Abstract
The United States anti-cruelty laws are criminal laws and comprise the most basic and fundamental legal protection for animals. As the least controversial of the animal protection laws, these laws protect animals from the intentional and gratuitous infliction of pain and suffering at the hands of humans. However, as we will see, most animals in the United States are not covered by the anti-cruelty code. Animals used for food or research and wild animals generally are exempt from the anti-cruelty laws. The anti-cruelty laws target only individual instances of intentional cruelty not institutionalized cruelty. This reflects a serious flaw in our societal view of animals as beings who exist for human use and our acceptance of institutionalized practices that inflict serious pain and suffering upon other species for our benefit.
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Notes
A. Linzey, 2009, Why Animal Suffering Matters, 9–10, Oxford Press, London.
P. Sankoff, 2009, “The Welfare Paradigm,” in P. Sankoff and S. White, eds., Animal Law in Australasia: A New Dialogue, at23, Federation Press, Sydney.
See ibid. at 22–25.
M.L. Randour and H. Davidson, 2008, A Common Bond: Maltreated Children and Animals in the Home, American Humane Association, Englewood, 7; Randall Lockwood, 1999, “Animal Cruelty and Violence Against Humans: Making the Connection,” 5 Animal L. 81, 81.
P. Arkow, 2003, Breaking the Cycles of Violence: A Guide to Multi-Disciplinary Interventions, The Latham Foundation For the Promotion of Humane Education, Alameda, at 17; L.M. Renner and K.S. Stark, 2004, Intimate Partner Violence and Child Maltreatment: Understanding Co-occurrence and Intergenerational Connections, Institute for Research on Poverty at University of Wisconsin; E. DeViney et al., 1983, “The Care of Pets Within Abusing Families,” 4 Int’l J. Study of Animal Problems 321–329; see also F.R. Ascione, 1997, “The Abuse of Animals and Domestic Violence: A National Survey of Shelters for Women who are Battered,” Society and Animals 5, 205–218.
See Judge Roger Dutson, 1994, “Domestic Violence,” 7 Utah B.J. 42, 43.
See generally F. Ascione and P. Arkow, eds., 1999, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence and Animal Abuse, Purdue University Press, West Lafayette.
L.M. Broidy et al., 2003, “Developmental Trajectories of Childhood Disruptive Behaviors and Adolescent Delinquency: A Six-Site Cross-National Study,” 39 Developmental Psychopathology 2 (March), 222–245; F. Ascione, 1998, “Battered Women’s Reports of Their Partners’ and Their Children’s Cruelty to Animals,” in R. Lockwood and F. Ascione, eds., Cruelty to Animals and Interpersonal Violence: Readings in Research and Application, Purdue Research Foundation, Purdue, IL, 293–294.
See C.S. Widom, 1989, “The Cycle of Violence,” 244 Science 160–166; K. Heide and L. Merz-Perez, 2003, Animal Cruelty: Pathway to Violence Against People, Altamira Press, Oxford (“Indicating that animal abuse during childhood serves as a “red flag” early on, the study is the first to provide both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the correlation between childhood animal cruelty and adult violent behavior.”); see also R. Lockwood and G. Hodge, 1998, “The Tangled Web of Animal Abuse: The Links between Cruelty to Animals and Human Violence,” in Lockwood and Ascione, Cruelty to Animals and Interpersonal Violence, 77–82; see generally F. Ascione, 2001, Animal Abuse and Youth Violence [online], U.S. Department of Justice. Available from: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/188677.pdf [accessed: 5.25.2010].
See for example J. Levin and A. Arluke, 2009, “Reducing the Link’s False Positive Problem,” at63 in A. Linzey ed., The Link Between Animal Abuse and Human Violence, Sussex Academic Press, Eastbourne.
See generally J. Schaffner, 2009, “Law and Policy to Address the Link of Family Violence,” in A. Linzey ed., The Link Between Animal Abuse and Human Violence, Sussex Academic Press, Eastbourne.
See generally T. Bryant, D. Cassuto and R. Huss, eds., 2008, Animal Law and the Courts: A Reader at36–77, Thompson West, Eagan.
374 F. Supp. 1284 (S.D.N.Y. 1974). This case is recognized as “the first animal rights lawsuit” to be brought in the United States. Joyce Tischler, 2008, “The History of Animal Law Part I, (1972–1987),” 1 Stanford J. Animal L. & Policy 4. Available from: http://www.aldf.org/downloads/Tischler_StanfordJournal-Vol1.pdf. Note that although the HMSA is an animal welfare law and not a criminal law, the competing arguments are similar.
See generally M. Sullivan and D. Wolfson, 2007, “What’s Good for the Goose … The Israeli Supreme Court, Foie Gras, and the Future of Farmed Animals in the United States,” 70-WTR Law & Contemp. Probs. 139; M. Sullivan and D. Wolfson, 2008, “The Regulation of Common Farming Practices,” in Animal Law and the Courts: A Reader, 78–131, Thomson West, Eagan.
Note Chad West, 2006, “Economics and Ethics in the Genetic Engineering of Animals,” 19 Harv. J. L. & Tech. 413, 432.
S. White, 2009, “Animals in the Wild, Animal Welfare and the Law,” in Sankoff and White eds., Animal Law in Australasia, 238 (quoting S.R. Harrop, “The Dynamics of Wild Animal Welfare Law,” 9 J. Envt’l L. 287 (1997)).
S. Waisman et al., eds., 2008, Animal Law: Cases and Materials, 3rd edn, at474, Carolina Academic Press, Durham, NC.
D. Thiriet, 2009, “Recreational Hunting — Regulation and Animal Welfare Concerns,” in Sankoff and White, Animal Law in Australasia, 283.
Ibid. at 280.
See generally William Reppy, 2005, “Citizen Standing to Enforce Anti-Cruelty Laws by Obtaining Injunctions: The North Carolina Experience,” 11 Animal L. 39.
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© 2011 Joan E. Schaffner
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Schaffner, J.E. (2011). Anti-Cruelty Laws. In: An Introduction to Animals and the Law. The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230294677_2
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