By V Victoria Shroff, KC, Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics
The growing loss of wildlife globally should unite countries in the same way the climate crisis demands global cooperation as animals, ecosystems, and economies are interconnected.
Examining animal protection laws and practices internationally encourages collaboration among countries and helps strengthen legal protections.
In my 25-year career practicing and teaching animal law in Vancouver, Canada, adopting a global perspective has been essential because many animal-related issues like biodiversity loss transcend national borders.
Animal protection laws need a global focus
Wildlife trafficking, migratory species protection, ocean and air pollution, and the international trade in animals for fur, meat, and other products are clear examples of issues that involve multiple nations. Examples are widespread; both legal and illegal wildlife trafficking sustain organised crime and increase biodiversity loss. Habitat loss fuels extinction.
International trade involving animals is commonplace: New Zealand lamb meat is exported to Canadian grocers; Irish cheese retails in American stores; and Canadian horses are legally shipped alive on long journeys to Japan and eaten as a delicacy; Australia’s live sheep and cattle exports have been debated internationally for years, particularly exports to the Middle East. Global supply chains can shift animal production to places with weaker welfare laws, while animal products travel easily through international markets.
Industrial factory farming is a scourge affecting millions of land animals and contributes significantly to the climate crisis through greenhouse gas emissions, land use, feed production, and waste pollution resulting in biodiversity loss. For reasons like these, animal law must be treated as a global concern.
Justice must extend beyond the human species
Safeguarding animals means safeguarding the planet, and that requires international cooperation grounded in compassion, science, and legal accountability.
Justice must extend to vulnerable beings who cannot advocate for themselves, yet whose lives are inextricably bound to ours. This is not a sentimental aspiration; it is a necessity. In an era of globalised trade, climate disaster, and biodiversity collapse, how humans treat animals has planetary consequences.
Animals, humans, and the environment: Interconnectedness, Rights of Nature, and One Health
Climate change and environmental damage reveal the inextricable links between animals, humans, and ecosystems. Issues impacting animals in one country often reverberate across borders, as animal welfare standards and trade laws create domino effects beyond national jurisdictions. The Rights of Nature movement and the One Health principle formally recognise that human, animal and environmental wellness are inseparable. Indigenous cultures worldwide have long embraced such relational worldviews, offering guidance for future sentience-based laws and stewardship of the natural world.
The fur industry offers a telling example. Canada’s beavers once fuelled the beaver hat trade in the UK, a centuries-long enterprise that was wholly indifferent to animal welfare and ecological consequences and led to the near extinction of beavers in many Provinces.
Consumers can drive change and fortunately, post COVID-19, a cultural shift is underway: fur is increasingly rejected as fashion’s reliance on it declines.
Zoo animals illustrate global connectedness. Consider Lucy, an elderly elephant living in Edmonton, Alberta’s freezing climate. Born in Sri Lanka and sold to a Canadian zoo in the 1970s, she has spent decades in captivity in an environment far removed from her natural habitat. Today, we know far more about elephant intelligence and welfare. That knowledge must compel a shift in perspective: animals should not be treated as entertainers, props, or property, but as sentient individuals whose lives have intrinsic value.
Positive animal welfare shifts are emerging. Some zoos and marine parks in Europe are closing or restructuring under economic pressure and evolving ethics. In Canada, the controversial Marineland animal-based entertainment complex has finally closed, but with closure comes the question of suitable homes for the remaining whales. Fortunately, Canada banned the capture and breeding of whales and dolphins in 2019, and animal advocates, including the Canadian Animal Law Study Group (a collective I chair), have been pushing for sanctuaries rather than transfers of animals to new performing venues that would perpetuate heartbreaking captivity.
Keystone Change: Property status, factory farming, and international trade
Despite growing scientific consensus on sentience, most legal frameworks continue to treat animals as property, limiting their protection in court. Industrial farming, overfishing, animal testing, and the global animal trade continue under a property framework.
The 2009 Lisbon Treaty explicitly recognised animals as sentient beings and affirmed that the EU and its Member States bear an ethical responsibility to prevent maltreatment, pain, and suffering. The EU provides a leading example, pushing animal welfare reforms in farming, transport, and trade.
A 2024 declaration signed by dozens of cognition scholars, scientists, and animal lawyers, including myself, states that there is strong scientific support for attributions of conscious experience and sentience to many species and that it is “irresponsible” to ignore welfare risks.
Treating sentient beings as legal property remains a major barrier to meaningful protection. A keystone change, whereby legal systems recognise animal sentience would strengthen protections for animals and the ecosystems they depend on. Harmonising international animal law on these humane principles could close enforcement gaps and curb cruelty, helping reduce exploitation worldwide.
Progress will begin when humans shift our view of animals from something to someone. The measure of civilisation lies in how we treat the most vulnerable morally and legally. By that measure, the global community still has much work to do.
The world is on notice – change is inevitable
Countries must stand united in the face of the all-consuming climate crisis. Climate change threatens all species – human and n0n-human. Rising temperatures, disrupted rainfall, and extreme weather events have altered ecosystems beyond recognition. We are witnessing a sixth mass extinction, with over one million species at risk.
Industry resistance to animal and environmental safeguards will be inevitable, but governments must prioritise One Health and sentience principles. Further change is inevitable. Our collective survival and the future of animal, human, and environmental protection depends on cross-border cooperation.
Emerging legal recognition of Companion Animals (pets)
While wild and farmed animals continue to struggle mightily, companion animals (pets) are beginning to receive greater legal recognition of their sentience and protection. One reason is that many families now live in multi-species households, where animals are treated like family members. Although companion animals are still property in most countries, the gap between societal values and legal frameworks is gradually narrowing. Countries like Spain, the Canadian province of British Columbia, and several American states are recognising companion animals as more than property in family law through legislation.
A key global aspect of pet ownership or custody is the Violence Link, whereby animals, and the partner who cares for them, are subjected to violence by an abusive spouse. This common reality highlights the intersection between animal protection, coercive control, and human-animal safety.
In 2024, British Columbia became the first province in Canada to amend its Family Law Act to recognise pets as more than property in family disputes. I was honoured to lend my voice to these landmark amendments. I describe the 2024 framework as a “best interests for all concerned” contextual test. British Columbia courts must weigh factors such as family violence toward the human and the pet, rather than relying solely on ownership documents.
In 2025, Australia enacted family law reforms that closely track British Columbia’s “pet custody” model.
The rise of animal law and international collaborations
Over the past quarter century, animal law has grown rapidly across academia, legislatures, and the courts. Many law schools worldwide now teach animal law; specialists are emerging; and litigation and legislative reforms aimed at strengthening animal protection are increasing around the world.
Since 2016, I have taught Animal Law at the University of British Columbia’s Peter A. Allard School of Law. Using my book, Canadian Animal Law as the foundational text, we explore how global perspectives are transforming animal law.
Shortly after I began teaching, I started the Canadian Animal Law Study Group, a national alliance of over 70 members comprising legal professionals and academics. Our mission is to critically examine laws affecting animals and advance their rights and welfare. There are also several strong animal law focused groups in Europe, Africa, Asia, South and North America. For example, in the UK there is the UK Centre for Animal Law (A-LAW), the Animal Law Foundation, and Advocates for Animals.
Thanks to social media and professional networks, the cross-pollination of ideas now occurs rapidly. Progress in one jurisdiction often sparks reform elsewhere. Canada’s recent ban on cosmetic testing was partly inspired by earlier UK and EU models.
A longstanding model of international collaboration for the betterment of animals is the UK- based Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. The Centre fosters global scholarship in ethical and legal thought about animals, asking questions such as:
- What moral, ethical, and legal status should animals have?
- What duties do humans owe them?
- How should legal systems reflect those duties?
Each summer, the Centre hosts the Oxford Animal Ethics Summer School, bringing together international scholars to explore interdisciplinary themes of inquiry. In 2026, there will be an international exploration of “Ethical Strategies for Animal Protection” addressing legal, cultural, and societal obstacles with key approaches including recognising sentience, challenging animal commodification, and implementing practical reforms.
Conclusion
In a world where animals, ecosystems, and economies are interconnected, global dialogue about law is no longer optional, it is essential. The animal laws we create today will determine whether future generations inherit a planet where animals are exploited resources or properly recognised as sentient beings with intrinsic worth and with whom we share the Earth.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Victoria Shroff, K.C., Canada’s 1st and only animal law lawyer appointed King’s Counsel, has been practicing animal law for over 25 years in Vancouver at Shroff Animal Law (Shroff & Associates). She is also an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, an independent centre pioneering ethical perspectives on animals through academic research, teaching, and publication. The Centre comprises more than 100 academic Fellows worldwide and hosts the annual Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Summer School, now in its eleventh year. The Revd. Professor Andrew Linzey, Director of the Centre is the subject of a new documentary called ‘The Animal Thing’.
Web: www.oxfordanimalethics.com/home
Instagram: @oxfordanimalethics
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@oxfordanimalethics