Speaking up for animals

"All people should treat animals like kin rather than property or commodities, as someone instead of something. I believe that this is the way forward for humans, respecting all animals as sentient beings,” declared Veeda Victoria Shroff, one of Canada’s longest-serving animal lawyers. Her new book, Canadian Animal Law, was published by LexisNexis in September 2021.
"How we treat animals is an important yardstick for how we behave as people,” believes the pioneer animal law practitioner and educator whose book has been accepted as an engaging read by a wide audience, from law students and lawyers, to animal rights activists and members of the general public. Shroff draws on her more than 20 years of experience in the animal law field to provide commentary and analysis of the main issues in animal law, and how these intersect with mainstream practice areas, including family law, criminal law, housing, wills and estates, environmental law and professional liability. The book includes chapters dedicated to international animal law, wildlife law and animals in research and science.
Shroff has appeared at all levels of court in British Columbia (BC) and is known for her role in BC’s first landmark "dangerous” dog case. Despite death penalty being outlawed in Canada since 1976, Punky, a four-year-old Australian cattle dog who had bitten a woman in an off-leash area, was declared a dangerous dog by three different courts and ordered to be destroyed. Shroff fought for Punky and in the summer of 2019 was granted an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, the first animal-related case to be heard in Canada’s highest court. Unfortunately, Punky lost his bid for clemency last year and was euthanized a week later.
Taking good-natured jibes like "Who let the dogs out?” in her stride, Shroff remains committed to her goal of obtaining justice for all animals saying, "Maybe one day, there will be a Punky’s law where we have done away with the death penalty for dogs.”
In recognition of her contributions as an animal lawyer-educator, Shroff has been a finalist for the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada in 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018; was honored with a prestigious SEEDS award by the International Society of Animal Rights, among other distinctions; has featured in a wildlife documentary and is often called upon by major media to provide her opinion on animal law issues.

Above: Veeda Victoria Shroff (r) strikes a pose like Pestonjee Cassod (l); (top) representing animals

An alumna of the University of British Columbia from where she earned her BA with honors and an LLB, she started teaching animal law at the University’s Allard School of Law in 2016, and has also created and taught the first animal law course for paralegals at Capilano University in 2019 where she is a faculty member in the School of Legal Studies. In 2020, the lawyer helped spearhead Canada’s first Animal Law Pro Bono Clinic. She also established, and chairs, the national Canadian Animal Law Study Group. Particularly popular is the animal law and social literacy program in elementary schools that she initiated called "Paws of Empathy” where she teaches with a trained dog as her co-instructor.
"Foundational Zoroastrian tenets inform the course of my life and career as a pioneering practitioner of animal law in Canada… Cliched as it may seem, good thoughts, good words, good deeds are my guiding ethos and touchstone,” remarked Shroff. She tries to "get as involved as possible with the Zoroastrian Society of British Columbia, time permitting. I’m really interested in the background stories of members.”
Shroff’s story begins in Africa where she was born, not far from the Serengeti National Park with its wondrous animals. In her email exchanges with Parsiana Shroff related how her family has "always had animals in their home, mostly dogs and cats but I have also fostered birds and rabbits. Each animal has been a treasured furry family member with his/her own quirks and personalities. I started my first cat club when I was five years old.” As a pre-teen, she canvassed her North Shore neighborhood with a petition to ban gruesome leg-hold traps which are still legal today.
"From a young age, I knew I would become a lawyer, following in the footsteps paved by my great-grandfather Pestonjee Ruttonjee Eduljee Cassod who was in the legal profession, and by my barrister father, Hoshang Shroff, Queen’s Counsel,” she stated. Since 1997 she has been practicing at her father’s Vancouver firm Shroff & Associates also know as Shroff Animal Law. This "perfectly married my love of law and my lifelong love of animals… My beloved father, mother Rani who holds a Masters in Social Work and I have always enjoyed a very close and caring relationship.” Now married, Shroff lives with her husband, son and pets in Vancouver.
She takes pride in the accomplishments of her "sparky” great-grandfather, both of them being born on the same day in September, nearly 100 years apart. "Great Grandpa wanted to name me Victoria but Dad railed at Imperialism. In the end Victoria became my middle name,” she revealed. Sharing a write-up and photograph of her great-grandfather that appeared in Parsi Lustre on Indian Soil, Volume II, she tried to adopt his stance and look by posing for a similar photograph alongside. "Fortunately court robes have not changed,” she pointed out.
As related in Parsi Lustre, Cassod (1880-1975) had earned the rare distinction of half a dozen practicing Sanads that entitled him to practice law in Burma, Surat, Navsari, Aden, Bombay and Nairobi. Winning many civil and criminal cases, he was popular among the judges for his lucid, humorous and logical arguments. Starting his career in the commercial field at the age of 18 on completing his matriculation examination from the University of Bombay, he had opportunities to travel throughout India, Arabia, Ceylon, Penang, Singapore, China, Japan, Burma, ultimately choosing to settle down with his family in Rangoon where he was general manager of the Continental Commercial Corporation and appointed secretary of the Rangoon Commercial Association. He started his legal career at the age of 47 after passing the District Pleadership examination held by the High Court of Rangoon. When he was in Nairobi, he was appointed Commissioner for Oaths for Kenya in the year 1958.
Cassod’s four sons, Dhunjisha, Jal, Kekhushro and Jamshed were all engineers, two being civil engineers, and the other two, mechanical and electrical engineers. His three accomplished daughters were Allamai Shroff living in Karachi, Banamai Shapoorjee in Johannesburg and Manijeh Mody in Bombay. Generous and charitable by nature, he rendered free legal service to the poor and deserving, published thousands of prayer books for free distribution among the Parsis, financed the navjotes of several poor Parsis, distributed silver Zoroaster medals to school children and religious minded brethren. His munificence extended to Chikhli in Surat district where he had built a well and tank, and to Dharwar where he gifted an iron gate for the burial ground.
An eloquent speaker, writer and poet, he was knowledgeable on philosophy, religion and literature and has been given credit for starting and popularizing the Burma Exchange Gazette, an English daily started in 1922.