It is rare for a week to go by without the issue of animal rights in the headlines.

TRU Law faculty member Katie Sykes recognized this phenomenon, and lent her expertise as co-editor of Canadian Perspectives on Animals and the Law along with Peter Sankoff of the University of Alberta, and Vaughan Black of Dalhousie University.

The book, which was published last month, features 12 essays by leading academics and practicing lawyers, and provides an important new contribution to the debate on the legal status and treatment of animals in Canada.

Sykes’ interest in the field began several years ago. Animal law was on the fringes of legal study then, and that is still largely the case today, but student and public interest in the subject is increasing all the time.

“I became interested in animal law because I personally care. Terrible things were happening to animals. But the legal questions and concepts were interesting, too.”

She hopes Canadian Perspectives provides one more resource for those in the legal profession, and for those who aren’t.

“My hope is that people pick it up and read it and it causes a shift in their way of thinking; that they begin to understand that these issues do matter. I hope it is read beyond the legal community, and embraced by the agricultural community and the philosophical community as well.” Read more…