Law Commons^™

Fish Encounters: Aquariums And Their Veterinarians In A Rapidly Changing World, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

The extensive body of social science and humanities scholarship on zoos rarely discusses aquariums. Despite their independent historical trajectory and unique characteristics and challenges, aquariums are typically considered the younger sister to the more established terrestrial zoo institutions. This article is an initial exploration of modern public aquariums through the eyes of these institutions’ veterinarians, a small but rapidly growing, and quite influential, professional cohort. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a handful of aquarium veterinarians in various sites — including the United States, Canada, Israel, Portugal, Denmark, and Germany — the article documents some of the everyday challenges that these …

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 …

Animal Rights Unraveled: Why Abolitionism Collapses Into Welfarism And What It Means For Animal Ethics, Luis E. Chiesa

Journal Articles

Most people support laws that seek to reduce the suffering of animals. Yet animal cruelty statutes and other kinds of animal welfare laws are under sustained attack by the so-called abolitionists. Animal rights abolitionists claim that it is categorically wrong to treat animals as commodities, and animal welfare laws should be opposed because they do not alter the property status of animals. Abolitionists also claim that animal welfare regulations do not meaningfully reduce animal suffering. In fact, abolitionists argue that such statutes likely increase future animal suffering, either by delaying the advent of abolition or by soothing the conscience of …

Protecting Cats And Dogs In Order To Protect Humans: Making The Case For A Felony Companion Animal Statute In Mississippi, Deborah Challener

Journal Articles

During the 2010 session of the Mississippi legislature, Senator Billy Hewes (R-Gulfport) introduced Senate Bill No. 2623 which, inter alia, made it a felony to "with malice torture, mutilate, maim, burn, starve, disfigure or kill any domesticated dog or cat." The penalty for a conviction under the proposed companion animal statute was one to five years in prison and a fine of $1500 to $10,000. Senate Bill No. 2623 passed the Senate but failed in the House, largely because the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation argued that it would be harmful to Mississippi's farming industry. This objection, along with the others …

Biodiversity And Mom, John C. Nagle

Journal Articles

In December 1973, Congress enacted the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The law was the latest, and greatest, federal effort to prevent wildlife from becoming extinct. The members of Congress who voted for the law always mentioned bald eagles, grizzly bears, whooping cranes, alligators, and whales—the animals, in short, that today are most likely to be memorialized as Beanie Babies. They were also aware of the species that had already disappeared from the earth, such as the passenger pigeon and the great auk. Such images yielded an overwhelming vote in favor of the law. President Nixon signed it on December 28, …

The Commerce Clause Meets The Delhi Sands Flower-Loving Fly, John C. Nagle

Journal Articles

Is the Endangered Species Act constitutional? The D.C. Circuit considered that question in National Association of Home Builders v. Babbitt in 1997. More specifically, the case considered whether the congressional power to regulate interstate commerce authorized the ESA's prohibition upon building a large regional hospital in the habitat of an endangered fly that lives only in a small area of southern California. The three judges on the D.C. Circuit approached the question from three different perspectives: the relationship between biodiversity as a whole and interstate commerce, the relationship between the fly and interstate commerce, and the relationship between the hospital …

Playing Noah, John C. Nagle

Journal Articles

The biblical story of Noah and the ark has been cited by numerous writers as a justification for the protections contained in the Endangered Species Act. In that story, Genesis reports that God instructed Noah to save two of every species from the flood that would destroy life on earth, and that after doing so God established a covenant with Noah and the animals that were saved. The story has inspired writers and activists to posit a duty to imitate Noah today when we struggle to provide the resources and the will to protect all species, however popular or obscure, …

Why Chinese Wildlife Disappears As Cites Spreads, John C. Nagle

Journal Articles

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) proves that popularity does not assure success. CITES is one of the oldest and most popular international environmental treaties. Yet after twenty-three years and the approval of over 125 nations, wildlife continues to become extinct and endangered at an unhindered rate. Why?

The explanation for this paradox can be found by comparing the state of wildlife in China and the United States. Both countries are parties to CITES. Their efforts to enforce CITES are very different, but they both reveal the limitations of the current treaty …