When does torturing animals becoming illegal?

Question

If I boil a crab alive, I can run a 3-star restaurant. If I boil a dog alive, then I go to jail probably.

I was just wondering: where does the law draw the threshold for it being legal for a private civilian to torture/murder animals? Is it just "these are the arbitrary animals we like (e.g. cats and dogs), and everything else is fair game"? Or is there a more scientific/categorical approach to it (e.g. animals that display a certain degree of intelligence are off limits)?

I have a feeling the law will be the former, as hunting large mammals like deer, or large reptiles like crocodiles, seems to be legal for private citizens.

Lastly: note that I'm talking about a random private citizen. I know that, with enough bureaucratic paperwork, you can "test" or torture even primates. But I'm not talking about some special scientist with a bunch of special licenses. Just a common man.

Answer 1

england-and-wales

In England and Wales the main animal welfare legislation is the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Section 1 defines "animal" as a vertebrate other than man - dogs are vertebrates, crabs are not. Therefore, so far as that Act is concerned, dogs are protected and crabs are not.

Section 1 does provide that the definition of "animal" can be extended by regulation to invertebrates of any kind "if the appropriate national authority is satisfied, on the basis of scientific evidence, that animals of the kind concerned are capable of experiencing pain or suffering."

But, to date, no national authority has amended the definition of animal at Section 1 Animal Welfare Act to extend the protection of the law to crabs.

In 2022 decapod crustaceans (e.g. crabs, crayfish, lobsters, prawns) and cephalopod molluscs (e.g. octopus, squid, cuttlefish) became recognised by English law as sentient. This was in the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022.

However, this legislation does not directly affect the Animal Welfare Act 2006. It is only intended "to make provision for an Animal Sentience Committee with functions relating to the effect of government policy on the welfare of animals as sentient beings."

To date, the Animal Sentience Committee has not reported on decapod crustaceans or cephalopod molluscs.

So, at English law, a person may freely boil a live crab but not a live dog.

Answer 2

united-states

Yes, there generally is a scientific distinction.

The Federal Animal Welfare Act (9 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter A) defines animal:

Animal means any live or dead dog, cat, nonhuman primate, guinea pig, hamster, rabbit, or any other warmblooded animal, which is being used, or is intended for use for research, teaching, testing, experimentation, or exhibition purposes, or as a pet. This term excludes birds, rats of the genus Rattus, and mice of the genus Mus, bred for use in research; horses not used for research purposes; and other farm animals, such as, but not limited to, livestock or poultry used or intended for use as food or fiber, or livestock or poultry used or intended for use for improving animal nutrition, breeding, management, or production efficiency, or for improving the quality of food or fiber. This term also excludes falconry. With respect to a dog, the term means all dogs, including those used for hunting, security, or breeding purposes.

Thus, Federally, for the purpose of research, exhibition, and pets, the major distinction is warmblooded animals. Crabs are coldblooded.

There are other acts which apply to livestock intended for food, like the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act and in general, many state and local laws.

Hunting generally falls under state law, and there are permitted "methods of take." Arkansas, for example dictates minimum gun caliber, handgun barrel length, crossbow arrow size, etc. when hunting deer.

Answer 3

All "animal cruelty" is unlawful and a criminal offence.

There are ways of gathering and slaughtering animals for food, and regulatory regimes which apply to different kinds of creature, for which customary practice is the explanation.

So the reason you can boil crabs and not dogs, is because it is customary to slaughter crabs by boiling water immersion, and it is not customary to do so with dogs.

The custom of boiling water immersion partly reflects the physiology of the crab - things that live in seawater with hard shells tend to get this treatment.

In the West it is in fact not customary to eat dog meat at all, so there is no customary means of slaughter, only of culling.

In general what will be lawful is if you are acting in a customary way when you inflict harm or death. If you act in a non-customary way, you might well be criminalised and penalised.

The law in this area did not arise from a coherent plan so attempting to discern one should not be attempted. The law arose piecemeal with allowances to such activity as was and is perceived necessary for our own nutrition and food security, for the management of the natural world around us, or for our own daily work.

The laws on animal cruelty are not driven solely by compassion for the animal, but by the need to control humans rehearsing certain behaviours regarded by wider society as malevolent and targeted to the defenceless, or by the need to control the breeding of animals and promote/preserve the existence of only reasonably passive temperaments and domesticated behaviours.