Animal Law Commons^™

A Market-Based Approach To Effective Slaughterhouse Line Speed Regulation, Kailey Mcneal

Animal Law Review

The nature of animal agriculture in the United States is heavily industrialized and profit-centered. Industrial animal agriculture maximizes profits and production by employing low-wage workers to do significant loads of labor. Slaughterhouses’ implementation of faster line speeds reflects this tactic. As the industry continues to increase line speeds to boost profits, workers, animals, and the environment continue to face augmented risks to their health and safety. Nonetheless, slaughterhouse line speeds at the federal level remain largely un- and under-regulated. The current federal regulatory scheme is unduly influenced by industry interests, prioritizes profit over safety, and lacks effective enforcement mechanisms. Through …

Forced To Weather The Storm: Reforming The Livestock Indemnity Program To Improve Farm Animal Welfare, Cameron Krier Massey

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Each year, extreme weather events put the lives and wellbeing of millions of farm animals at risk. These events can lead to injury, suffering, acute and chronic stress, decreased productivity, and loss of life. As storms increase in frequency and intensity, efforts should be made to ensure livestock are protected. This paper proposes modifications to the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), a federally run disaster assistance program that compensates livestock owners and growers for animal deaths and reduced value caused by eligible conditions, including extreme weather. Surprisingly, the program does not require producers to show proof and use of a disaster …

Animals In Cost-Benefit Analysis, Andrew Stawasz

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Federal agencies’ cost-benefit analyses do not capture nonhuman animals’ (animals’) interests. This omission matters. Cost-benefit analysis drives many regulatory decisions that substantially affect billions of animals. That omission creates a regulatory blind spot that is untenable as a matter of morality and of policy.

This Article advances two claims related to valuing animals in cost-benefit analyses, dubbed the “Weak Claim” and the “Strong Claim.” The Weak Claim argues that agencies typically may value animals in cost-benefit analyses. Usually, no legal prohibitions exist, and such valuation is within agencies’ legitimate discretion. The Strong Claim argues that agencies often must do so …

On The Rights Of Sentient Beings: The Case For Expanding Due Process Of Law To Non-Human Animals, John Bolliger

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Chewing The Welfare Cud: A Digested Analysis Of A Consumer Versus Producer-Defined Standard Of Welfare Practices In Animals Raised For Human Consumption, Caitlin C. Robb

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Since the eighteenth century, animal well-being remains a concern for American citizens. Yet, underlying this concern is the thought that while humans should not be cruel to animals, animals are still private property subject to human ownership. Therefore, multi-faceted questions of what constitutes “animal welfare” find a place in modern American debate. One such question becomes: should the producer or the consumer define welfare practice standards of animals raised for human consumption?7 This note provides an answer to this question by first analyzing the robust history of animal welfare in the United States, along with the domestic and international impact …

Better Science, Fewer Animals: Catalyzing Nih Grant Making To Improve Biomedical Research And Meet Societal Goals, Mikalah Singer, Paul Locke

Animal Law Review

Animal models are currently the “gold standard” in biomedical research. However, new approaches that do not involve the use of nonhuman animals are evolving to address the public health and medical challenges for which animal models are less well suited. These alternatives represent important advancements and are being recognized as significant advances. There is a clear societal need to encourage such efforts, and there is widespread support to move away from animal-based research by the American public. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds the majority of biomedical research in the United States and should be a key player in …

The Confines Of Federalism On Farmed Animal Welfare, Miranda Groh

Animal Law Review

Although farmed animal advocates have achieved some protection for animals through state and local laws, Congress’s constitutional authority to preempt state law and regulate interstate commerce poses a significant threat to those achievements. Additionally, the practical constraints of the United States’ interconnected food system suggest that national, uniform standards are more desirable than a state-by-state, piecemeal approach to animal welfare. Despite the potential benefits of a state-by-state approach and some obstacles faced at the federal level, this Article argues that long-lasting legal protections for farmed animals should ultimately come from Congress, and that animal advocates should concentrate their efforts there. …

Animal Welfare Consumer Protection Litigation: Challenges And Possibilities For Bringing About More "Humane" Labeling Practices, Jaycie Thaemert

Animal Law Review

Consumer protection claims have become a critical tool for animal welfare advocates to attack the misrepresentations that animal agriculture producers make about the humane treatment of their animals. Currently, these claims are an important accountability mechanism, as “humane” labeling standards have not been adopted on the federal level. As consumers become increasingly focused on making ethical food-purchasing decisions, consumer protection claim lawsuits have become more and more successful, drawing the attention of attorneys within and outside of the animal welfare movement. The primary limitation of consumer protection claims in the animal welfare space is that these lawsuits do not actually …

Privacy In The Wild: Why Animals' Informational Privacy Matters, Christopher Wlach

Animal Law Review

As data privacy and security come increasingly into focus among lawmakers, regulators, companies, and consumers, concerns about animals’ privacy have gone largely unmentioned. This Article examines how both wild and domestic animals have informational privacy interests—that is, interests in protecting information about themselves. The Article discusses three examples of how informational privacy for animals is not merely a theoretical concept but directly relates to animals’ broader welfare interests. Finally, this Article discusses why privacy provides a helpful theoretical framework and vocabulary for addressing these animals’ interests.

A Uniform Approach To Farm Animal Welfare Laws: Thought For Our Food Instead Of Food For Our Thought, Channing Burd

Journal of Food Law & Policy

We have all seen the commercials and know “Happy Cows Come from California,” but there is a larger issue hidden inside the phrase. Why should not all farm animals be happy, regardless of which state they were raised in? Why are only the cows in California happy, but not the chickens and the hogs as well? Farm animal welfare in the United States needs regulatory overhaul, and we needed it decades ago. This article will illustrate why regulatory overhaul is needed. First, we will examine how a new system of laws, which are part of a uniform code enacted by …

The United States Of California: Ninth Circuit Tips The Dormant Commerce Clause Scales In Favor Of The Golden State's Animal Welfare Legislation, Tanner Hendershot

Pepperdine Law Review

In November 2018, California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 12, the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act. This law requires in-state and out-of-state farmers to provide additional living space for egg-laying hens, breeding pigs, and calves raised for veal by 2022 if the farmers wish to continue doing business within the state. In response, North American Meat Institute (NAMI), whose members account for approximately 95% of the country’s output of various meat products, filed a lawsuit in federal district court seeking a preliminary injunction against Proposition 12’s enforcement. NAMI contended Proposition 12 violated the Dormant Commerce Clause, a legal doctrine …

Overcoming Inertia To Deliver Sentience Policy Commensurate With Sentience Science, Claire Bass

Animal Sentience

Rowan et al’s target article makes clear that meaningful change in policy and practice to protect animals has failed to progress in lockstep with scientific understanding of their sentience and needs. The underlying causes for inertia in political and practical progress for animals in the UK context are multi-faceted and complex, including economic forces; lack of cross-departmental accountability for animal welfare; and challenges where it suits conservation scientists to dismiss or downgrade the impacts of management decisions on individual animals. All of these influences and more must be understood and addressed if we are to deliver meaningful and timely protections …

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.

Wyoming’S Wild Horse Ranch: History And Description Of A Socio-Ecological Experiment, Alex Sas-Jaworsky, John Derek Scasta

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The growing population of free-roaming horses (Equus ferus caballus) on western public rangelands has necessitated that federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service, develop novel approaches to curb growth including reproduction management. However, bureaucracy has hindered effective research and application of horse management on public lands and examples on private lands may present new solutions. Here we present the history and current population management strategy for the Wild Horse Ranch (WHR) located in southeastern Wyoming, USA, as an example of an ongoing private entity managing horses. Prior to 1985, this ~6,000-ha …

"Very Complex Questions": Zoos, Animals, And The Law, Dana Mirsky

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

In Sulawesi, Indonesia—forty-five thousand years ago, an artist painted what is now the world’s oldest known cave painting—a life-size image of a wild pig. Forty thousand years later, the elite of Hierakonpolis, Egypt, housed elephants, hippos, and baboons in the world’s oldest known zoo. Today, individuals keep exotic fish, reptiles, and birds as pets while zoos and aquariums display some of the largest and rarest animals on the planet. The human fascination with wild animals is clearly not a new phenomenon, but how and why we keep wild animals have evolved over time. Zoos in particular have changed dramatically just …

Animal Sentience: History, Science, And Politics, Andrew N. Rowan, Joyce M. D'Silva, Ian J.H. Duncan, Nicholas Palmer

Animal Sentience

This target article has three parts. The first briefly reviews the thinking about nonhuman animals’ sentience in the Western canon: what we might know about their capacity for feeling, leading up to Bentham’s famous question “can they suffer?” The second part sketches the modern development of animal welfare science and the role that animal-sentience considerations have played therein. The third part describes the launching, by Compassion in World Farming, of efforts to incorporate animal sentience language into public policy and regulations concerning human treatment of animals.

Global Animal Law And International Trade Law After Ec-Seal Products: An Interactional Analysis, Katie Sykes

PhD Dissertations

This thesis is a case study of the formation of new norms in international law. The norms are those that concern animal protection. The thesis argues that international trade law is playing a part in the development of international legal norms for animal protection. The theoretical model applied is interactional international law, the theory of the constructivist international legal scholars Jutta Brunnée and Stephen Toope. Interactional theory posits that legitimate, binding international law arises from norms based on shared understandings, exhibits specifically legal characteristics that correspond to Lon Fuller’s criteria of legality, and is created, maintained and supported through interaction …

Recognising The Sentience Of Animals In Law: A Justification And Framework For Australian States And Territories, Jane S. Kotzmann

General - Animal Feeling

Scientific research is clear that most animals are sentient. This means that they have the capacity to subjectively perceive or feel things such as happiness and suffering. At present in Australia, animal sentience is, to some degree, implicitly recognised in animal welfare legislation that is in operation in all state and territory jurisdictions. This legislation criminalises human cruelty towards some animals because of the capacity such action has to cause animal pain and suffering. There is growing public concern in Australia, however, that such legislation does not adequately protect animals from pain and suffering. The Australian Capital Territory (‘ACT’) has …

Recognising The Sentience Of Animals In Law: A Justification And Framework For Australian States And Territories, Jane S. Kotzmann

Legislation and regulation

Scientific research is clear that most animals are sentient. This means that they have the capacity to subjectively perceive or feel things such as happiness and suffering. At present in Australia, animal sentience is, to some degree, implicitly recognised in animal welfare legislation that is in operation in all state and territory jurisdictions. This legislation criminalises human cruelty towards some animals because of the capacity such action has to cause animal pain and suffering. There is growing public concern in Australia, however, that such legislation does not adequately protect animals from pain and suffering. The Australian Capital Territory (‘ACT’) has …

China's Lack Of Animal Welfare Legislation Increases The Risk Of Further Pandemics, Amanda Whitfort

Animal Sentience

Legislation enforcing positive animal welfare standards provides an important buffer against the spread of disease when other safeguards to promote animal health have failed. The continuing absence of animal welfare legislation in China increases the risk of future pandemics, like COVID-19, and puts animal health, and consequently public health in danger.

Global Risks Of Intensive Animal Farming And The Wildlife Trade, Deborah Cao

Animal Sentience

This commentary discusses two issues highlighted by Wiebers & Feigin in the context of the current and future global health crisis: the wildlife trade and factory farming. Both are instances of globalized animal cruelty – in China as well as worldwide -- that require global solutions for the well-being of both humans and nonhumans.

Animal Rights: Time To Start Unpacking What Rights And For Whom, Jane Kotzmann, Nick Pendergrast

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Beginning Of The End For Belugas In Captivity In The United States, Megan E. Boyd

Animal Law Review

Beluga whales have been displayed in aquariums and zoos for decades, but the end of captive beluga displays in the United States is near, thanks to Georgia Aquarium v. Pritzker. In 2012, the Georgia Aquarium, on behalf of members of the beluga cooperative breeding program, applied to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for a special permit allowing the breeding cooperative to import eighteen beluga whales from Russia. After NMFS denied the permit, the Aquarium brought suit, arguing that NMFS’s denial was arbitrary and capricious and that without an influx of belugas, the United States captive beluga whale breeding program …

Animal Welfare Act: Excluded Animals, Michael Mcfadden, Sue Leary, Kathy Hessler

Animal Law Review

Michael McFadden discusses the Animal Welfare Act’s exclusion of farmed animals and possible reasons for their exclusion. He then briefly discusses welfare problems faced by farmed animals. He ends by describing the various ways in which consumers are showing increasing concern for farmed animals and how consumers, especially millennial consumers, are poised to force the agricultural industry to improve conditions for farmed animals. Sue Leary recounts the history of efforts to include rats, mice, and birds, in the AWA. Next, she explains the historical and contemporary issues with including common laboratory research animals under animal protection laws. She ends her …

The Animal Welfare Act At Fifty Conference At Harvard Law School Introduction, Delcianna Winders

Animal Law Review

Delcianna Winders introduces the Animal Welfare Act at Fifty Conference.

Paid In Full: Interpreting And Defining "Market Value" Under The Lacey Act, Max Birmingham

Animal Law Review

There is a circuit split on the definition of “market value” under the Lacey Act. Courts disagree whether the price of hunting guide services should be factored into calculating the market value of the wildlife hunted. But the purpose of the Lacey Act suggests a broad interpretation of market value which includes guide services. This Article proposes amending the Lacey Act to make clear the definition of market value in keeping with its original purpose.

Animal Welfare Act: Enforcement, Delcianna Winders, Varu Chilakamarri

Animal Law Review

Delcianna Winders discusses the Animal Welfare Act and how the United States Department of Agriculture enforces it. She also provides a critique of the USDA’s enforcement of the AWA, with particular attention to its heavy reliance on warnings and discounted penalties, which in many cases fail to deter regulated entities from violating the AWA. Varu Chilakamarri discusses how animal welfare issues are incorporated into the work of the Department of Justice (DOJ). She provides an overview of the AWA, noting the specific sections that provide for federal court review. Chilakamarri also discusses some of the programmatic steps the DOJ has …

It Takes A Village To Protect Its Pets: How To Empower Local Community Organizations In The Fight For Companion Animal Rights, Danielle Maddox Kinchen

Animal Law Review

This Note aims to provide a guide for state law reforms to ease the responsibility on southern states’ shelter, rescue, and foster systems. It employs a three-pronged strategy to address two main challenges for homeless companion animals—overpopulation and unprosecuted animal cruelty. The United States euthanizes an estimated 1.5 million companion animals annually in its companion animal shelters, largely due to overpopulation, and the South plays an exponentially larger role in this statistic than the North, with some southern cities annually euthanizing hundreds of thousands of companion animals each. Approximately 6.5 million companion animals enter shelters each year, and in addition …

Animal Welfare Act: Welfare Standards, Cathy Liss, Kimberly Ockene, Naomi Rose, Georgia Hancock Snusz, Anna Frostic

Animal Law Review

Cathy Liss discusses the changes to the standards after the 1985 Improved Standards for Laboratory Animals amendment to the AWA and the emphasis of performance standards that were implemented. Kimberly Ockene discusses the AWA regulations for commercial dog breeders and a petition for rulemaking that seeks to enhance these regulations. Naomi A. Rose and Georgia Hancock Snusz discuss captive marine mammals and their coverage under the AWA. Lastly, Anna Frostic speaks about public handling of exotic animals held at licensed exhibitors, which are regulated under the Act.

Animal Welfare Act: Interaction With Other Laws, Ani B. Satz, Delcianna Winders

Animal Law Review

Ani B. Satz discusses the interaction of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) with state laws, specifically focusing on perceived preemptive effects of the AWA on state anti-cruelty laws. Delcianna Winders discusses how these perceived preemptive effects play out on a federal level, focusing on how the AWA interacts with the Endangered Species Act (ESA). She expands upon how both laws apply to captive animals, who have been identified as threatened or endangered under the ESA.