February
 
21
, 
2020

The legal case against anthropocentrism

Animal law raises questions about the legal status of animals and conflicted role in agriculture.

Canada’s agriculture sector raises over 700 million animals for human consumption every year, and a growing body of legal scholarship is examining a dissonance that sits at the heart of those practices. The animal-based agriculture industry—meat, egg and dairy farming—largely governs itself in terms of how farmed animals are raised, operating according to non-enforceable industry codes for animal welfare. In contrast, “an increasing number of those involved in legal education are rethinking the law’s species-based hierarchy that places humans at the apex,” explains UVic law professor and Lansdowne Chair in Law, Maneesha Deckha.

Maneesha Deckha is the representative for University of Victoria as a member of the Brooks Animal Studies Academic Network.