Delcianna Winders is an associate professor of law and the director of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at Vermont Law and Graduate School.
Latest by this author
Ringling Bros. has stopped using animals, but hundreds of elephants still languish at circuses and zoos.
Delcianna (Delci) Winders is Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at Vermont Law and Graduate School, which trains tomorrow’s animal advocacy leaders, serves as a resource hub, and centers animals in the fight for environmental protection. She has practiced, taught, and published in animal law for many years in a variety of settings. Captive wildlife—and captive elephants in particular—is one of her core areas of expertise. You can follow her on Bluesky, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.
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Animal Welfare Act: Enforcement
Co-authors: Varu Chilakamarri | Animal Law Review | March | 2019
Delcianna Winders discusses the Animal Welfare Act and how the United States Department of Agriculture enforces it. She also provides a critique of the USDA’s enforcement of the AWA, with particular attention to its heavy reliance on warnings and discounted penalties, which in many cases fail to deter regulated entities from violating the AWA. Varu Chilakamarri discusses how animal welfare issues are incorporated into the work of the Department of Justice (DOJ). She provides an overview of the AWA, noting the specific sections that provide for federal court review. Chilakamarri also discusses some of the programmatic steps the DOJ has taken within the past few years to make animal welfare a larger priority.
Co-authors: Kelli Bender | People | May | 2018
In the first lawsuit brought by a horse, Justice the horse is represented by the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Delcianna Winters originated the legal theory underpinning the lawsuit.
The Latest in the USDA’s Ongoing Attempts to Stymie Transparency
Salon | May | 2017
In the early 2000s, Congress amended the Freedom of Information Act to require agencies to proactively post frequently requested records online. Pursuant to this amendment, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service began posting records online related to its enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), the country’s most significant animal protection law.
Then, in a much-publicized move in 2017, and in contravention of the FIOA, the agency abruptly took all of these records down from its website.
New York University Law Review | April | 2006
“Cruelty-free” labeling claims are presently unregulated, resulting in market failure. Consumers make purchasing decisions with incomplete and misleading information and are therefore unable to encourage manufacturers to follow consumer preferences and alter their animal testing practices. Building on scholarship in reflexive law, this Note outlines a strategy for remedying the proliferation of misleading “cruelty-free” claims through standardization. Winders argues that standardization can most effectively and efficiently be achieved through a voluntary, third-party certification program that sets a labeling standard and then monitors labeling claims, buttressed by traditional false advertising law.
Media by this author
Feature | April | 2024
The Animal Welfare Act covers animals used for exhibition—zoos, circuses, marine parks, movies, even social media. But the act’s standards are outdated and inadequate. Primates are kept in solitary confinement. Bears are confined in concrete pits, their babies taken away for cub-petting operations. As a result, state and local laws, as well as other federal laws, particularly the Endangered Species Act, are important auxiliary tools for those concerned about animals exploited for entertainment. This presentation details how the AWA governs animal exhibition, and the tools deployed by advocates to make up for the act’s shortcomings.
Feature | June | 2023
This overview of the Animal Welfare Act, the primary federal U.S. animal protection statute, provides a history of the law, discusses which animals it does—and does not—cover, explains how the law is implemented, critiques enforcement, addresses the importance of transparency, and proposes recommendations aimed at fulfilling the mandate that Congress put in place more than a half century ago: ensuring the humane care and treatment of animals.
Interview | June | 2019
Delcianna Winders is an animal law attorney, scholar, and professor. At the Lewis and Clark Law School for Animal Studies she leads the newly formed animal law litigation clinic focused on the legal protections and rights of farmed animals. This is the nation’s first-ever clinic focused exclusively on animal law litigation, and with its creation, Lewis & Clark Law School became the first law school in the world to host two separate clinics devoted to animal law.
