Law Commons^™

If Animals Are Like Our Children Let Us Treat Them Alike: Creating Tests Of An Animal's Intelligence For Determinations Of Legal Personhood, Paul J. Mclaughlin

Library Faculty Publications

The notion that animals could be granted rights under the law was once ridiculed, but now courts and legislatures have begun to move towards granting animals greater protections from cruelty and emotional trauma. Animal law as a course of study was not available in law schools until the early 1970's. It has since grown into a field of debate and study that has drawn in experts from around the world." The rules of law that treat animals as property have been fought by animal rights advocates as being archaic similarly to the laws that once allowed for slavery. Animal owners …