Presentation highlights animal law and why it matters

It’s no question that folk on the North Shore are animal lovers, but how much do they know about animal law?

Lawyer and university lecturer Victoria Shroff, a longtime practitioner of animal law, is set to educate a virtual audience on the ins and outs of dangerous dogs, rat trials, pet custody and any other ways in which the law and animals happen to intersect during an upcoming presentation.

The presentation, while wide-ranging, will seek to clarify two specific points, according to Shroff: Mainly, what is animal law and why does it matter?

“It can be overlap in the areas of wildlife or our companion animals, anything from dog bites to coyotes getting killed because they’re said to be aggressive in Stanley Park – that is all animal law. It’s a wide gamut of activities and laws,” explains Shroff, while providing a preview of her talk to the News.

Whether it’s the ways in which municipal laws apply to animals, veterinary malpractice, or even potential issues that may arise when the custody of a pet that was shared between two people or a group comes into conflict, these are all examples of the kind of work Shroff has specialized in for the past 20 years.

Unlike a child custody scenario where the court is presumed to rule in favour of whatever’s in the best interest of the child, pet custody often boils down to a much simpler – and potentially antiquated – equation, according to Shroff.

“Whoever has the best ownership claim basically gets to keep the animal, unless the animal was gifted. That doesn't leave room for a lot of satisfaction for people. There are few outlying cases that allow joint custody,” says Shroff.

Shroff adds that these days, with pet owners more often considering their cats and dogs members of the family as opposed to “respirating property,” pet custody cases can get really heated.

“Those are on the rise right now, due to COVID,” she notes.

But while pet lovers might not see their pets as property exactly, that’s not reflected under the law, according to Shroff, which does in fact consider animals as property.

“Animals matter. This is the basis of my talk. We’ve come from this era where animals were really just thought of as nothing more as an inanimate slab of property to then becoming family members,” she says.

Shroff, an animals-rights lawyer and ambassador for the animal law field in general, lectures on animal law at the University of British Columbia and founded and teaches a course on animal law at Capilano University.

She would like to see the law greater reflect the notion that animals have sentient value in themselves and are more than just property.

She says she has been advocating for animals since a young age, when she would go door-knocking for petition signatures to ban leg-hold traps.

In 2019, Shroff was part of the team involved in the biggest animal law case in B.C. history, when she represented the owner of a dog named Punky, an Australian cattle dog on death row. The case ending up going to the B.C. Court of Appeal, the highest court in the province.

“I think people are finding it really, really interesting to learn how animals intersect with the law and how many places they overlap,” says Shroff.

Shroff’s free Zoom presentation, hosted by North Vancouver City Library and presented through CapU’s Capilano Universe Lecture Series, is taking place on Feb. 11 from 7 to 8:45 p.m. Click here for more information or to register.