COVID-19 Shows the Need for a Global Animal Law

Abstract

The pandemic COVID-19 ─ which is a zoonosis ─ illustrates how problems of global nature and proportions stem from human use and abuse of animals and therefore underlines the necessity of a global law approach. The social, ecological, and economic consequences of animal exploitation, notably (but not limited to) agriculture, range from human poverty to transnational organised wildlife crime, to global warming, and of course to animal suffering. Not the least, the danger of the outsourcing of animal-processing industries and research facilities to animal cruelty havens and the threat of a regulatory chill on the national level suggest that the regulatory response to animal issues needs to be global. The Office International des Epizooties (OIE) could be transformed into the institutional hub for such an approach. The contribution also addresses and refutes the challenge of cultural and legal imperialism that is mounted against such a global law approach. It suggests to develop further the One Health paradigm for containing the pandemic and for combatting future zoonoses. The paper concludes that a critical global animal law approach will be helpful for overcoming the COVID-crisis and is generally warranted for transforming human─animal interaction.

Industrial Animal Farming and Zoonotic Risk: COVID-19 as a Gateway to Sustainable Change? A Scoping Study

“…As reported from Dutch farms, mutual transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 facilitated the spillover of the virus from humans to mink thus causing epidemics among farmed animals where the virus genetically evolved, as well as ensuing re-infections of humans [54,57,68]. An immediate reaction to the infections on farms was the culling of mink in the Netherlands and Spain [54,57] as well as in Denmark where novel strains of SARS-CoV-2 associated with mink farming emerged, prompting the government to decree the killing of all (i.e., more than 17 million) farmed mink in autumn of 2020 [57,58,69]. The Netherlands took it one step further after the prohibition of mink farming had been declared as early as 2015 via a law taking full effect as of 1 January 2024 [54,56,70].…”

“…SARS-CoV-2 infections in mink farms have occurred in several countries including Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United States [67]. As reported from Dutch farms, mutual transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 facilitated the spillover of the virus from humans to mink thus causing epidemics among farmed animals where the virus genetically evolved, as well as ensuing re-infections of humans [54,57,68]. An immediate reaction to the infections on farms was the culling of mink in the Netherlands and Spain [54,57] as well as in Denmark where novel strains of SARS-CoV-2 associated with mink farming emerged, prompting the government to decree the killing of all (i.e., more than 17 million) farmed mink in autumn of 2020 [57,58,69].…”

“…For example, in the Netherlands, mink farms with SARS-CoV-2 infections were permanently closed, whereas those without infection cases were allowed to their businesses open on the condition of continual surveillance activities [56]. Moreover, the culling of mink in infected farms as a biosecurity measure occurred in several countries [54,[56][57][58]. For promoting animals' health, rearing on pastures would be less stressful than in crowded farming units [52], and maximum stocking densities as well as growth rates are to be legally limited, as advocated for poultry in the UK [59].…”

“…The Netherlands took it one step further after the prohibition of mink farming had been declared as early as 2015 via a law taking full effect as of 1 January 2024 [54,56,70]. Due to the massive SARS-CoV-2 infections in Dutch mink farms, a complete ban was enacted to come into force already by the end of 2020 [54,57,58]. Banning, as far as possible, or at least monitoring or constraining mink production has been generally advocated by Xia et al [58].…”

“…The concept of One Health is a holistic, transdisciplinary approach that integrates the well-being of people, animals as well as the environment by means of local, national and global collaborations, and it is considered key to infectious and zoonotic disease prevention and control [50,57,83,84]. In a workshop report of the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the coordination of this principle has been proposed to be assumed by an intergovernmental council bringing together intergovernmental organisations like the WHO (World Health Organization), OIE (Office International des Epizooties, World Organisation for Animal Health), FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) [75].…”