Results
Title |
Author![]() |
Citation | Summary |
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Overview of Lost Dog Legal Issues | Rebecca F. Wisch | Animal Legal & Historical Center |
This summary discusses the state laws that govern the status of a "lost dog." The common law rules regarding lost property are applied as well as the state "lost property" statutes. |
Detailed Discussion of Wisconsin Great Ape Laws | Rebecca F. Wisch | Animal Legal & Historical Center | The following article discusses Wisconsin Great Ape law. Wisconsin does not have a specific law that prohibits the possession of apes or otherwise addresses their care. The state has a chapter on captive wildlife with a number of provisions related to the possession of captive live wild animals, which would generally include great apes.The state’s endangered species law also prohibits the taking, transport, and possession of endangered or threatened species, including federally-listed species. It is unclear based on a reading of the law whether it requires state permits for foreign endangered species. The law specifically exempts zoological societies or municipal zoos from its reach. Finally, apes are covered generally under the state’s anti-cruelty laws as warm-blooded, non-human animals. The law prohibits treating animals in a cruel manner, which includes causing unnecessary and excessive pain, suffering, or unjustifiable death. Additionally, all animals kept in captivity must have adequate food, water, and shelter. |
Detailed Discussion of State Cat Laws | Rebecca F. Wisch | Animal Legal & Historical Center |
This discussion analyzes the relevant state laws that affect cats. It also raises and attempts to answer several questions directed to cat owners, including licensing of cats, the feral cat problem, and state vaccination requirements. |
Brief Overview of Pet Trust Laws | Rebecca F. Wisch | Animal Legal & Historical Center |
This brief overview discusses how pet trusts can help owners care for their pets in the event of disability or death. |
Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) Table of Related Cases | Rebecca F. Wisch | Animal Legal & Historical Center |
This table provides links to cases involving BSL (breed-specific legislation). |
Summary of State Lost Property Statutes | Rebecca F. Wisch | Animal Legal & Historical Center |
This summary provides links to the twenty or so states that have enacted lost and found property statutes. These statutes outline a procedure finders must follow when finding lost property, which supplement traditional property laws. |
Detailed Discussion of Wyoming Great Ape Laws | Rebecca F. Wisch | Animal Legal & Historical Center | The following article discusses Wyoming Great Ape law. Wyoming has no law that restricts or otherwise mentions great apes. In fact, Wyoming does not even have a state endangered species provision providing additional state protection for endangered or threatened species. The only possible reference that could include great apes is the definition for “exotic species” under the general fish and game code definitions. However, there are no accompanying restrictions on possession or importation of those exotic species. The state’s cruelty law is broad enough to include great apes. There are no exceptions under the cruelty for scientific research or testing. |
ANIMAL THING TO ANIMAL PERSON-THOUGHTS ON TIME, PLACE, AND THEORIES | Steven M. Wise | 5 Animal L. 61 (1999) | The rule that "animals are property," and do not merit legal rights, is ingrained in the law of English-speaking countries. Challenges to this rule must be brought in strategic, thoughtful, sensitive, sophisticated, and coordinated ways. This essay offers seven related strategic considerations for anyone who wishes to battle the "animals as property" rule. |
An Argument for the Basic Legal Rights of Farmed Animals | Steven M. Wise | 106 Mich. L. Rev. First Impressions 133 (2008) | As legal things, nonhuman animals lack all legal rights and remain entirely the object of the rights held by us legal persons—that is, the beings with rights. Most legal protections for nonhuman animals remain indirect (mostly anti-cruelty statutes), enforceable only by public prosecutors. Even the Endangered Species Act requires a human plaintiff to have standing sufficient under Article III of the United States Constitution. It has become clear that no meaningful percentage of nonhuman animals will ever be treated well or fairly until they attain some minimum degree of legal personhood—that is, until they achieve some minimum level of fundamental legal rights. In his article, Steven M. Wise argues for the fundamental rights of nonhuman animals by relying upon bedrock principles of Western law: liberty and equality. |
How Nonhuman Animals Were Trapped in a Nonexistent Universe | Steven M. Wise | 1 Animal L. 15 (1995) | The first in a series of articles by the author whose overall purpose is to explain why legal rights need not be restricted to human beings and why a handful of rights that protect fundamental interests of human beings should also protect the fundamental interests of such nonhuman animals as chimpanzees and bonobos. The second article in this series traces the development of the common law as it concerns the relationships between human and nonhuman animals from its beginnings in the Mesopotamian "law code" of the third and second millennia, B.C. until today. |