Companion Animal Care Articles used with permission from All-Creatures.org

The National Link Coalition shares the work of Amy Fitzgerald, who examines how companion animals are increasingly gaining legal recognition more akin to family members than property in a variety of contexts.

Pet Protection Laws Help Define Animals as “More than Property”
From June 2026 LINK-Letter, The National Link Coalition
June 2026

Images from Canva

A new article by Amy Fitzgerald, who has been actively promoting a new legal construct of animals as being “more than property,” (See the December 2024 LINK-Letter) identifies a different approach grounded in law based on how 42 U.S. states have amended laws to enable inclusion of companion animals to address the pressing social problem of domestic violence survivors delaying leaving abusers because they are unable to take their animals with them.

Fitzgerald, criminology and sociology professor at the University of Windsor in Canada, examines how these statutes are beginning to be cited in legal cases as evidence that animals warrant being given greater consideration than would be the case of simple property. Judges are now citing these animal-inclusive protection orders as evidence that pets are considered family members in legal cases beyond domestic violence, including pet custody disputes in divorce settlements, animal cruelty cases, emergency rescues, and emotional distress claims.

Without directly granting animals legal “personhood,” Fitzgerald posits that these protection orders are eroding the idea that animals are just things. Instead, courts are recognizing the social bonds, vulnerability, and shared victimization of people and their animals.

Fitzgerald concludes that these statutes are significant because they not only serve to protect animals and the people who love them, they also undercut the property status of animals which has much broader implications.

—Fitzgerald, A.J. (2026). Animal-inclusive protection order statutes in case law: social problems and the erosion of the property status of animals. Social Problems, spag012. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spag012.

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Posted on All-Creatures.org: June 9, 2026
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