Articles

This article suggests that courts should appoint special masters to large-scale animal abuse cases. The work of special masters in two recent high profile cases, Sarah v. PPI and Vick, demonstrate that special masters can help advance the goals of the animal protection movement in three ways. First, special masters can ensure that individual animal victims are cared for once they are rescued from large-scale abuse situations. Second, court orders that appoint special masters to large-scale animal abuse cases insert a best-interest-of-the-animal analysis into formal court proceeding. Finally, court appointed special masters may encourage better enforcement of animal protection laws by taking responsibility for animal victims from local officials. In addition to advocating for special master appointments in large-scale animal abuse cases, this article discusses some of the possible barriers courts and advocates might face when appointing special masters to large-scale animal abuse cases.

Because it is exceedingly difficult to measure the value of “companionship” in determining damages for the loss of a companion animal in wrongful death cases, courts and legislatures have struggled to come up with a realistic method of assessment. This article suggests a straightforward “investment approach” to estimate the minimum pecuniary value, including companionship value, that human guardians place on their companion animals. Significantly, the investment approach provides a more accurate assessment of companion animal value, which serves tort system goals of efficient compensation for loss and deterrence of future harm to companion animals.

This Article first provides an overview of the philosophical basis of the allocation (or non-allocation) of moral status to nonhuman animals considering historical and modern views of animals. Second, it analyzes the legal status of animals under the current system and discusses the idea of extending legal 'personhood' to such animals. Next, it considers the common law and statutory basis for the current valuation of companion animals. Finally, this Article supports and promotes the idea that there is a rational basis for changing the way that companion animals should be valued by the legal system and recommends the adoption of statutory provisions to promote consistency and certainty in these cases.

This article provides several key questions a pet owner must ask him or herself prior to initiating a veterinary malpractice lawsuit.

This article discusses the recent attention focused on veterinary malpractice claims. The author suggests that changes in both state legislation allowing recovery of non-economic damages for companion animals as well as isolated litigation awards beyond market value for veterinary malpractice make it imperative for the veterinary profession to take a stance on the issue.

Overview of the state of Animal Law in Australia.

For many consumers, farm animal welfare matters. To ensure the well-being of farm animals, consumers often pay premium prices for animal products with humane labels. Because “organic” is an example of a label presumed to convey information about animal husbandry practices, animal products with this label may offer an alternative to products from animals that were raised “conventionally” on large, industrialized farms with minimal welfare protections. The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 and enacting regulations require that organic animals be able to engage in natural behaviors. However, many of the requirements are general and thus result in significant variations in livestock living conditions, confounding consumer expectations of uniform organic production and high standards for organic farm animal welfare. This Comment discusses the background of organic regulations, including issues with their application in the areas of organic dairy and egg production. Next, this Comment analyzes aspects of organic regulations as applied to organic laying hens and organic pigs. Finally, this Comment suggests ways to make organic regulations more quantifiable and thus more enforceable so organic animals are able to engage in natural behaviors.

The proposed listing of polar bears raises questions about what that listing might mean for the polar bears as a species, and how successful conservation efforts will or can be. This Comment explores these and other questions implicated by the proposed listing of polar bears as an endangered species under the Act.

This article proposes federal legislation that would provide minimum standards for the daily living conditions of animals raised for food production.

This article explores what kind of damages pet owners can recover from bringing a lawsuit. While traditional damages are based on economic concepts such as fair market value and consequential damages, the article also explores the recent trend for courts to recognize non-economic damages such as intrinsic value, mental anguish and suffering, and loss of companionship. Unfortunately, however, although a few courts have been leaders in validating these new concepts, the vast majority still do not recognize them.

This article reviews state and federal causes of action that can be brought when a pet has been shot unlawfully and the different claims that are available depending on whether the shooter is a government employee, such as a police officer or animal control official, or an ordinary citizen. The articles also explores the various defenses that defendants may assert, including qualified immunity for government employees.

This article discusses what due process rights dog owners must receive before the government can remove or euthanize their dogs.

This short summary gives a description of what constitutes a "puppy mill."

This article explores the various legal claims which can be brought against a pet owner for injuries that his or her pet has caused. It also reviews defenses that pet owners can assert.

This paper briefly outlines what the EU is and what countries make up the association. It also discusses how and why the EU was formed as well as the legislative structure.

Kosher slaughter, or shechita as it is called in biblical Hebrew, is so humane that when performed as intended by Jewish law, the animals don’t even feel the cut before dying. Even in modern times and by modern standards, experts have agreed that the shechita method as outlined in Jewish law is humane, and unconsciousness normally follows within seconds of the throat cutting. So how does one reconcile these truths with the video released by PETA of the practices occurring at the AgriProcessors plant in Postville, Iowa? What follows are my own conclusions to that troubling question, and my recommendations to improve the lives and deaths of cows at kosher slaughterhouses.

This article begins by exploring the biology and habitat of the sea otter. It then discusses the history of human-sea otter interaction, and how the exploitation of otters for fur first led to the need for their protection. The current state of otter protection is analyzed, with specific focus on the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Finally, solutions for continued otter preservation are explained in conjunction with the major hurdles facing otter populations.

This article addresses two key areas of domestic violence law where disregard for the bond shared by an animal and owner places both the animal and the domestic violence victim in danger. The first of these situations is the majority of domestic violence shelters’ refusal or inability to allow victims to bring their animals with them. The second is the law’s blatant omission of a stalker’s threat of violence, and actual violence, towards animals from coverage by the nation’s anti-stalking laws. Both of these situations illustrate how refusal by the law to recognize the bond shared by human and animal place both in peril.

The article examines the legislative measures taken at the state and federal level in Germany to address the issue of dangerous dogs and the related decision of the Federal Constitutional Court which upheld an import ban on dangerous dogs while striking down a breeding ban and parts of a newly introduced section to the Criminal Code.