By Marianthi Baklava Following He Whakaputanga Moana (the landmark Declaration for the Ocean signed by Polynesian Indigenous leaders in March 2024), momentum continues to build for recognising whales as legal persons. The initiative forms part of wider conservation efforts in the South Pacific led...
By Divya Selvaraj The Zoo Licensing Act (1981) defines zookeeping as the keeping of an animal “when it is elsewhere in the personal possession of the operator of the zoo, or of competent persons acting on his behalf”.1 Read together with the Zoo Licensing Act 1981: Guide to the Act’s...
By Bridget Craghill While snakes are often excluded from mainstream animal welfare discussions, new research is rapidly reshaping scientific and legal understandings of their needs. A new study suggests that housing conditions have significant neurological and behavioural impacts on these animals....
by Jenny Canham Routine male chick culling in the UK Male chick culling is a routine practice in the UK egg industry. Every year, around 45 million male chicks are killed within just hours of being born. Because they are not female, and therefore cannot lay eggs, they are deemed as useless or...
By Josephine Götze, LL.M. candidate Imagine a world in which humans respect and protect the fundamental rights of non-human animals, such as the right to life, the right not to be exploited, or the right to freedom of movement, not only because it is ethically right, but because the law requires...
By Advocate Lior Harish The Iconic painting called “The trial of Bill Burn” (see below) is regarded by many (including the UK parliament) as portraying the first1 prosecution under the ‘Act to prevent the cruel and improper treatment of Cattle 18222, also referred to as...
By David Lewis-Hall, Barrister The New Zealand Parliament has recently granted (1) legal personhood to a third natural entity, following Te Urewera (a forest) in 2014 (2) and Te Awa Tupua (the Whanganui River) in 2017. (3) Whilst this, along with other recent developments, may be good evidence of...
By Aldair Marins Violent interventionism, the theft of natural ethos and, consequently, the silencing of vital expressions have imposed a cruel fate on Puppy, Kuky and Sandro. For around three decades, these elephants were held in captivity, deprived of the exercise of their natural ethos, in...
It is with great sadness – and an immense sense of loss – that we inform our friends and supporters that our wonderful Chairperson, Paula Sparks, passed away on the 30th of May 2025. Over the past 15 months, Paula’s daily life was increasingly affected by the symptoms of motor neurone disease....
By Dr Dorien Braam During my doctoral research conducted in Jordan and Pakistan into the role of animals in forced migration and zoonoses – diseases transmissible between humans and animals – the devastation as a result of the loss of animals killed as a result of conflict, during...
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