Legal Definition and Related Resources of Animal

Any animate being which is not human, endowed with the power of voluntary motion. Domitae are those which have been tamed by man; domestic. Ferae naturae are those which still retain their wild nature. Mansuetae naturae, those which are tame by nature.

What does Animal mean in American Law?

The definition of Animal in the law of the United States, as defined by the lexicographer Arthur Leff in his legal dictionary is:

Strictly, any living creature not a member of the vegetable kingdom. As ordinarily used in law, the term excludes humans, and almost always also excludes other large groups, e.g., fish, crustaceans, microscopic animals, etc. and, in some contexts, (e.g., “cruelty to animals”) it excludes everything but mammals and marsupials with cute babies. In the Roman law of property, animals were divided into various categories, which occasionally appear, in Latin or translated, in common-law cases, e.g.,

(a) “animals of a base nature,” i.e., those in which property can be acquired by capture and taming, e.g., wild dogs and cats, bears, foxes, wolves, apes, etc., the taking away of which thereafter is tort and crime;

(b) “domestic animals” (or “animals domitiae naturae”), i.e., animals like cows, sheep, household dogs and cats; in such animals full property rights can be held by owners;

(c) “animalsferae naturae” (or “wild animals”), i.e., those which live in the wild state, e.g., wolves, bears, foxes, deer, etc.; property in these animals belongs to the first acquirer (or killer), provided, however, that one may not enter the land of another to take them;

(d) “animals mansuetae naturae,” i.e., animals gentle by nature, e.g., some sheep and some cattle, which are generally these days “domestic animals.”

It should be clear from the foregoing that the various animal categories are built on different classifying rules for different purposes, and thus the categories tend to be deeply overlapping and generally imprecise. See also animus revertendi.

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This definition of Animal Is based on the The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary . This entry needs to be proofread.

Vocabularies (Semantic Web Information)

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noun

• animans
• beast
• beast of burden
• beast of the field
• brute
• brute creation
• created being
• creature
• pet
• wild being
• Associated Concepts: animals of a base nature
• domestic animals
• wild animal
• foreign phrases: Animaliafera
• sifacta sint mansueta et ex consuetudine eunt et redeunt
• volant et revolant
• utcer vi
• cygni
• etc
• eo usque nostra sunt
• et ita intelliguntur quamdium habuerunt animum revertendi
• Wild animals
• if they are tamed
• and are accustomed to leave and return
• fly away and fly back
• as stags
• swans
• etc
• are considered to belong to us so long as they have the intention of returning to us

Animal in Law Enforcement

Main Entry: Law Enforcement in the Legal Dictionary. This section provides, in the context of Law Enforcement, a partial definition of animal.

Resources

See Also

• Law Enforcement Officer
• Police Officer
• Law Enforcement Agency

Further Reading

• animal in A Dictionary of Law Enforcement (Oxford University Press)
• animal in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement
• A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis

Legal Usage of Bovine, Ovine, Caprine And Porcine Animal in English

An European Commission document offers the following explanation about the misused of Bovine, Ovine, Caprine And Porcine Animal:Bovine animals are ‘any of various chiefly domesticated mammals of the genus Bos, including cows, steers, bulls, and oxen, often raised for meat and dairy products’. They are normally called ‘cattle’ in English. However, whereas the word ‘bovine’ may be recognised by English speakers (often with the meaning ‘sluggish, dull and stolid’), the terms ‘ovine’, ‘caprine’ and ‘porcine’ would only be known to specialists.

Example

‘Commission Decision of 26 July 2004 amending Annexes I and II to Council Decision 79/542/ EEC as regards model certificates relating to the importation of bovine animals for slaughter and bovine, ovine and caprine fresh meat’.

Alternatives

cattle, sheep, goats and pigs respectively34.

Resources

Further Reading

• David Mellinkoff, “Mellinkoff’s Dictionary of American Legal Usage”, West Publishing Company, 1992
• Bryan A. Garner, “A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage”, West Publishing Company, 1995

Animal