Online Symposium on Animal Welfare Laws

The ethical treatment of animals under existing legal frameworks is the narrative of on online symposium up this month from the Michigan Law Review through First Impressions. You can read snips online or download the papers in PDF form.

Here is Neil D. Hamilton, the Dwight D. Opperman Chair of Law and Professor of Law & Director, Agricultural Law Center, Drake Law School; Chair, Agriculture Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools, from his piece, One Bad Day: Thoughts on the Difference Between Animal Rights and Animal Welfare:

The lawsuit pitting the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals against the New Jersey Department of Agriculture brings into sharp focus the issue of animal rights versus animal welfare that has been dividing animal activists, farmers, and society for decades. On one side are proponents of animal rights—a set of rights articulated by humans but granted to animals to govern how we treat them. For many believers this includes the right not to be owned and certainly not to be eaten. On the other side are proponents of animal welfare—also a set of human derived standards governing how we care for animals under our control. Animal welfare concerns are reflected in laws prohibiting cruelty and criminalizing certain abusive behavior. The debate as illustrated in the New Jersey litigation involves conflicting perspectives on what duties (or rights) we owe animals and on who should decide, using what standards.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at 11:22 am and is filed under CAFOs!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.