A new worldwide animal welfare project initiated by the Foundation for the Animal in the Law
On October 7th 2004, the Foundation for the Animal in the Law presented its project “Animals in the Law – a Global Perspective” to a large crowd of interested listeners at the 11th IAHAIO congress, in Glasgow. Based on 18 different criteria, we compared the legal standing of the human-animal-relationship in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, the USA and Switzerland. The overall outcome of this presentation showed, that all researched states possessed some animal friendly norms in certain parts of their legislation (especially in civil law), but from an animal welfare perspective on the human-animal-relationship there are huge shortcomings, in other areas of the law.
The presentation of Dr. iur. Antoine F. Goetschel and Dr. iur. Gieri Bolliger found favor with the international audience of the congress. With a view to the next IAHAIO congress in Tokyo, in 2007, we decided to continue our research and to include additional states, as well as, different aspects of the animal in the law, into the comparison. This requires the co-operation with jurisprudents, veterinarians or animal welfare organizations of different nations, with the Foundation for the Animal in the Law offering to assume the role of project director.
Following this presentation, co-operations with experts from Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Italy could be established. This network of co-operations shall continually be expanded over the course of time. It is the goal of this close international co-operation to refine the existing model, with a view to the 12th IAHAIO congress in Tokyo, in 2007, and to expand it by as many states and new aspects as possible. By doing so, the mutual understanding for the peculiarities of national provisions for the animal in the law shall be cultivated.
In particular, we hope that this project will help the states to support each other with the creation and implementation of stricter norms. In this manner, the position of the animal in the law shall be gradually improved in the individual national legislations.
For this purpose, all national wordings of the law shall be made available for all interested parties in their original language, as well as, in an English translation. The Foundation for the Animal in the Law is happy to provide its webpage (www.tierimrecht.org or, respectively, www.animallaw.ch) as a platform to which we will add an area “International Animal Welfare Legislation” in the foreseeable future.
Further information: