Consider the Lobster: Animal Law and Policy

Undergraduate / Graduate

Brief Description: Humans share the Earth with countless multitudes of sentient, non-human beings. We categorize our fellow earthlings into, for example, farm animals; pets; wild animals; pests; and so on. For each of these animal categories, we have laws, policies, and norms that influence our interactions with our fellow creatures and also profoundly affect the births, lives, and deaths of animals. This discussion-based course examines animal-related policies. We will look at broad questions - should animal wellbeing be directly taken into account in policy analysis, or only accounted for via human interest in animal wellbeing? - as well as specific policies with respect to farm animals, zoo animals, companion animals, and so on.