Animal Rights and State Politics: What Puts a Bite in the Law?

Animal Rights and State Politics: What Puts a Bite in the Law? Despite considerable interest in the normative dimensions of animal welfare, there exist few empirical examinations of the adoption and implementation of animal welfare legislation by American state and local governments. In this article we explore whether, as a “new ” rights claim, animal rights have achieved protection through state legislation. We offer hypotheses that the public’s core perspective on the way of governing human-animal interactions, political ideology, socioeconomic conditions, and the professionalism of legislatures will contribute to a complex of state laws that treat animals as rights-bearers, regulated property, and objects of human domination. To test the hypotheses, the article uses data from the authors ’ survey of Americans ’ views on rights and animal laws and a database on the adoption of animal legislation by the American states compiled by the authors. The findings suggest that the evolution of the law toward a political perspective amenable to the concept of animal rights remains contested.-3-Animal Rights and State Politics: What Puts a Bite in the Law? The recent conviction of star professional football player Michael Vick on federal anima