I'm frustrated with incremental changes, but they are better than nothing
About a week ago, a simple case out of New York was decided that made me very, very happy. For a long time, I have been arguing that non-human animals (particularly the most intelligent among them) deserve to have some legal rights for exactly the same reasons that humans have them.
While it is unlikely that non-human animals could ever meaningfully exercise a right to vote or own property, certain rights – like a right to continued existence or to a minimum standard of living – that are currently denied to them could do a lot to ease the suffering of billions of non-human animals just in the United States alone.
So far, the law has largely ignored the rights I feel are vitally important in our shared human quest to become more compassionate and just people. Some laws exist that prohibit cruelty to animals, but frequently are conditioned on common practices, so that if it is common practice in an industry (say farming) to engage in a particularly cruel act, then there isn’t any remedy.
One of the largest recommendations that I’ve been pushing is the idea that things other than humans can have standing. Let us suppose that my neighbor steps out on his front porch one morning after finding a letter on his kitchen table telling him that his wife has left him. He’s angry and wants to hurt something. Unfortunately, his eyes first fall on my hypothetical pet cat. He grabs my cat, beats it senseless, and then twists its neck, killing it. What does the law say?
Well, I probably can push an animal cruelty prosecution, and I’ll likely have a personal action for compensation in tort. But though I’ve suffered a damage, am I the injured party? Isn’t my hypothetical pet cat the real victim in this scenario? Isn’t it the one that was brutalized and then killed? Why can’t the cat bring a suit (or rather, why can’t a guardian for the cat bring a suit on its behalf)?
Well, in New York, a judge has allowed something similar to that to proceed in his court. Bebe, a 5-year old, 14-lb. dog was savagely beaten by a man who was a guest in the apartment of Bebe’s owner (don’t get me started on treating non-human animals as property that can have an owner…). Judge Alex Zigman granted a restraining order in the dog’s name against the guest who beat her.
It’s not much, but it is a step in the right direction.
While it is unlikely that non-human animals could ever meaningfully exercise a right to vote or own property, certain rights – like a right to continued existence or to a minimum standard of living – that are currently denied to them could do a lot to ease the suffering of billions of non-human animals just in the United States alone.
So far, the law has largely ignored the rights I feel are vitally important in our shared human quest to become more compassionate and just people. Some laws exist that prohibit cruelty to animals, but frequently are conditioned on common practices, so that if it is common practice in an industry (say farming) to engage in a particularly cruel act, then there isn’t any remedy.
One of the largest recommendations that I’ve been pushing is the idea that things other than humans can have standing. Let us suppose that my neighbor steps out on his front porch one morning after finding a letter on his kitchen table telling him that his wife has left him. He’s angry and wants to hurt something. Unfortunately, his eyes first fall on my hypothetical pet cat. He grabs my cat, beats it senseless, and then twists its neck, killing it. What does the law say?
Well, I probably can push an animal cruelty prosecution, and I’ll likely have a personal action for compensation in tort. But though I’ve suffered a damage, am I the injured party? Isn’t my hypothetical pet cat the real victim in this scenario? Isn’t it the one that was brutalized and then killed? Why can’t the cat bring a suit (or rather, why can’t a guardian for the cat bring a suit on its behalf)?
Well, in New York, a judge has allowed something similar to that to proceed in his court. Bebe, a 5-year old, 14-lb. dog was savagely beaten by a man who was a guest in the apartment of Bebe’s owner (don’t get me started on treating non-human animals as property that can have an owner…). Judge Alex Zigman granted a restraining order in the dog’s name against the guest who beat her.
It’s not much, but it is a step in the right direction.
posted by The Academian | 8:26 PM
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