Increasing Legal Rights for Zoo Animals

Justice on the Ark

Foreword by Nigel Rothfels Contributions by Donald E. Moore III, Susan Margulis, Michael Morris, Mary Murray, Govindasamy Agoramoorthy, Ron Kagan, Jesse Donahue Edited by Jesse Donahue

Not available to order

Publication date:

12 April 2017

Length of book:

190 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498528955

We are on the precipice of momentous legal changes for animals that may soon give some of them rights of personhood and citizenship. Companion animals in particular are gaining rights to public representation in government, access to housing, inheritance, and increased protection through the criminal justice system. Nonhuman primates used as research subjects are also gaining limited rights of personhood in some countries. This book examines how zoo animals could benefit from that revolution as well. Reviewing zoo law and politics in the United States, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia, scholars and zoo directors grapple with how the current law in those regions of the world impacts zoo animals and how it could be changed to serve them better. They discuss the ways in which zoo animals could benefit from some re-worked companion animal law in the United States; the challenges of reintroductions and their legal barriers; how we can extend ideas of human research subject rights to zoo animal research; the stark problems of too few animal welfare laws in South East Asia; the need for a central governing body focused solely on exotic captive animals in New Zealand; and the need for stricter laws preventing the exotic pet problem that is increasingly affecting both zoos and sanctuaries. The book starts a dialogue that moves the scholarship about zoos beyond a general discussion of ethics to a concrete dialogue and set of suggestions about how to extend legal rights to this group of animals.
Earth is now a managed sanctuary. Wilderness is a relative status and is much diminished. Wildlife, wherever it survives, is necessary to our quality of life and yet it is poorly protected. It is time that the one dominant species gets serious about protecting the other species. Zoo and aquarium animals are a significant part of bringing about these protections. These institutions need to be supported and improved, not ignored and closed. The essays in this book are timely and important contributions to our efforts to recognize the value of zoo and aquarium animals in the struggle to finally, and effectively, conserve our wildlife. They are essential reading for anyone interested in accomplishing these conservation efforts.