Many animals, especially ones that can be household pets, are loved and often treated as family members.
As a domesticated animal, they rely solely on their owner or caregiver to provide them with the basics of food and shelter, but also with love and compassion. Seeing animals that have suffered at the hands of their owner can be a heart wrenching sight. Animals rights activists have been fighting for decades to get people to see animals as individuals.
Oregon Supreme Court has recently made a ruling that will drastically help in making this a reality. Oregon Supreme Court ruled that animals will now be recognized as legal victims. This strongly emulates a past court case where the judge gave the defendant a separate count of second-degree animal neglect for each animal involved. Allowing each animals to be a separate victim has the potential to lead to longer prison sentences.
It will also make it more difficult to have animal abuse convictions expunged from a record. With each animal accounted for, the severity of an animal abuse case will now be much more evident. As laws change and develop it is showing that people are seeing the need to close the gap between humans and animals.
Laws are changing, and will continue to change, in the area of animal welfare. Hopefully as others start to see and understand the outcome of Oregon’s ruling, other states will begin to follow suit.