Sharon Coleman, CFA Legislative Legal Analyst

July 2022

Starting in 2000, the CFA Legislative Group began tackling legislative proposals to substitute the word “guardian” for owner of animals. Animal activists seeking to “shift the paradigm” of animals in society hoped that use of “guardian” would be helpful in “elevating the status” of animals and inspire higher standards of their treatment while not directly changing their legal classification as property. There were small numbers of successes, mainly with local ordinances, until organizations involved in animal ownership and care allied in efforts to maintain the legal status of animals unambiguously as property with a consistent body of law to protect animals and those involved with them including cat fanciers who need the rights and obligations of owning cats to protect and enjoy them. (https://cfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/guardian-vs-owner.pdf) Activists have regrouped with new strategies and legal theories. Recently in the news for their “Happy the Elephant” writ of habeas corpus case in New York is The Nonhuman Animal Project. The “writ of habeas corpus” is a historic and deceptively complex legal right – literally meaning “show the body” – of detained individuals to obtain court determination of whether their confinement (from arrest through post-sentencing imprisonment) is legal. The writ of habeas corpus originated in England before the Magna Carta and is now part of international human rights, so its extension to confined animals had seemed promising to NhRP. This organization builds on the lifetime work of its president, Steven Wise arguing that highly intelligent, captive animals should have access to courts as “persons” to address conditions of their captivity, including appropriate release, and care through litigation, legislation, and education. Their most recent New York habeas corpus case affirmed the lower courts’ dismissal of their legal theories in a June decision. To learn more about this and their previous habeas corpus cases see the blog posts of John M. Simpson, partner in the Duane Morris law firm’s Animal Law Practice. https://blogs.duanemorris.com/animallawdevelopments/2022/06/14/new-yorks-highest-court-declares-that-elephants-are-not-legal-persons/

Recent CFA Legislative Group Blog Posts:
What’s Hot………… Unaltered Cat Licenses, Breeder Permits, and More Changes Adopted by Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada