Animal Welfare Laws
This blog makes laws regarding the welfare of animals more comprehensible to laymen – non-lawyers who are not used to finding and reading complex legal materials. Laws regarding animal abuse – more about what animal abuse laws will be covered in this blog in a moment – have been gathered, grouped together by subject, and translated into everyday English. Pet parents, employees of shelters, animal control officers, law enforcement officers, veterinarians, and elected officials can use this blog as a reference for a dear-to-the-heart matter which can be easily understood. Average citizens can connect to petcourt.com, browse through the materials, and understand their responsibility in caring for their dogs and cats. This is a quick reference guide which law enforcement officers can refer to if they observe a horse being whipped. It is a source for those in government to refer to when they meet constituents who present concerns about greyhound racing. Animal shelters need a readily available source for determining their responsibilities for taking in, caring for, adopting out, and possibly euthanizing animals in their care. Veterinarians can refer to this blog if the owner of a pig fails to pay a bill for medical care.
The number of laws and regulations dealing with animals is vast. They include matters concerning animal abuse; veterinary care; euthanasia; animal fights; birds; hunting and fishing; wildlife protection; fisheries; livestock; fencing to prevent animals from running at large; disease control and quarantines; vaccinations; and a multitude of other subjects. All these laws are important, but many are relevant only to a specific element in the population and are unlikely to touch upon the lives of a person in the general population. For example, a computer programmer working in Orlando is unlikely to need to know about the requirements for branding livestock. Laws governing commercial and farming enterprises are of great concern to those in the business of raising animals for food, but they are not discussed in this blog except to the extent a law directly provides for the care of an animal. Laws related to disease control of livestock are exhaustive but are far too extensive for this blog and are of concern primarily to those in the business of raising livestock as a business.
Furthermore, many laws do not concern the well-being of animals. A law governing fencing material to be used around animal pastures does not directly concern the health of the sheep roaming the pasture. Regulations concerning hunting permits have little to do with the health of deer or bear. Those laws are not translated in this blog.
Animals can be grouped into categories based upon the environment in which they live: land, marine, or air. Unless there is a law which addresses a specific marine or flying animal, laws concerning amphibians, reptiles, fish, and birds also are not discussed in this blog.
This blog addresses laws which pet parents, animal shelters, law enforcement officers, veterinarians, and those with jobs that regularly touch upon animal safety are most likely to encounter at some point in day-to-day life. Animals most likely to be encountered are dogs and cats, and therefore, they are the focal point of this blog.
Please remember, this blog is not providing legal advice. It is an attempt to make laws written by lawyers understandable to non-lawyers. If you or anyone else have a specific question regarding the meaning of the law and its potential violation, please contact a lawyer to address your specific concerns.