Posted March 12, 2014
The National Agricultural Law Center offers a wide
range of resources, one of which is the Animal Welfare Reading Room available here.
Many animal welfare laws are enacted and enforced on
the state level. The Center offers a
database for all state laws enacted on farm
animal welfare and animal
cruelty.
The first federal animal welfare statute was the Animal
Welfare Act, 7 U.S.C. §§ 2131-2159, initially passed in 1966 to prevent pets
from being stolen for sale to research laboratories and to improve the
treatment of research animals.
Other major federal statutes include the Animal Health
and Disease Research Act, 7 U.S.C. §§ 3191-3201; Horse Protection Act, 15
U.S.C. §§ 1821-1831; Humane Slaughter Act, 7 U.S.C. §§ 1901-1906; Lacey Act, 18
U.S.C. §§ 41-47; Migratory Bird Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 715-715s;
Twenty-Eight Hour Law, 49 U.S.C. § 80502; and the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and
Burros Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1331-1340.
The Animal Welfare Reading Room provides information on
major statutes, relevant regulations, links to the case law index,
administrative law decisions, Center research publications, relevant
Congressional Research Service reports, and many other resources.
These resources are provided by the National
Agricultural Law Center as a free service to the public.
