High Noon for Animal Rights Law: The Coming Showdown Between Pet Owners and Guardians
Susan I Finkelstein · Scholarly Commons (University of Pennsylvania) · 2005
About our coverYou will no doubt recognize a familiar face on the cover of this edition of Bellwether.His name is Chondo, and he is one of the Wegman Weimaraners.Photographed by and printed courtesy of William Wegman, Chondo doesn't like to sit long, but is eager to work.According to Wegman's website, www.wegmanworld.com,Weimaraners in particular like to play, and they see their photo ops as an interactive game.Chondo is the perfect model for our cover story on animal rights law."Whether we like it or not, people's attitudes to animals have changed dramatically in the last 20-30 years, and our legal system is struggling to keep pace," says James Serpell, Ph.D., the Marie A. Moore Professor of Humane Ethics and Animal Welfare and director of the Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society (CIAS)."The moral boundaries that traditionally separated humans and nonhumans have become increasingly blurred, and some animals-especially companion animals-have acquired a social and emotional value that far exceeds their basic economic worth.The 'guardianship' debate, like the 'animal rights' controversy before it, reflects these changing sensibilities and the rising tide of public pressure to award animals higher moral and legal status than they have hitherto enjoyed."For more information about the CIAS, please visit www.vet.upenn.edu/research/centers/cias/.