Animal law

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Animal law is a combination of statutory and case law in which the nature – legal, social or biological – of nonhuman animals is an important factor. Animal law encompasses companion animals, wildlife, animals used in entertainment and animals raised for food and research. The emerging field of animal law is often analogized to the environmental law movement 30 years ago. The Animal Legal Defense Fund was founded by attorney Joyce Tischler in 1979 as the first organization dedicated to promoting the field of animal law and using the law to protect the lives and defend the interests of animals. [1]

Currently, animal law is being taught at 92 law schools in the U.S., including Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Northwestern, University of Michigan and Duke. [2] A growing number of state and local bar associations now have animal law committees. [3] There is very little pro-animal legal precedent in existence, so each case presents an opportunity to change the legal future for animals. [4]

Animal law issues encompass a broad spectrum of approaches—from philosophical explorations of the rights of animals to pragmatic discussions about the rights of those who use animals, who has standing to sue when an animal is harmed in a way that violates the law, and what constitutes legal cruelty. [5] Animal law permeates and affects most traditional areas of the law – including tort, contract, criminal and constitutional law. Examples of this intersection include:

Animal custody disputes in divorce or separations.
Veterinary malpractice cases.
Housing disputes involving “no pets” policies and discrimination laws.
Damages cases involving the wrongful death or injury to a companion animal.
Enforceable trusts for companion being adopted by states across the country.
Criminal law encompassing domestic violence and anti-cruelty laws.

The comprehensive animal law casebook is Animal Law: Cases and Materials, Third Edition, co-authored by Sonia S. Waisman, Bruce A. Wagman, and Pamela D. Frasch. Because animal law is not a traditional legal field, most of the book’s chapters are framed in terms of familiar subsets of law such as tort, contract, criminal and constitutional law. Each chapter sets out cases and commentary where animal law affects those broader areas.