ANIMAL COMPANIONS IN MEDIATION

In an earlier post I wrote about mediations involving companion animals. I noted that generally in U.S.law, animals are treated as property, and legal issues are based in contract and property laws.

Some recent cases in the U.S point to possible changes to come. For example, in 2018 the group Nonhuman Rights Project sued the Bronx Zoo for the release of Happy, an Asian elephant. The attorneys argued that cognitively complex animals such as elephants should be treated as “legal persons” entitled to fundamental legal rights, including bodily liberty. The court disagreed.

Later, the group sued the Fresno (California) Chaffee Zoo for illegally imprisoning three elephants, arguing they are entitled to habeas corpus rights (the common law principle that allows a prisoner to appear in court to determine whether they are being detained lawfully). The argument is not that elephants are humans but are “similarly situated” to humans for the purpose of habeas corpus.

This argument could eventually lead to calling into question laboratory animal testing, pet companion “ownership” and animal rights to sue. Whatever the limits may become, it seems clear that U.S. law may eventually recognize that animals have rights too. Then, the next logical step is that an animal could not only be the subject of a mediation, but also one of the parties.

I wish to acknowledge an Op-Ed by Nicholas Goldberg in the Los Angeles Times for the source of some of the information above.