Character witness. Changing Perceptions
| Author | Marc M. Howard |
| Pages | 14-15 |
teractive sessions on how to
create compelling content
and how to make treats
for your pet.
How did the
pandemic aff ect the
Dog Agency?
In the beginning, everything
came to a screeching halt.
A lot of what we do involves
branded content, which our in uencers
create and push out via their social me-
dia channels. When COVID hit, brands
didn’t want to come off as insensitive,
so they put their marketing campaigns
on hold. I wouldn’t say it’s back to
business as usual , it’s more like business
as different. Brands and in uencers feel
comfortable making branded content
again, but it’s made with a sensitivity
for this moment in time. But there was
one silver lining: In mid-March [2020],
a publisher reached out to me about
writing a book, which is something I’d
always wanted to do but never previ-
ously had the time to do.
That’s amazing! So did you write
a book?
Yes! It comes out Sept. 21, and it’s
called How to Make Your Dog
#Famous: A Guide to Social
Media and Beyond . It’s about
how to create a successful
social presence for your pup
and how to make sure your dog
has its best life. The book has
two parts: “The Road to Fame”
and pro les of dog
in uencers from around the
world centered around a tip.
It’s also full of adorable
photos, of course!
You lost Chloe in
2017. Tell me about
your decision to
continue her Instagram
account.
A lot of bulldogs get soft palate
surgery to make it easier for them to
breathe. Chloe had the surgery, it went
well, and then she went to a facility
for overnight observation as an abun-
dance of caution. However, they didn’t
calibrate the oxygen before attaching it
to her, and she was killed. Through that
experience, I learned that under the law,
pets are categorized as property, which
results in them lacking fundamental le-
gal protections. I’ve been working with
the Animal Legal Defense Fund to raise
awareness, push for change and collect
donations to support the work they
do. I got a new Frenchie named Emma
to help me heal, and I’ve been posting
her on Chloe’s page to both share her
with the community Chloe and I built
and to keep pushing for change in
Chloe’s honor. Q
teractive sessions on how to
create compelling content
and how to make treats
for your pet.
How did the
pandemic aff ect the
Dog Agency?
In the beginning, everything
came to a screeching halt.
A lot of what we do involves
branded content, which our in uencers
create and push out via their social me-
dia channels. When COVID hit, brands
didn’t want to come off as insensitive,
so they put their marketing campaigns
on hold. I wouldn’t say it’s back to
business as usual , it’s more like business
as different. Brands and in uencers feel
comfortable making branded content
again, but it’s made with a sensitivity
for this moment in time. But there was
one silver lining: In mid-March [2020],
a publisher reached out to me about
writing a book, which is something I’d
always wanted to do but never previ-
ously had the time to do.
That’s amazing! So did you write
a book?
Yes! It comes out Sept. 21, and it’s
in uencers from around the
world centered around a tip.
It’s also full of adorable
photos, of course!
You lost Chloe in
2017. Tell me about
your decision to
continue her Instagram
account.
A lot of bulldogs get soft palate
surgery to make it easier for them to
breathe. Chloe had the surgery, it went
well, and then she went to a facility
for overnight observation as an abun-
dance of caution. However, they didn’t
calibrate the oxygen before attaching it
to her, and she was killed. Through that
experience, I learned that under the law,
pets are categorized as property, which
results in them lacking fundamental le-
gal protections. I’ve been working with
the Animal Legal Defense Fund to raise
awareness, push for change and collect
donations to support the work they
do. I got a new Frenchie named Emma
to help me heal, and I’ve been posting
her on Chloe’s page to both share her
with the community Chloe and I built
and to keep pushing for change in
Chloe’s honor
Q
CHARACTER WITNESS
Changing
Perceptions
Professor’s justice project aims
to humanize those behind bars
BY MARC M. HOWARD
Character Witness explores legal and
societal issues through the rst-person
lens of attorneys in the trenches who
are, inter alia, on a mission to defend
liberty and pursue justice.
I
entered the classroom and walked
past a mass of muscle-bound and
tattooed bodies, all wearing blue
and gray uniforms. The light tan
cinder block walls were barren, the dry-
erase board had no working markers or
erasers, and the stackable plastic chairs
were spread out in all directions.
This setting was quite a change from
Georgetown University’s ornate build-
ings, high-tech classrooms and preppy
undergraduates.
My students peered back at me, as
if sizing me up and trying to gure me
out. I knew that for them, the open
space of a drab classroom was in nitely
better than where they spent most of
their nonclass time: in a 6-by-8-foot cell
shared with another man.
I wasn’t a newcomer to the prison
environment. I’d been familiar with
several prison visiting rooms over the
course of the 17-year wrongful incar-
ceration of my childhood friend, Marty
Tankleff , and we had discussed prison
life at length over the years since his
exoneration in 2007. I also taught a
course at Georgetown called “Prisons
and Punishment,” the highlight of
which included tours of several local
facilities. And I’d had the surreal expe-
rience of playing tennis with the “inside
team” at San Quentin State Prison in
California, which I wrote about for
Sports Illustrated . But those were all
short visits in controlled settings.
HAMMING IT UP: Loni
Edwards with Hamlet
the Piggy at PetCon.
ABA JOURNAL | APRIL–MAY 2021
14
Inter Alia | CHARACTER WITNESS
Photos courtesy of Loni Edwards
ABAJ AP -MAY rA PM
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