John J. Ensminger

John J. Ensminger is an American attorney and a national consultant on legal issues involving skilled dogs and their handlers. He is author of numerous books on service dogs and associated issues, and editor of The Complete Book of Dogs.

Education
Ensminger graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where as an honors student in Zoology, he engaged in research on the 19th (1968) voyage of the Stanford research vessel Te Vega, studying parasitic infestation of Pacific krill; he earned his JD and LLM degrees from Hastings College of the Law and New York University School of Law, respectively, practices law in New York and is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court. He was chair of the Banking and Savings Institutions Committee of the American Bar Association Tax Section and was on the adjunct faculty of the Peter J. Tobin College of Business at St. John's University (New York), where he taught the taxation of complex structured finance transactions and derivatives. Ensminger reports on legal and scientific developments concerning dogs, service dogs, police dogs, and military dogs on his Dog Law Reporter blog.

Taxation and Finance
From 2004 to 2007, Ensminger taught financial products and institutions, money laundering, and tax crimes as Adjunct Professor, Peter J. Tobin College of Business. He was also Chair, Banking & Savings Institutions Committee of the American Bar Association Tax Section and Editor-in-Chief; 2000-2009, Journal of Taxation and Regulation of Financial Institutions. During this time he also founded Delta Hedge Consulting and wrote chapter 7 Derivatives in the (Tax-Conscious) Charitable World for Frank J. Fabozzi's book: The Use of Derivatives in Tax Planning. Before the 2008 financial crisis Kawaller and Ensminger wrote: The Fallout from FAS 133 which is cited by Arewa, O.B. In his Risky Business: The Credit Crisis and Failure (PART I)

He has contributed to several journals over the years with regard to the general area of derivatives two of which are: the Journal of Corporate Taxation. and Tax Notes. Combining his interest in taxation and his interest in service dogs he shows how to deduct the cost of service dogs for the mentally disabled.

Authorship
Ensminger's book about service and therapy dogs is reviewed by Amy Fernandez in Dog World and by Altina Wickstrom, DVM, CCRT in The Canadian Veterinary Journal, "This groundbreaking book begins with a fascinating discussion of the domestication of dogs." The laws regarding criminal interference with service animals vary from state to state, county to county and fines and ranges of imprisonment vary from misdemeanor to felony.

Ensminger's book: Police and Military Dogs; Criminal Detection, Forensic Evidence, and Judicial Admissibility provides both an analysis of the biology and training of such dogs with a 42 page annotated appendix of case histories and legal restrictions concerning the use of police dogs and military dogs. Cited in Library of the Marine Corps IED/CIED Research Guide: "canine biology and behavior...including...sniffs of transportation facilities, explosives, cadavers...".

Works

 * -with three chapters coauthored by Tadeusz Jezierski
 * Editor,
 * -Editor