Emerging laws must not protect stray cats and their impacts

Abstract

Our moral circles—that is, the entities believed as worthy of moral concern and thus deserving moral considerations—have historically expanded beyond humans to include also nonhuman beings (Crimston et al., 2018). As a result, various emerging legal instruments around the world have been granting rights to animals. However, the inclusion of animals within moral circles is subjected to important biases, with a preference for charismatic, familiar, and beautiful vertebrates (Klebl et al., 2021). We argue that legal instruments embracing such biases may jeopardize biodiversity conservation.