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Animals
Special Issues
Animal Law and Policy Across the Globe in 2025
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Animal Law and Policy Across the Globe in 2025

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Public Policy, Politics and Law".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2025) | Viewed by 2606

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Steven P. McCulloch

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Politics and Society, University of Winchester, Winchester SO22 4NR, UK
Interests: animal welfare science; animal ethics; animal law and policy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Amanda Whitfort

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Interests: animal welfare law; wildlife crime; criminal procedure in Hong Kong SAR, China

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Animals invites submission to a special edition ‘Animal Law and Policy Across the Globe in 2025’. The purpose of the special edition is to publish a set of peer-reviewed articles documenting the state of animal law and policy at a time of substantial legal and political change across the globe. We welcome articles focused on current directions in animal law and policy, highlighting specific jurisdictions. To avoid duplication of coverage, please write to the Special Issue guest editors Dr. Steven McCulloch (Steven.McCulloch@winchester.ac.uk) and Prof. Amanda Whitfort (whitfort@hku.hk) with expressions of interest before submission. Suggested areas of interest include animal law and policy in specific jurisdictions, including the USA, UK, EU, China, Japan, Australia, Argentina, South Africa, Germany, California, etc. Articles might focus on animal law and/or policy in specific sectors of animal use, cross-jurisdictional legal and policy issues, fundamental legal issues such as the recognition of sentience and personhood, and precedent-setting case law. See the following list of possible article titles to illustrate:

  1. Animal Law and Policy in the USA [the EU, China, Brazil, Mexico, etc.]
  2. Farmed Animal Law Policy in Australia
  3. Law And Policy on The Utilization of Research Animals Across the Globe
  4. Wild Animal Conservation Law and Policy in the Americas
  5. The State of Companion Animal Protection Law in Asia
  6. Recent Developments in Wild Animal Protection Law in South America
  7. The Legal Consideration of Animal Sentience in the EU and USA
  8. The Legal Status and Protection of Great Apes Across the Globe in 2025 and Future Developments

Dr. Steven P. McCulloch
Prof. Amanda Whitfort
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • animal law and policy
  • cruelty
  • welfare
  • animal sentience
  • legal personhood

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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25 pages, 953 KiB  
Article
How Changing Portraits and Opinions of “Pit Bulls” Undermined Breed-Specific Legislation in the United States
by Michael Tesler and Mary McThomas
Animals 2025, 15(14), 2083; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15142083 - 15 Jul 2025
Viewed by 718
Abstract
Scholars and journalists typically trace the diffusion of breed-specific legislation (BSL) in the U.S. to the surge in negative media portraits of pit bull-type dogs (PBTDs) during the late twentieth century. Yet, while news coverage still portrays these dogs unfavorably, we document a [...] Read more.
Scholars and journalists typically trace the diffusion of breed-specific legislation (BSL) in the U.S. to the surge in negative media portraits of pit bull-type dogs (PBTDs) during the late twentieth century. Yet, while news coverage still portrays these dogs unfavorably, we document a sharp rise in countervailing sources of “pit bull positivity” over the past two decades. Drawing on insights from the respective social science research on changes in attitudes and public policy, we argue that this influx of positivity should powerfully impact opinions and policies towards PBTDs. Our data and analyses consistently support that argument. We analyze two different series of repeated cross-sectional surveys to show that public support for “pit bulls” grew considerably from 2014 to 2024. We also show that voters’ support for ballot measures overturning local “pit bull bans” increased substantially during that same ten-year period. Finally, our analysis of the frames and narratives deployed in recent state and local policy debates shows how this growing pit bull positivity has helped overturn over 300 discriminatory laws against these dogs since 2012. We conclude with a discussion of how shifts in portraits and opinions of PBTDs will likely continue eroding breed-specific legislation going forward. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animal Law and Policy Across the Globe in 2025)
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Review

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34 pages, 672 KiB  
Review
Intellectual Property Protection of New Animal Breeds in China: Theoretical Justification, International Comparison, and Institutional Construction
by Wenfei Zhang and Xinyi Chen
Animals 2025, 15(16), 2411; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15162411 - 17 Aug 2025
Viewed by 277
Abstract
As vital outcomes of agricultural technological innovation, new animal breeds are not only foundational to rural revitalization but also central to preserving ecological diversity. At present, China lacks a clear and coherent legal framework of protection for new animal breeds, making it difficult [...] Read more.
As vital outcomes of agricultural technological innovation, new animal breeds are not only foundational to rural revitalization but also central to preserving ecological diversity. At present, China lacks a clear and coherent legal framework of protection for new animal breeds, making it difficult to accommodate practical demands posed by modern breeding technologies such as gene editing. The results show that international models for protecting intellectual property in new animal breeds generally fall into three categories: granting patents for animal breeds, granting patents for breeding methods, and establishing sui generis rights for animal breeds. The sui generis protecting model of animal breed rights provides stronger protection and better reflects genetic specificity of such breeds. This research recommends that, on ethical review, stricter oversight of animal welfare and genetic data usage should be implemented to promote responsible innovation. On safety assessment, detailed standards should be developed for food and environmental risk assessment to ensure biodiversity and ecological sustainability. On risk balance evaluation, efforts should be made to ensure effective alignment among animal breed rights, animal welfare, and fair competition in the market, while also striking an appropriate balance of interests between breeders and other stakeholders such as farmers, who act as conservers and providers of germplasm resources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animal Law and Policy Across the Globe in 2025)
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10 pages, 219 KiB  
Review
Ritual Slaughter and Supranational Jurisprudence: A European Perspective
by Michela Maria Dimuccio, Pasquale De Marzo, Virginia Conforti, Francesco Emanuele Celentano and Giancarlo Bozzo
Animals 2025, 15(12), 1756; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15121756 - 14 Jun 2025
Viewed by 502
Abstract
Ritual slaughter—understood as the killing of animals without prior stunning for religious purposes—constitutes a legally and ethically intricate domain, situated at the intersection of animal welfare, freedom of religion, public health, and consumer protection. This review offers a critical examination of the influence [...] Read more.
Ritual slaughter—understood as the killing of animals without prior stunning for religious purposes—constitutes a legally and ethically intricate domain, situated at the intersection of animal welfare, freedom of religion, public health, and consumer protection. This review offers a critical examination of the influence exerted by international and supranational jurisprudence—most notably the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union—on the regulatory landscape governing ritual slaughter. While the right to religious freedom enjoys robust protection under European constitutional and human rights frameworks, recent judicial decisions have affirmed the legitimacy of national legislative measures mandating pre-slaughter stunning, insofar as such measures pursue objectives of animal welfare and transparency in the public interest. Particular attention is devoted to seminal rulings originating in Belgium and within the broader EU context, with a focus on the application of the principle of proportionality as a legal mechanism for balancing colliding fundamental rights. The analysis further engages with the scientific and ethical discourse surrounding animal suffering and the legal obligations tied to consumer information and labeling. Taken together, these developments reveal an emergent trajectory within EU law toward the progressive tightening of regulatory standards governing ritual slaughter, shaped by an evolving jurisprudential understanding of animal welfare imperatives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animal Law and Policy Across the Globe in 2025)
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