Animal Law
Practice Area · 02
The law is finally catching up. Richard has been here all along.
Animal law is the rapidly emerging field that treats animals as more than property. Two decades ago, it was barely taught in law schools. Today it is a recognized discipline — and the precedent is being written, case by case.
20+
Years In Animal Law
29
States Litigated
100s
Published Matters
24/7
Richard Answers
The Field
What animal law actually is.
Animal law draws on tort, contract, criminal, constitutional, and family law in equal measure. The result is a discipline that does not behave like any other corner of the legal system — and one that responds best to attorneys who have lived inside it for years rather than weeks.
Richard has practiced animal law since before it had a name. Many of the arguments now considered standard appear first in case files where his name is on the brief.
The Practice
What animal law covers.
Orders of protection for pets
Pet-inclusive protective orders in domestic violence matters, plus litigation when those orders are tested or violated.
Emotional damages
Pushing courts past the fair-market-value standard toward recognition of the real loss when a companion animal is harmed.
BSL challenges
Constitutional and statutory challenges to breed specific legislation, including seizure cases in Wisconsin and Ohio.
All animals, not just dogs
Horses, exotic species, parrots, turtles — anywhere the law has barely begun to catch up to how families actually live.
Animal law is one of the rare legal fields where well-argued cases continue to change the law itself. Every matter widens the path for everyone who comes after.
Richard Bruce Rosenthal, Esq.
Influence
How Richard has shaped the field.
Civil rights, not property
Helped develop the framework that treats harm to animals as a civil rights matter rather than a simple property dispute.
BSL precedent
Wisconsin and Ohio seizure cases — now reference material for advocates working similar challenges in other states.
Pet trust drafting
Drafting cited in continuing legal education seminars across the country and adopted by other animal-law practitioners.
Trial-tested arguments
Positions first argued in trial courts willing to listen, then carried up on appeal where the record demands it.
Working with the next generation
Training and mentoring lawyers entering the field so the body of precedent keeps growing after any one case is closed.
The Origin
A practice built one case at a time.
Richard's animal-law practice did not begin with a thesis. It began with a single dog and a single fight that should not have been winnable. From that case forward, every argument has been refined in front of a real judge with a real animal's life on the line.
Two decades later, the body of work speaks for itself — but the discipline has not changed. Read the record. Attack the procedure. Treat the animal as the client every other lawyer in the room is forgetting.
Beyond Dogs
If the animal is part of the family, the case belongs here.
The practice is named for dogs, but the work is broader. Richard has represented horse owners against regulatory overreach, exotic-species owners caught in shifting permit regimes, and clients whose beloved animals fall into legal categories the law has barely begun to understand.
When you call, you are not being routed to an associate who handles 'the pet stuff.' You are speaking with the attorney who helped write that field into existence.
How It Moves
Animal law is a field in motion. Move with it.
Then
Property only
Animals were furniture under the law. Loss was measured in adoption fees and replacement cost. Nothing more.
Now
Recognized field
Recognized concentration in law schools, with journals, conferences, and a real body of precedent.
Trend
Emotional damages rising
Multiple states accept recovery beyond fair market value. The standard is collapsing case by case.
Next
Constitutional reach
BSL challenges and pet-inclusive protective orders are pushing the field into territory that was unthinkable ten years ago.
Act now
If your case touches animal law, it belongs with the attorney who helped build it.
Animal law cases reward early planning and aggressive procedure as much as any other field. The earlier Richard is in the matter, the more options remain on the table.
- Free initial case review
- Direct line to Richard — no gatekeepers
- 20+ years of animal-law precedent
- Representation in 29 states and counting