Every year, about 75 billion animals are raised for food around the world. Of that number, a recent study finds, a stomach-turning 18 billion farmed animals go to waste.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of industrial animal cruelty. Another new report estimates that about 5.5 billion wild animals are currently being farmed globally, raking in billions of dollars for the wildlife trade industry.
Over the past few decades, the global public has become more aware of how animals can suffer as a result of human activity and has increasingly demanded greater legal protection for animals.
When viewed through the prism of an interconnected world, fundamental human rights are inextricably linked to the rights of animals.
What many fail to recognize, however, is that by protecting animals, we are also protecting ourselves. Factory farming and obscene levels of meat consumption cripple our ability to respond effectively to the climate crisis, and wildlife farming and trade puts the world in danger of zoonotic disease, as we saw with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The interconnectedness of humans, animals and the environment has been recognized by the World Health Organization, and in 2022, the U.N. adopted a resolution affirming that the health and welfare of animals is connected to the health and wellbeing of humans. This recognition, which is slowly but surely taking hold, is the basis for many recent legal reforms around the world, from prohibiting the extreme confinement of farmed animals to recognizing animals as sentient beings.
Shared threats
Human activity is driving many of the current global crises that we face, including deforestation, pollution, loss of biodiversity and climate change, each of which is the direct result of humanity’s exploitation and destruction of animals and the natural world.
The plundering of natural resources and the callous destruction of delicate ecosystems and forests have profound consequences for humanity. The exploitation and pollution of the world’s oceans by marine plastic pollution and oil spills, among other things, threaten all ocean life. Military exercises, such as the testing of bombs and the use of underwater sonar, kill billions of sea animals, while industrial fishing longlines have killed billions more, including dolphins, whales, sea turtles and other non-target species who are written off by the fishing industry as mere “by-catch.”
And it’s not just animals paying the price.
Our destruction of the natural world has profound implications for national security. A number of global conflicts today have broken out over competition for resources driven by man-made climate change.
Our reliance on animal-based food systems contribute to global hunger and water scarcity by depleting vital resources that could otherwise be used to address food insecurity and to ensure equitable access to clean drinking water for the world’s population. Animal agriculture also fuels deforestation in order to make way for grazing land and feed crops for farmed animals, which increases the frequency of destructive weather events, exacerbates food and water shortages, and results in species extinction.
Wildlife trafficking, both legal and illegal, is driving the loss of biodiversity and the rise of zoonotic diseases, such as Covid-19. About 75% of emerging diseases are zoonotic, as Brookings Institute notes, and pre-Covid zoonotic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, SARS, flu, yellow fever and more have resulted in millions of human deaths annually. “The emergence of other zoonotic diseases and devastating global pandemics is inevitable unless we fundamentally revise our relationship with nature,” Brookings researchers conclude.
Our destruction of the natural world also has profound implications for national security, as scarce resources, including food and water, lead to a growing number of wars and conflicts. A number of global conflicts today, including in Sudan, broke out over competition for limited resources driven by man-made climate change.
These global crises have cascading, detrimental effects on ecosystems and on human societies beyond food and water insecurity and economic instability. The global threats that we face threaten all life on the planet, yet for the most part they are unchallenged by legal restraint and, as a result, are accelerating.
Outdated laws that fail to protect the planet’s rich biodiversity and natural spaces are having catastrophic consequences for humanity — but it doesn’t have to be this way. To protect our shared destinies, we must accept that the rights of humans are inextricably linked to how we treat the natural world. Protecting animals with meaningful and substantive laws, and ensuring that such laws are enforced, is critically important to both people and animals.
The emergence of animal law
The extraordinary legal reforms that we have seen in recent decades, that aim to provide greater legal protection for animals, are a recognition that our actions have profound implications not only for animals and the environment but also for humanity.
Legal systems are increasingly recognizing the shared destinies of humans and animals who face the same planetary emergencies, including resource shortages and climate-related threats. The realization that these global threats threaten all life on the planet is inspiring legal scholars worldwide to change how our laws treat animals.
The result of these efforts is the development of a new field of law known as animal law. Enacting meaningful laws that recognize that our future is interconnected and interdependent with other species can help protect the planet for generations to come.
Enacting meaningful laws that recognize that our future is interconnected and interdependent with other species can help protect the planet for generations to come.
Many people seem to be under the misapprehension that animals are adequately protected under the law; some countries have, after all, enacted stronger anti-cruelty laws and new laws in an attempt to fight wildlife trafficking and to halt species extinctions. Other nations have overhauled their laws to protect animals in response to humanity’s growing understanding of the interconnectedness of our world and the animal kingdom. A growing number of countries are even recognizing animals as sentient beings.
And yet humans continue to inflict indescribable suffering and misery on nearly every species of animal. Animals still suffer for our entertainment. They endure misery and cruelty in research laboratories, on factory farms, for fashion, in human conflicts. Wildlife, aquatic animals and companion animals are not immune from exploitation and abuse. It is unconscionable.
Still early days
Despite this pivotal moment in legal discourse, we are at present only in the very early stages of the developing body of animal law. While great initial progress has been made, it is abundantly clear that legal reform requires a far more concerted global effort and a comprehensive legal framework to address the complex issues that are involved in the proper treatment of animals and the recognition of their legal rights.
Developing robust legal frameworks for the protection of animals will require that we recognize an animal’s right to live free from exploitation and harm. It will also require a sober reflection as to how our own actions contribute to their suffering and how our mistreatment of animals jeopardizes our shared destinies.
Strong laws must also empower local communities if we are to protect both people and animals from, for example, the devastating consequences of wildlife trafficking. Implementing stronger and more coordinated legal measures to protect the natural world will help to safeguard vital ecosystems for both human communities and for animal life.
When viewed through the prism of an interconnected world, fundamental human rights are inextricably linked to the rights of animals.
