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Pets - now legally protected
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Rita Hutner
Now the legal profession has become involved to protect our four
legged friends.
We buy our pets fancy clothes, outlandish designer dog
accessories, a custom made pet carrier or jeweled dog collars;
often paying more than we would if buying for ourselves. Now the
legal profession has become involved to protect our four legged
friends.
According to an article in a law review journal (Jarva), one
weekend in November 2004, some 200 people convened at Yale Law
School with a singular purpose: identifying ways of
strengthening animal protection laws through the legislatures
and courts. These individuals gathered from across the country
and overseas. There were lawyers, professors, and law students
who, like many Americans, are convinced that animals are
inherently valuable and deserving of humane treatment. However
they go considerably furtherin their belief that all nonhuman
animals are equally important and entitled to greater
protections under the law.
The article goes further to say that some conference attendees
may well balk at the "animal rightist" label, opting for the
less inflammatory "animal protectionist" moniker instead. But
whatever their ideological nuances, they are the legally savvy
wing of a social movement determined on using the courts and
legislatures to elevate the status of animals in society.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) and Yale Law School
sponsored a conference titled "The Future of Animal Law," held
Nov. 5-7. Headquartered in Petaluma, California. ALDF boasts
some 100,000 members and has, for the past 25 years, worked for
stronger enforcement of anticruelty laws.
The field of animal law has grown dramatically over recent
years,and many want it to grow even more. There is a hope
thatanimal law be taught in every American Bar
Association-accredited law school,that animal law practices
abound, and every judge and district attorney be educated about
animal law. New laws and new pet meds
There is also a longstanding cultural norm against harming
animals--the nation's first anticruelty statute was passed in
1867 in New York with the help of Henry Bergh, founder of the
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
"A hundred-plus years ago, our legal system recognized that
animals are different. They have interests; they can feel pain;
and we as a society ought to mitigate that pain, where
possible," observed conference speaker and Michigan State
University College of Law professor, David Favre. (Maybe that's
why we spend so much online for pet meds).
It can be argued that many animals in the United States already
do have rights, although they are protections in the narrowest
sense; anticruelty statutes, for example, criminalize animal
abuse. A provision of the federal Animal Welfare Act requires
that dogs used for research be given regular opportunities for
exercise. The Endangered Species Act protects the Florida
panther and other rare wildlife from being hunted to extinction.
for people who enjoy them, add enormous value to life. Most pet
lovers will tell you that while animals don't replace the
benefits of a healthy human relationship, they supplement life
in ways that no other satisfaction can provide. It's rational
for humans to treat pets among their highest values, assuming
those pets bring something to the individual human's life.
That's one reason new laws are being sought to protect our
animals and to recognize the loss one suffers when something bad
happens to our pets. And, it is also because of that
belief--animals do indeed add to our enjoyment of life--that we
indulge our pets by buying a wide variety of specialized (and
often extravagant items for Fido and Fluffy.
For many proud pet owners computers have become the pet shopping
mall, with everything from jeweled dog collars and nutritious
pet food to custom fit pet doors and luxurious dog beds and even
a personalized pet memorial - all available online and at the
click of a mouse.
About the author:
Rita Hutner is a copywriter for Catalogs.com. Catalogs.com is
the Internet's leading source for print and online catalog
shopping - and a growing hub of original content and "how to"
information at www.catalogs.com
Lawyer Network. Legal, need a lawyer
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