Animal law has progressed significantly in the last 25 years – but it has much further to go

The way animals are treated under our laws goes to the heart of both human and animal justice. How has Canadian animal law progressed at the quarter-century mark? This was the focal question I posed in writing the updated edition of the textbook, Canadian Animal Law in 2025. The book’s foreword, written by former Chief Justice of Alberta Catherine Fraser, provides a cogent summary of the state of animal law at the 2025-year milestone:

“It is heartening that in recent years, some progress has been made towards a more compassionate Canada for all animals... But with rights come responsibilities. We can hardly claim the right to use animals for our needs or pleasure without accepting that we are then responsible – at a bare minimum – for treating them humanely throughout their lives. To meet this responsibility, we must, and can, do more to ensure a better future for the animals with whom we share this earth.”

I agree completely with the Honourable Catherine Fraser that we are gaining ground and that humans must take greater responsibility for animals to see significant improvement in animal laws by 2050. Animal protection laws must be examined through a broader social justice lens, as the treatment of animals reflects on society as a whole and aligns with a "One World, One Health" approach that connects the health of animals, people, and the earth. Whales and other mega-fauna, for example, cannot be seen in isolation from their disappearing habitats. We need laws that protect habitats.

Six keystone observations on Canadian animal law at the 25-year mark:

1. Paradigm shift: The animal law field is nearly all grown up, and it is not just cats and dogs garnering attention, but environmental and climate law concerns are also drawing much-needed awareness. When I began practising animal law in 2000, the field was in its infancy, and now, twenty-five years later, we stand on the cusp of a major shift, with unprecedented levels of activity and growing opportunities for both students and practitioners.
2. Animal law is going mainstream: The creation of animal law courses at most major law schools over the past quarter century, as well as the 2025 landmark animal law program at the University of Toronto, has helped legitimize the field of animal law, much like environmental law became mainstream decades ago. Our students are bright and are keen to push the envelope away from legally classifying animals as property. Annually, there are also opportunities for all to participate in animal law via conferences and CLEs. 
3. Need for access to justice: Animals need lawyers working for greater access to justice, standing. We need more pro bono animal legal clinics to address the fact that many animal law clients are low-income. Animal law is slowly advancing through dedicated law clinics such as BC's Animal Law Pro Bono Clinic at the Law Students Legal Advice Program. In 2020, the ALPC became Canada's 1st animal law pro bono clinic, celebrating its first birthday with BC's Chief Justice Bauman (as he then was), its 3rd birthday with Attorney General Sharma and in 2025 with BC's Chief Justice Marchand. Canada also has animal law-based organizations like Animal Justice, a group that has seen exponential growth in the past few years, and collectives like the national Canadian Animal Law Study Group, all bringing animal law issues forward.
4. Sentience Recognition: Although science recognizes animals as sentient beings, the law has been slow to reflect this understanding, continuing to classify animals as property and largely ignoring their sentience. This needs to change. Legal change will come when humans take greater responsibility for animals and formulate animal laws grounded in animal sentience to secure their protection. There is currently a House of Commons Petition urging Canada to reflect established science and legally recognize animals as sentient beings.
5. Animal rights remain largely aspirational: Media reports daily on stories of animal injustice, such as animals used in testing, live horses shipped overseas, acts of cruelty against bears, dogs, cats, and Canada geese and much more, but the glaring example screaming out for animal protective measures is the millions of hapless animals used in factory farming. Chickens, cows, and pigs continue to be farmed and killed in ever-increasing numbers each year. Currently, the laws as they are worded and enforced serve human use, not humane treatment of animals, and this needs to change for the sake of our overall health. Humans must shoulder greater responsibility for farmed animals.
6. Legislative changes: In the last twenty-five years, Canada has seen progressive legislative changes, such as the 2024 companion animal-related amendments to British Columbia's Family Law Act, providing statutory direction to consider human animal relationships via the contextual "best interests for all concerned" test when a couple splits up. These relational considerations effectively treat companion animals as sentient family members rather than inanimate property, like toasters, when deciding who gets the family pet. We have also made significant progress in federal legislation to ban whale captivity, shark finning, and bestiality, and in animal testing wins for animals. The Jane Goodall bill would have been a seismic shift for wild animals in captivity in Canada, but it did not pass.

If humans take responsibility for the treatment of animals and embed concepts of sentience into animal laws, the animal law field stands to advance positively and dramatically over the next twenty-five years, to the point where Canadian animal laws of 2050 will bear little resemblance to those of 2025.