EA - New Faunalytics Study on Local Action for Animals as a Stepping Stone to State Protections by JLRiedi

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: New Faunalytics Study on Local Action for Animals as a Stepping Stone to State Protections, published by JLRiedi on November 16, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum.Legislation is a key avenue advocates use to effect change for animals, but there isn’t much research about how to choose tractable issues and lobby for them successfully. Nonprofit research organization Faunalytics has released a new study which found evidence that local laws can be an effective way to implement animal welfare protections, and could lead to great success at the state level.Read the full study here:/BackgroundMunicipal ordinances can be an effective way to create animal protection laws at the local level, and could lead to great success at the state level. Passing laws at the local level allows people to help animals in their communities, while providing a model for other cities and jurisdictions. Local laws can also create momentum for statewide initiatives, which demonstrates a state’s strong commitment to protecting animals.The goal of this project was to look at whether local laws have laid the groundwork for laws at the state level of government, as a potential avenue for change. This study aimed to determine whether there is evidence that local animal laws have been or could influence state laws. And secondarily, whether case law has influenced state legislation.To this end, we reviewed legal materials relating to animal welfare in the United States. The scope of this review included legislation and case law from the past twenty years, related to a range of animal welfare topics. Our primary focus was on farmed animal issues, but with consideration given to other issues that are similar and potentially generalizable. Our goals were to identify any trends and provide recommendations to advocates based on previous attempts to broaden the scope of animal welfare laws.Research TeamThe project’s lead author was Precious Hose (Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University). Dr. Jo Anderson (Faunalytics) reviewed and oversaw the work.ConclusionSuccesses & ChallengesLocal laws can sometimes create meaningful change at the state level. Success is far from guaranteed, but this review found evidence of states taking into account local laws and resolutions during discussion of bills on animal topics including battery cages, gestation crates, veal crates, foie gras, and meat reduction. Some of those attempts failed, but they suggest that at the bare minimum, states will generally consider local examples, even outside of their own state.This research encompassing all fifty U.S. states found evidence suggesting that when similar laws are widely adopted across multiple municipalities, it appears to increase the chances of passing related state laws. In the strongest example, over 400 municipalities passed their own ordinances banning puppy mill sales and the widespread support from many municipalities supported five states passing statewide bans on puppy mill sales within the past six years.The biggest barrier to creating change from the ground up is state preemption of local laws. While existing preemptions—which are particularly common for laws around animal farming—pose a major hindrance to progress, the worst-case scenario is for opponents of animal protection fight back against legislation by bringing a state bill to preempt pro-animal local ordinances, as occurred in the case of Puppies ’N Love v. City of Phoenix, 2017.Some opponents may also bring lawsuits against the city enforcing the ordinance. While this is a concerning possible outcome to consider, we found that it is a relatively rare outcome to date, having occurred in only four examples we reviewed. Even in instances where there is a lot of support for animal protection actions like banning puppy mill sales—which acc...