Animal law is a subject that we often treat as a singular field of study or discussion but, in practice, appears in many contexts across the wider legal landscape. That wide applicability and sometimes unexpected appearance in these settings can make it difficult to research, but there is help!
CLASSIC SOURCES
A cursory search of a library catalog or publisher’s website may make the available practical resources appear thin. As a field, animal law draws many interested parties, and due to the nature of the legal questions involved, stakeholders are often extremely passionate. As such, a good percentage of the available resources focus on advocacy rather than day-to-day practice.
To some degree, this effect can be mitigated by changing one’s approach to researching the area — instead of seeking resources on animal law with the hope of finding a source with an applicable section or chapter, it may be better to seek resources with animals being the secondary filter rather than the primary one. In other words, if a search for an animal law book with a chapter on assistance animals for disabled persons is not fruitful, seek a resource on disability law and look for a chapter on animals.
This approach can weed out a lot of search hits that are biased or focused on advocacy, and it can cut down on what the practitioner must sort through to find something concise and useful. Examples are readily available in books from great publishers that one may already have: the Institute of Continuing Legal Education’s “Michigan Causes of Action Formbook” has an entire chapter on animal torts authored by Michael J. Morse.1 Similarly, another ICLE selection, “Drafting the Michigan Trust,” has a chapter on specialty trusts written by Rebecca K. Wrock and Michael G. Lichterman that includes provisions for the benefit of pets and other domestic animals.2 Other books on elder and disability law, property, and landlord-tenant relations may include material on assistance animals and pets.
The publication that usefully collects practical animal law resources together is rare; one recommendation the author can give is David Favre’s “Animal Law: Welfare, Interests, and Rights.”3 The third edition published in 2019 collects, organizes, and discusses a variety of practical matters in a way that provides excellent context and a conceptual framework for how animal law reaches into so many areas of practice. Favre teaches at Michigan State University School of Law in the areas of animal law and property.
AN UNEXPECTED BOON
The aforementioned book is not Favre’s only contribution. An expert in animal law for decades, he created the Animal Legal and Historical Center at www.animallaw.info and serves as its editor-in-chief. It’s a tremendous resource for information on animal law not just in Michigan, but in the United States and around the globe.
Founded more than 20 years ago and serving more than 9,000 visitors a day,4 the Animal Legal and Historical Center hosts a collection of primary and secondary information on legal topics pertaining to animals. The center’s website is designed to satisfy a variety of audiences and provides information at many levels of detail. The website’s goals:
- To provide a web library of legal and policy materials as it relates to animals.
- To provide expert explanation of the materials for both the lawyer and the non-lawyer.
- To provide a historical perspective about social and legal attitudes toward animals, and how we got to our present perspective.5
The site serves primarily as a legal policy library. For attorneys, the Animal Legal and Historical Center has a repository of more than 1,200 modern and historical cases from the United States and the United Kingdom along with more than 1,400 state, federal, and tribal statutes. The cases and statutes are reprinted from Westlaw with permission, adding an additional layer of reliability. Other primary materials include hundreds of administrative decisions, local ordinances, pleadings, and treaties. Further, more than 1,100 law review articles and publications like toolkits are available.
Intended for attorneys doing comparative work or for members of the press, the website also provides tables of relevant state law summarizing statutory language from all 50 states on a variety of animal law topics and includes citations and links to source material in the center’s repository. These tables cover issues like dangerous dog laws, animal cruelty reporting requirements, service animals, and leash laws. Annual summaries of updates to state laws are also available as is a collection of ballot measures, propositions, and citizen initiatives going back more than 25 years.
The website also houses clickable maps of state laws by animal law topic, allowing for visual representation of variations in the law and a ready reference to source material for each state. For example, the map of states with laws protecting animals in parked cars is fully clickable to relevant code sections and is color-coded for states with “good Samaritan” rescue laws, states with law enforcement rescue laws, states with laws regarding animals in parked cars but no provisions for rescue, and states without a law on the topic. It’s an excellent quick reference for making comparisons between states and a tool for corroborating research results (or a lack thereof) within any particular jurisdiction.
There are also dozens of topical introductions to various aspects of animal law. Despite their stated intent as resources for students and laypersons, they are excellent guides for attorneys seeking to understand context, develop background knowledge, and build vocabulary for more effective searching and drafting. They are formatted much like library research guides and provide summary information along with linked resources — some of which are extremely thorough.
Beyond federal and state law, the center’s repository also contains basic legal materials from around the world. As an impressive example, it hosts the most comprehensive collection of Latin American animal cases and supporting law in the world.
All of the above are collected and preserved in a searchable database with a robust navigation infrastructure and an extremely intuitive and helpful custom search tool. Users can search by keyword, jurisdiction, type of material, species, or even using a standardized vocabulary of animal law topics.
The breadth and depth of the Animal Legal and Historical Center collection is impressive, as is its ease of use and currency. Perhaps most remarkable, however, is that it doesn’t cost a dime to use. This resource is completely free to the user, funded by donations and the efforts of Favre and his team.
CONCLUSION
Like many areas, animal law presents several challenges to legal researchers. Its principles are applied in many contexts and touch on a variety of subjects and types of legal questions. Moreover, it draws passionate advocates and generates its fair share of goal-oriented published material. With that in mind, it can prove difficult to find a singular resource summarizing the principles of animal law in a broader context along with more specific references and resources aimed at the practice of law.
Fortunately, our state has a local expert and organization intent on doing just that: bringing together animal law resources in a comprehensive manner and presenting them in a useable format.