Animal Law Commons^™

Federal Funding Statutes And State-Federal Wildlife Authority: Did Congress Demonstrate A Preference For State Wildlife Management Authority With Pittman-Robertson And Dingell-Johnson?, James Vaughan Branch

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 now known as Pittman-Robertson and Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act of 1950 now known as Dingell-Johnson are federal statutes which stand as the original and perhaps most significant federal funding statutes supporting state wildlife conservation and management. Congress’s decision to pass these statutes may be argued to be a prima facie endorsement of state wildlife agencies (SWA) as the primary managers of wildlife since each statute dedicated substantial federal excise revenue to SWAs. We hypothesized we would find consistent evidence in favor of primary state management authority over wildlife. …

Animal Sentience Science And Policy, Andrew Crump

Animal Sentience

Animal sentience research cannot be divorced from its ethical and political implications. For example, discovering which animals are sentient is vital for deciding which require welfare protection. Two legal case-studies illustrate the importance of scientists in such debates: the UK Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 had input from animal sentience researchers, whereas the US Animal Welfare Act 1966 did not. The former defined sentient animals much more plausibly than the latter. I accordingly argue that sentience researchers should inform policy, and that this is achievable without sacrificing scientific integrity.

Legal Recognition Of Animal Sentience: The Case For Cautious Optimism, Jane Kotzmann

Animal Sentience

Rowan et al.’s target article provides a valuable indication of the work that was required to reach the point where animals are recognised as sentient in various laws. To ensure this work was not in vain, the language of sentience needs to be used as a moral currency to demand further cultural change involving greater human respect for animals.

Motivated Science: What Humans Gain From Denying Animal Sentience, Uri Lifshin

Animal Sentience

Resistance to the idea that non-human animals are sentient resembles erstwhile resistance to the theory that the earth is not the centre of the universe, or that humans evolved from “apes”. All these notions are psychologically threatening. They can remind people of their own creatureliness and mortality and might make them feel guilty or uncertain about their way of life. An honest debate over animal sentience, welfare and rights should consider the human motivation to deprive animals of these things in the first place. I briefly review empirical evidence on the psychological function of denying animal minds.

Saving Species, One Individual At A Time: Zoo Veterinarians Between Welfare And Conservation, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

The role of zoo veterinarians has changed significantly in the last several decades, reflecting and revealing broader transformations in zoo culture, especially among North American accredited zoos. This article draws on several interviews with prominent zoo vets, as well as on regulations that pertain to their work, to highlight their current position at the nexus of animal health and welfare, on the one hand, and of species conservation, on the other hand. The transformation of zoos into conservation institutions in particular has resulted in the vets’ novel focus on the sustainability of populations and their intensified involvement in in situ …

Sensitizing Humans To Fish Sentience, Kelly Levenda

Animal Sentience

Although fish can feel pain and suffer, they are not often protected legally. Jonathan Balcombe’s What a Fish Knows provides a timely and important contribution to the literature on animal cognition and sentience. By explaining their personalities and capabilities, Balcombe brings much needed public attention to fish and advances the principle that they need and deserve protection.

An Animal Victim's Best Chance: Veterinary Legal Duty To Report Cruelty In The U.S., Lora Dunn

Animal Sentience

Legislation throughout the U.S. recognizes animal sentience and the importance of veterinary reporting to combat the ongoing suffering of these animal victims: All 50 states have felony penalties available for animal cruelty crimes, and veterinary reporting is permitted or required in the majority of states. The remaining minority of U.S. states should take action to require veterinarians to report animal cruelty and render veterinarians immune for good faith reporting.

Animal Sentience: The Other-Minds Problem, Stevan Harnad

Animal Sentience

The only feelings we can feel are our own. When it comes to the feelings of others, we can only infer them, based on their behavior — unless they tell us. This is the “other-minds problem.” Within our own species, thanks to language, this problem arises only for states in which people cannot speak (infancy, aphasia, sleep, anaesthesia, coma). Our species also has a uniquely powerful empathic or “mind-reading” capacity: We can (sometimes) perceive from the behavior of others when they are in states like our own. Our inferences have also been systematized and operationalized in biobehavioral science …

Federal Regulations Pertaining To Collection, Import, Export, And Transport Of Scientific Specimens Of Mammals, Hugh H. Genoways, Jerry R. Choate

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

The routine tasks of mammalogists whose research or curatorial activities include collecting, importing, processing, exporting, or interstate transporting of living or dead scientific specimens of mammals have become increasingly complicated by newly enacted (or more rigorously enforced) Federal regulations. These regulations were necessary largely because of the activities of non-scientists, but their provisions have had a tremendous impact on the activities of scientists (especially museum-based systematists and ecologists). Most mammalogists have expressed a willingness to comply with the regulations (although nearly all agree that administration of the permit system should be consolidated into a single office) if they can obtain …

Federal And State Regulations Pertaining To Systematic Collections. I. A Case Of Inadvertent Violation Of Federal Regulations, Jerry R. Choate, Hugh H. Genoways

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

On 25 April 1975, at the twenty-second annual meeting of the Southwestern Association of Naturalists (SWAN), at the University of Oklahoma Biological Station, President Keith A. Arnold appointed Jerry Choate to investigate current regulations pertaining to collection and transport of scientific specimens in the region of representation (including Mexico) or SWAN. This charge involves both Federal and State laws, several of which are undergoing change and many of which doubtlessly are not familiar to the membership of SWAN. In order that SWAN members might be made aware of these regulations and not unwittingly commit violations, it was decided that SWANEWS …

Federal And State Regulations Pertaining To Systematic Collections. I. A Case Of Inadvertent Violation Of Federal Regulations, Jerry R. Choate, Hugh H. Genoways

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

First paragraph:

On 25 April 1975, at the twenty-second annual meeting of SWAN (i.e. Southwestern Association of Naturalists), at the University of Oklahoma Biological Station, President Keith A. Arnold appointed one of us (Choate) to investigate current regulations pertaining to collection and transport of scientific specimens in the region of representation (including Mexico) or SWAN. This charge involves both Federal and State laws, several of which are undergoing change and many of which doubtlessly are not familiar to the membership of SWAN. In order that SWAN members might be made aware of these regulations and not unwittingly commit violations, it …