International Animal Law, with a Concentration on Latin America, Asia, and Africa

The status of domestic animal protection laws in Asia, Africa, and Latin America varies, as one might imagine, from country to country. Countries with high per capita incomes are more likely to have a large number of animal protection organizations, whose existence normally leads to the passage of protective legislation.1 The sociopolitical, cultural, and religious backgrounds of each country, as well as previous colonization, also influence whether it has animal protection legislation and whether these laws are enforced. Previous colonization is the case in many former British colonies, which often have very good laws but neither the means nor the interest to enforce them. With some exception, countries within each region of the world follow similar patterns of law and enforcement. (Logically, it would follow that countries with the highest number of animal protection groups per land area or per population would be the most likely to have an animal protection law, yet these concepts do not necessarily correlate, though it may reflect increased interest in animal protection as a concept [Table 1]). International animal protection can be best understood by placing countries in one of four descending levels of animal protection. Countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America can be found in the bottom three categories (Irwin 2003)