Legal Approaches to the Concept “Animal Welfare” in Ukrainian and Foreign Doctrine

Abstract

Problems of international legal regulation of animal welfare and protection of them from cruelty in modern society are becoming increasingly important. Legal regulation of animal welfare and their protection from cruelty needs improvement, international instruments on the treatment of animals should be implemented in the laws of Ukraine, and it is necessary to raise awareness of ordinary citizens on the scope of the welfare of animals - all these questions urgently need to be resolved. A small number of studies devoted attention to the problems of international legal regulation of animal welfare and protection from cruelty. However, it should be emphasized that scientists had paid attention to international law regulating the treatment of animals, while foreign researchers laid the foundations of theoretical research areas of animal welfare and protection from cruelty. Research topics on animal welfare and protection of them from cruelty are fairly new to the Ukrainian school of international law. Only in the early 2000s began the first attempts of forming issues of animal welfare and protection of them from cruelty in former Soviet states as a scientific field. Fundamental research on the status of animals is held in criminal law science due to the fact that the domestic legal doctrine recognizes only the concept of protecting animals from cruelty. Humanization of international relations could not affect the formation of humane treatment of animals. But Ukraine, for example, has a number of issues with animal welfare and protection of them from cruelty, mistreatment of stray animals, abuse of animals in zoos, the movement of dog hunters, the problem of the use of animals in experiments, and so on. This problem creates a need to solve some problems in national legislation and practice. The current issue is also the convergence of Ukrainian national legislation with EU law.