Game Show Host Creates Law School Endowments to Further Animal Rights

Bob Barker, the longtime host of the television game show The Price Is Right, has established endowments of $1 million each at a number of law schools — including Stanford, Columbia, Duke, and UCLA — for the study of animal-rights law, the New York Times reports.

According to Barker, 81, the goal is to train a generation of lawyers, judges, and legislators in animal rights and the widespread problems of cruelty and neglect. "The laws are not stringent enough and, unfortunately, the laws that we do have are not necessarily enforced," Barker told the Times. "The most important thing we can do is to change legislation involving animals, and these young people will be in a position to do exactly that. So if the money I invest in this serves to do that, I think it's money well spent."

Columbia University law school spokesman Jim Fox said the gift from the former game-show host would fund an animal-rights course, while officials at Duke indicated that they plan to use their gift to establish the North Carolina Animal Cruelty Project to monitor compliance with the state's animal cruelty laws and help litigate cruelty cases.

Barton H. Thompson, a law professor at Stanford, said the Barker gift "permits us to look at animal rights issues in a broader sort of way." Animal rights, he added, is "a relatively young area, so not a lot has been written in the legal field about it. Bob Barker's gift is quite timely. This is an emerging area, so his gift can help speed up development of the field."

Madigan, Nick. “Enlisting Law Schools in Campaign for Animals.” New York Times 11/27/04.

Primary Subject: Animal Welfare
Secondary Subject(s): Education, Higher Education
Location(s): California, Durham, Los Angeles, New York, New York City, North Carolina, Stanford

FC007254