyers are adopting a more incremental approach. The Animal Legal Defense Fund, for example, has a staff lawyer who spends her time studying precedents that could be used on behalf of animals, including the legal steps taken in the emancipation of slaves. Although there are similarities to other legal movements, the animal law movement has differences, too, some animal lawyers say.