Animals and children have similar histories under the law and in society's treatment of them. Animals and children have been seen as being less than legal persons, been labeled as having limited value, worked in harsh and dangerous jobs, and exploited by medical research. Sadly, only children have been declared legal persons by the courts and granted legal protection through the actions of guardians.
PAUL J. McLAUGHLIN: Animals are not humans in their mental processes or physical forms. However, that does not mean that they do not deserve protection from ill treatment and emotional trauma. Animals and children have similar histories under the law and in society’s treatment of them. Animals and children have been seen as being less than legal persons, been labeled as having limited value, worked in harsh and dangerous jobs, and exploited by medical research. Both animals and children have gained protections from harms through the altruistic actions of others who sought to give voices to those who could not speak for themselves due to their lack of standing in the legal system.
Though animals and children share a number of similarities, only children have been granted opportunities to be determined as able to make their own decisions or to be declared as independent legal persons by courts. In order to gain protection under the law, animals must be seen as legal persons that have access to the courts themselves or through legal guardians. Animals have been found to have sophisticated cognitive abilities and a ranged of identifiable emotions that indicate they are sentient and able to understand complex orders and situations.
Tests that examine whether an animal is self-aware and situationally consciousness on a level that would indicate they are legal persons, much like those to determine whether a child can be emancipated from parents or make medical decisions, could be developed to grant them legal protections greater than those granted to them under the current law. Granting legal personhood would not elevate animals to the same status as humans but would allow for greater legal protection for animals through the actions of guardians by allowing them standing to defend animals’ rights.
Developing tests to determine whether an animal has intelligence on a level that would allow for the status of legal personhood to be granted will require an organized effort by experts in the animal welfare, cognitive sciences, and legal fields. In order to create tests for legal personhood for animals based on those used by courts to make determinations for children, a deeper understanding of children’s cognitive development must be reached so that a practical and uniform approach to making determinations as to a child’s cognitive ability can be presented to the court system as a whole. Once the standardized test for the determinations of a child’s mental cognition is established, the development of tests that would allow animals to be found to have the same levels of cognitive powers could be crafted.
Due to the variety of animals’ physical forms and communication methods, a single standardized test of their cognition would be all but impossible to develop. Creating the variety of tests that would be needed to allow opportunities for the broadest possible range of animals to be tested while adhering to a set of cognitive standards would take years of effort and study, even with the assistance of A.I. programs. To be able to help animals currently being harmed or threatened, and to establish legal and scientific precedents, cognitive tests could be developed for animals that have been studied and are similar enough to humans, such as great apes and other primates, so that issues such as accounted for physical differences or barriers in communication could be minimized.
Working from the already established tests for primates, tests for animals such as dolphins, elephants, and others that are recognized for their intelligence could be developed and eventually implemented in the legal system. Using a systematic process based off the previous findings of cognitive studies and established testing criteria, tests could be developed to include more animals and kinds of communication between animals and humans until the maximum number of cognitively complex animals are given the opportunity to be granted legal personhood and the protection of the law. SOURCE…
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