Why animal welfare ought to trump consumer freedom of choice in some cases

Abstract

In New Zealand the Animal Welfare Amendment Act 2015 was recently passed. This essay briefly discusses this amendment and reflects with various examples throughout, that while any progress is always to be applauded, this was a missed opportunity. Specific focus is given to New Zealand as this is my country and context, and to Australia because of the mirroring of issues between these two countries. The US is discussed as many examples originate from there due to the active animal welfare movement in that country. As the consumer and animal welfare issues are the same in many countries a variety of examples from other countries are also used in this paper.¹

¹ Ian Robertson Animals, Welfare and the Law (Earthscan/Routledge: New York, 2015) at 14.