Curriculum VitaeBiography
Delcianna J. Winders is an associate professor of law and Director of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at VLGS. Professor Winders previously taught at Lewis & Clark Law School, where she directed the world’s first law school clinic dedicated to farmed animal advocacy. She served as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at the PETA Foundation, was the first Academic Fellow of the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Program, and was a visiting scholar at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Her primary interests are in animal law and administrative law. She has also taught animal law at Tulane University School of Law and Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.
Her work has appeared in the Denver Law Review, Florida State Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, NYU Law Review, and the Animal Law Review. Winders has also published extensively in the popular press, including The Hill, National Geographic, Newsweek, New York Daily News, Salon, U.S.A. Today, and numerous other outlets.
Winders received her BA in Legal Studies with highest honors from the University California at Santa Cruz, where she was named a Regents’ Scholar and received the Dean’s Award for outstanding achievement in Social Sciences, and her JD from NYU School of Law, where she was awarded the Vanderbilt Medal for outstanding contributions to the law school, named as a Robert McKay Scholar, and served as the Senior Notes Editor of the NYU Law Review. Following law school, Winders clerked for the Hon. Martha Craig Daughtrey on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and practiced animal law in a variety of settings.
Publications
Articles
"Accelerating Catastrophe: Slaughter Line Speeds and the Environment" (with Dani Replogle), Environmental Law (Winter 2021).
“Slaughterhouse workers, animals, and the environment: The need for a rights-centered regulatory framework that recognizes interconnected interests" (with Elan Abrell), Harvard Health and Human Rights Journal (December 2021).
“Farmed Animals Lack Legal Protections. What Needs to Change?,” Sentient Media (October 19, 2021).
“USDA’s Animal Protection Failures Show Change Is Needed,” LAW360 (August 20, 2021).
"Slaughterhouse Deregulation: A View of the Effects on Animals, Workers, Consumers, and the Environment" (with Jessica Chapman & Ingrid Seggerman), The Brief, American Bar Association (Summer 2021).
“Iowa Slaughterhouses Slated to Deregulate Are Already Failing to Properly Stun Pigs,” Des Moines Register (October 15, 2020).
“Putting Us at Risk of Another Pandemic: The USDA’s Epic Failure,” New York Daily News (July 5, 2020).
“Slaughtering Animals Is Not Essential,” New York Daily News (April 28, 2020).
“As Facilities Close for Covid-19, Stranded Animals Could Suffer,” UNDARK (April 8, 2020).
“It’s Official—The Feds Are Protecting Animal Exploiters,” Daily Caller (April 26, 2019).
“Costly USDA Proposal Would Spend More Tax Dollars and Help Animal Abusers,” Daily Caller (March 29, 2019).
"Animal Welfare Act Interaction with Other Laws," Animal Law (March 2019).
"The Animal Welfare Act at Fifty Conference at Harvard Law School," Animal Studies Journal (March 2019).
"Animal Welfare Act Enforcement," Animal Law (March 2019).
"Administrative License Renewal and Due Process—A Case Study," Florida State University Law Review (Winter 2018).
"Administrative Law Enforcement, Warnings, and Transparency," Ohio State Law Journal (December 2018).
“Self-Policing Animal Research: Another Bad Idea from USDA,” LAW360 (May 25, 2018).
“Why Is It So Hard for President Trump to Flatly Forbid Trophy Hunting Imports?,” New York Daily News (March 9, 2018).
“Year After Blackout, Public Still in the Dark about Animal Welfare Enforcement,” The Hill (February 9, 2018).
"Fulfilling the Promise of EFOIA’s Proactive Disclosure Mandate," Denver Law Review (January 2018).
“Animal Welfare Act Could Protect Animals and Taxpayers — If It’s Enforced,” U.S.A. TODAY (December 26, 2017).
“The Fish and Wildlife Service Must Atone for Tiger’s Death,” National Geographic (September 11, 2017).
“Why Is the State of Wisconsin Propping Up a Cruel and Dying Industry?,” AlterNet (August 29, 2017).
“Wild Animal Acts Are Becoming a Thing of the Past, but Some Circuses Insist on Continuing Their Cruel Ways,” AlterNet (June 26, 2017).
“Ringling’s Big Cats Need New Homes—and They Could Be Headed for a Circus Overseas,” SALON (June 11, 2017).
“USDA Blackout: Scrutinizing the Deletion of Thousands of Animal Welfare Act-Related Records,” ABA Animal Law Committee Newsletter (Summer 2017).
“Ringling Is Dead, but Other Abusive Circuses Live,” New York Daily News (May 25, 2017).
"Freedom of Information in Peril: What Transparency Looks Like in Trump’s Government," SALON (May 14, 2017).
“Why I Sued the USDA,” The Hill (February 16, 2017).
“United States: Restore Public Files on Animal Welfare,” Nature (February 15, 2017).
“Removal of Animal-Welfare Records Is Serious Blow to Accountability,” The Chronicle of Higher Education (February 7, 2017).
“Will Ringling’s Closure Clear the Way for Federal Circus Legislation?,” The Hill (January 30, 2017).
"Captive Wildlife at a Crossroads—Sanctuaries, Accreditation, and Humane-Washing," Animal Studies Journal (2017).
"Combining Reflexive Law and False Advertising Law to Standardize 'Cruelty-Free' Labeling of Cosmetics," New York University Law Review (April 2006).
"Confronting Barriers to the Courtroom for Animal Advocates," Animal Law (December 2006).
Chapters
"Farmed Animal Welfare: Improvements and Developments (North America)" (with Anne Peters, Kristen Stilt, & Saskia Stucki, eds.), in Handbook on Global Animal Law (Forthcoming 2022).
"Captive Wildlife Under the Endangered Species Act," (with Jared Goodman & Heather Rally), in Endangered Species Act (Donald C. Baur & Ya-Wei Li eds., 3d ed., Summer 2021).
Other
“Rollbacks to Federal Regulation of Pig Slaughter Finalized,” ABA Animal Law Committee Newsletter (Fall 2019).
“New Program: Animal Law Litigation Clinic,” AALS Section on Animal Law Newsletter (2019).
Presentations
“Calvin and Hobbes, and the Virtues of Animality,” moderator/chair, Oxford Animal Ethics Summer School, Merton College, Oxford (August 2023).
“Gatekeepers of Animal Journalism,” moderator/chair, Oxford Animal Ethics Summer School, Merton College, Oxford (August 2023).
“Canned Photography: Exposing and Combating Not-So-Wild Wildlife Photographs,” presenter, Oxford Animal Ethics Summer School, Merton College, Oxford (August 2023).
“Practicalities and Politics of Adding an Animal (Rights) Law Class,” presenter, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law, Law Lecturers’ Workshop in Animal Rights Law (May 2023).
“Animal Law Litigation,” presenter, Wesleyan University (April 2023).
"Introduction to the Master of Animal Protection Policy Degree,” presenter, Vermont Law and Graduate School (January 2023).
“Barn Fire Prevention and the Law: Opportunities and Challenges for Reform,” invited panelist (with Laura Fox), American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting (January 2023).
“Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Animal Law and Policy Institute,” presenter, New York University (January 2023).
“Interconnected Justice: Animal Law in the Classroom and Beyond,” moderator, American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting (January 2023).
“Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Animal Law and Policy Institute,” presenter (with Laura Fox), New York City Bar Association Animal Law Committee (December 2022).
“Hot Topics Lecture: National Pork Producers Council v. Ross,” speaker, Vermont Law and Graduate School (November 2022).
“Legal Challenge to California’s Regulation of Corporate Production Standards and Business and Human Rights Implications,” speaker, Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum (November 2022).
“Ocean Dumping and Pollution,” moderator, Vermont Journal of Environmental Law Symposium, Vermont Law and Graduate School (October 2022).
“Slaughterhouse Workers, Animals, and the Environment,” speaker, Yale Law School (October 2022).
“Rights-Based Approaches,” moderator, Environmental Scholarship Colloquium, Vermont Law and Graduate School (September 2022).
“Beyond the Law? Interrogating the Scope of Common Farming Exemptions,” paper presentation, Oxford Summer School on Animal Ethics, Oxford, United Kingdom (August 2022).
“Theoretical Foundations of Restorative Justice for Animals,” moderator, Animals and Restorative Justice Symposium, Vermont Law and Graduate School (July 2022).
“Happy Cows? Misunderstood, Under-protected, and Destroying the Environment—A Scientific and Legal Perspective,” Hot Topics, Vermont Law and Graduate School (June 2022).
“Introduction to Animal Welfare Investigations in Vermont,” law enforcement training panelist, Vermont Law and Graduate School (June 2022).
“Slaughterhouse Workers, Animals, and the Environment: The Need for a Rights-Centered Regulatory Framework in the United States That Recognizes Interconnected Interests,” speaker (with Elan Abrell), Ecological Justice and the Right to Health, Phoenix Zones Initiative (May 2022).
“Slaughterhouse Workers, Animals, and the Environment: The Need for a Rights-Centered Regulatory Framework in the United States That Recognizes Interconnected Interests,” speaker (with Elan Abrell), Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law (May 2022).
Session Speaker, “Promoting Justice Through Animal Law Clinics,” American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting (January 9, 2022).
Guest Lecturer, “Captive Wildlife and the Law,” New York University (November 15, 2021).
Panelist, “Conservation, Captive Wildlife, and Corporate Accountability,” Vermont Law Review Symposium (November 5, 2021).
Presenter, "Animal Welfare Act Implementation and Litigation," Harvard Law School (Oct. 27, 2021).
Presenter, "Proposing a Federal Slaughterhouse Oversight Commission," Just One Health ECHO, Phoenix Zones Initiative (Oct. 21, 2021).
Lecturer, “Bird Brains? Our Evolving Understanding of Chickens—and Their Lagging Legal Status,” Vermont Law School (July 29, 2021).
Panelist, “Tiger King Redux,” National Lawyers Guild NYC Animal Rights Committee (July 24, 2021).
Panelist, “Training Law Students to Litigate for Farmed Animals,” Effective Animal Advocacy Meet-up (June 19, 2021).
“Animal Welfare Enforcement Improvement Act (HR 3277),” Congressional Briefing (May 7, 2021).
Panelist, “Zoonotic Diseases and Factory Farming,” Virtual Animal Law Symposium 2021: Animals and COVID-19 (April 23, 2021).
Speaker, “COVID-19 and Slaughter Line Speeds: An Animal Welfare and Environmental Disaster,” Northern Illinois Law Review Symposium on Animals and Environmentalism (April 23, 2021).
“The Environmental and Climate Change Impacts of Factory Farming,” Denver Sturm College of Law (April 21, 2021).
Speaker, "Experiential Learning Showcase,” Lewis & Clark Law School Animal Law Litigation Clinic (April 10, 2021).
Panelist, “Creating a More Sustainable and Humane Food Supply,” Connecticut Journal of International Law Symposium (April 9, 2021).
Speaker, “The Animal Law Litigation Clinic and Careers in Animal Law,” Vermont Law School (April 5, 2021).
“Industrial Animal Slaughter,” Lewis & Clark Law School (April 1, 2021).
“Animal Slaughter Litigation,” Lewis & Clark Law School (March 31, 2021).
“Captive Wildlife Under the Endangered Species Act,” Willamette Law School (March 15, 2021).
“Slaughter and the Environment,” Environmental Law Symposium (March 13, 2021).
“Animal Law Week Clinics Spotlight,” Animal Law Litigation Clinic (March 10, 2021).
“Companion Animals and the Animal Welfare Act,” Lewis & Clark Law School (February 4, 2021).
“Protecting Workers and Animals at Slaughterhouses in the Midst of COVID-19,” American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting (January 5, 2021).
“Beyond the Law? Interrogating the Scope of Common Farming Exemptions,” Emerging Scholars Workshop in Law, Animals, and Society (December 9, 2020).
Panelist, “Elephants in Tennessee: A First-Hand Account of the Fight for Nosey’s Freedom and Legal & Ethical Issues Relating to Elephants in Captivity,” Tennessee Bar Association (December 7, 2020).
“Animal Law Litigation,” New York University (November 30, 2020).
“Challenging the De-Regulation of Slaughter,” Columbia Law School (November 17, 2020).
“Captive Wildlife Under the Endangered Species Act,” Harvard Law School (October 28, 2020).
Panelist, “Federal Program to Deregulate Slaughterhouses and Its Effects on Animals, Workers, and Consumers,” American Bar Association (October 26, 2020).
“Animal Law, Environmental Law, and Beyond,” Arizona Bar Association (October 22, 2020).
“Animal Law Litigation and the Animal Welfare Act,” George Washington University Law School (October 8, 2020).
Panelist, “COVID-19 and the Slaughterhouse Industry,” Duke University Law School (October 5, 2020).