This book describes the whole production process – from before conception to the way the animals we use for food are presented on the supermarket shelves: the chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese; the laying hens, quail and the pheasants reared for sport; the pigs and lambs; the dairy cattle, beef cattle and veal calves; and also the rabbits as well as the fish and shellfish. END

Published by Pen Press and available from Amazon at £8.99; from public libraries in the UK and Ireland; and also Ingrams (in the USA).

With best wishes,

Sue Cross

Thanks for your comment. My posting doesn’t give much of an overview to the articles, so I suggest that you read a few of them! Agricultural animals/law is not the focus; the authors are solo and small-firm attorneys who have devoted their practices either partly or entirely to animal law cases, which primarily involve companion animals. In these cases it has become increasingly clear that neither “person” nor “property” are very effective at characterizing the role of pets in families.

Because laws must be interpreted before they are enforced, a growing handful of cities–plus Rhode Island–have changed the wording of their laws to refer to “pet guardians” rather than “pet owners” and in some cases “companions” rather than “pets.” While these changes may seem small, they offer a significantly different set of possible interpretations. Here is a link to a CNN Law article which describes this shift and mentions a historic case in which a companion animal’s best interest was used to determine a custody ruling, rather than the guardians’property rights.

Laws do constantly evolve–alongside the social values, political forces, and scientific knowledge that they reflect–so to my mind it’s only natural that animal laws are evolving.