Arthur & Co. Legal

Arthur & Co. Legal was established in 2020 by 360Certainty Pty Limited in association with Arthur & Co. Pet Detectives. Arthur & Co. Legal seeks to provide the owners of pets and animals with access to legal advice and advocacy across the emerging and complex area of Animal Law. Animal Law spans many different aspects of our legal system including at least contract law, administrative law, tort (negligence) law, consumer law, property law and criminal law.

Arthur & Co. Pet Detectives

Arthur & Co. Pet Concierge was founded in 2017 and soon branched out to also operate as Arthur & Co. Pet Detectives, Australia’s only comprehensive pet detective service for lost and stolen pets. Arthur & Co. Pet Detectives uses a variety of methods tailored to each case, with specialist staff engaged on the most complex lost and stolen pet cases.

Arthur & Co. Legal and Arthur & Co. Pet Detectives intend to work together to further enhance their respective offerings to best equip owners of pets and animals with the best investigative and legal services to protect and exercise their rights.

Animal Law

Whilst Animal Law is an emerging field, it does have ancient origins, with animals and agriculture being intertwined through the history of all cultures. For example, almost four thousand years ago, in the Code of Hammurabi (circa 1790 BCE), the eighth law (amongst a total of 282 laws) provides both a mechanism for compensation if certain animals are stolen, but if the thief cannot pay, they are sentenced to death:

If any one steal cattle or sheep, or an ass, or a pig or a goat, if it belong to a god or to the court, the thief shall pay thirtyfold therefor; if they belonged to a freed man of the king he shall pay tenfold; if the thief has nothing with which to pay he shall be put to death.

The Code of Hammurabi, translated by L. W. King (1915)

Later, Animal Law took a strange turn through the Middle Ages up to as recent as the 19th century, during which time there were, amazingly, criminal trials of animals. As detailed in H. P. Evans’ book, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals: The Lost History of Europe’s Animal Trials, these cases have involved: a pig convicted of murder, and caterpillars tried for theft (who even had a court-appointed defender).

Modern Animal Law, though, has moved beyond regarding animals as simply a form property for agricultural purposes, and instead has begun to recognise the emotional connexion between an owner and their pets. For example, the Companion Animals Act 1998 (NSW) at least in its name is reflective of the companionship that a person may have with a dog or cat, and whilst not yet as pet-friendly as is possible, there are increasingly permissive rules regarding pets in rental and strata (apartment) accommodation.

Across Australia there are a multitude of laws at all levels of our legal system which are relevant to Animal Law, ranging from Local Government / Council matters, to Commonwealth matters such as biosecurity laws, and international treaties such as those on the protection of wildlife. Modern Animal Law also spans both the public sphere such as consumer protection laws and criminal laws, and those in the private sphere regarding contract law, and property law. Although there is generally similarity in the laws in each state and territory, there are differences, leading to further complexity, particularly as transactions involving animals can often cross borders.