The rise in animal law cases, and the changes that are resulting from them, have sparked a discussion beyond legal circles over whether altering the legal status of animals lays the groundwork for giving them the sort of rights that humans have traditionally reserved for themselves.
The growth of animal law has mirrored the growing mainstream acceptance of the animal rights movement - in membership and resources, both the Humane Society and PETA have grown dramatically in the past decade, and their influence is felt not only in the strengthening of state animal cruelty laws and the vehemence of the public condemnation of Vick, but the fact that even fast food chains like McDonald's and Burger King have felt compelled to address the conditions of the cows and chickens they rely on.
Not everyone, though, is enthusiastic about the prospect that animal law might be put to the service of animal rights. Veterinarians tend to be particularly leery of expanding the legal claims of animals - the fact that courts have started awarding non-economic damages in veterinary malpractice cases, vets warn, will only raise the overall cost of care.
In many states, such damages apply only in the death of a spouse or parent or child, not a best friend, say, or a fiance. According to Adrian Hochstadt, assistant director of state legislative and regulatory affairs for the American Veterinary Medical Association, allowing pet-related non-economic damages rewards shows that the nation is headed down a slippery slope.
"You have this strange phenomenon where we're placing pets above certain people," Hochstadt says.
Yet for some legal scholars, like David Favre and Steven Wise, the slippery slope is exactly the point. The current changes in how we protect, provide for, and fight over animals, they argue, are a precursor for urgently needed, and more fundamental, changes in the law, especially concerning highly intelligent animals such as chimpanzees and dolphins. Favre points to several models he'd like to see American animal law follow: the German constitution, which in 2002 gave constitutional rights to animals; New Zealand, which has recognized limited personhood for primates; and the European Parliament, which recently categorized great apes as "beings" and moved to end the use of all primates in scientific research.
Other animal lawyers, though, see something less sweeping: a legal system trying to capture the evolving but still deeply ambivalent feelings most people have about animals. In this model the law isn't driving change, but playing catch-up.
"I am one that believes courts are always behind society," says Jonathan Rankin, a lawyer who recently left the Boston firm Glickman Turley to start his own animal law practice. "If corporations can be persons in the eyes of law, if ships can be persons in the eyes of the law, then the law should be able to figure out something for animals."
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