Based on 18 different criteria, we compared the legal standing of the human-animal relationship in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, the USA, and Switzerland. The overall outcome of this presentation showed that all researched states possessed some animal-friendly norms in certain parts of their legislation (especially in their civil laws), but from an animal welfare perspective on the human-animal relationship, there are huge shortcomings in other areas of the law.     

The presentation of Dr. iur. Antoine F. Goetschel and Dr. iur. Gieri Bolliger found favor with the international audience of the congress. With a view to the next IAHAIO congress in Tokyo, in 2007, we decided to continue our research and include additional states and different aspects of the animal in the law into the comparison. This requires the cooperation with jurisprudents, veterinarians or animal welfare organizations of different nations, with the Stiftung für das Tier im Recht offering to assume the role of project director.

Following this presentation, cooperations with experts from Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Italy could be established. This network of cooperations shall continually be expanded over the course of time.

The goal of this close international cooperation is to refine the existing model with a view to the 11th IAHAIO congress in Tokyo in 2007 and to expand it by as many states and new aspects as possible. By doing so, the mutual understanding for the peculiarities of national provisions for the animal in the law shall be cultivated.

We are hoping in particular that this project will help the states to support each other in the creation and implementation of stricter norms. In this manner, the position of the animal in the law shall gradually be improved in the individual national legislations.

For this purpose, all national wordings of the law shall be made available for all interested parties in their original language and also in an English translation. The Stiftung für das Tier im Recht is happy to provide its webpage (www.tierimrecht.org or, respectively, www.animallaw.ch) as a platform to which we will add an area “International Animal Welfare Legislation” in the foreseeable future.