Throughout history, humans have raised and confined animals for food, clothing and research, trained animals for entertainment, fought animals for sport, bought and sold animals for profit, and lived with animals for companionship. The law under the umbrella of 'animal law' regulates these human uses and interactions with animals. Animal law is extremely diverse, cutting across every substantive area, jurisdictional boundary, and source of legal authority. Although most countries have enacted Animal Welfare Acts and Endangered Species Laws, the law is currently designed primarily to protect the interests of humans as owners of animals, or as users of environmental resources. The animals' inherent interests, if considered, are secondary. This text surveys the laws allegedly designed to protect animals, identifies the themes that link them, analyzes and critiques them in light of their consideration and protection of animals' interests, and explores characteristics of a future legal system that would adequately protect animals' inherent interests.

This exploration of the newly emerging, diverse, and controversial area of animal lawpresents a basic survey of the laws designed to protect animals, analyzing and critiquing them, and proposing a future where the legal regime properly recognizes and protects the inherent worth of all animals.