Report Supporting Legislation to Promote Humane Education in New York Schools
SUMMARY
The Animal Law Committee, Children and the Law Committee, and Education and the Law Committee updated and reissued a report, originally issued in May 2017, in support of proposed legislation (A.2082/S.7670) that would expand an existing state elementary school requirement – that New York schools teach students “humane education” – to include secondary schools under state control or state funding. The legislation would also require the Commissioner of Education to maintain records verifying elementary and secondary schools’ compliance with the humane education law and to make those records available to the public. The report supports expanding the humane education requirement to secondary schools and establishing the proposed legislation’s record-keeping requirement because humane education fosters positive attitudes towards humans and animals, teaches the importance of reducing companion animal euthanasia, and helps children understand how their actions affect the environment and wildlife. The report notes that such lessons are critical now more than ever, when around one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction.
Originally May 2017; Reissued July 2022
BILL INFORMATION
A.2082 (AM L. Rosenthal) / S.7670 (Sen Harckham) – Expands the requirements for teaching humane education to secondary school students (NYS 2022); A.4797; A.2137 (NYS 2017)
REPORT
REPORT ON LEGISLATION BY THE ANIMAL LAW COMMITTEE, THE CHILDREN AND THE LAW COMMITTEE AND THE EDUCATION AND THE LAW COMMITTEE
A.2082 (M. of A. L. Rosenthal)
S.7670 (Sen. Harckham)
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to expanding the requirements for teaching humane education to secondary school students and provides for the verification of compliance of such instruction
THIS LEGISLATION IS APPROVED
I. BILL SUMMARY
The proposed legislation would expand an existing state elementary school requirement — that New York schools teach students “humane education” — to include secondary schools under state control or receiving state funding. “Humane education” involves instructing students on the humane treatment and protection of animals, the importance that animals play in nature, and the need to prevent animal abandonment and cruelty. Students would also learn about “the principles of kindness to and respect for animals” along with “the observance of laws and rules pertaining to the humane treatment of animals.”[1] The New York State Commissioner of Education would determine how to incorporate this instruction into existing curricula and would promulgate any necessary regulations.
To monitor compliance with the law, the legislation would also require the Commissioner of Education to maintain records verifying elementary and secondary schools’ compliance with the humane education law and to make those records available to the public, including on the New York State Education Department’s website.
II. BACKGROUND
For over a century New York has statutorily required that public elementary schools teach humane education in their curricula.[2] New York enacted this statute amid widespread concern about species extinction and a growing nationwide movement to protect wildlife.[3] At least nine other states — California,[4] Florida,[5] Illinois,[6] Maine,[7] New Jersey,[8] Oregon,[9] Pennsylvania,[10] Washington,[11] and Wisconsin[12] — have similar laws promoting humane education.
While the New York State Education Department has previously published teaching guides in humane education,[13] many schools today remain unaware of the humane education law.[14] Yet, as discussed below, the need for humane education is greater than ever.
III. JUSTIFICATION
The New York City Bar Association supports expanding the humane education requirement to secondary schools and establishing the proposed legislation’s record-keeping requirement because (i) humane education fosters positive attitudes toward humans and animals; (ii) humane education teaches the importance of reducing companion animal euthanasia; and (iii) helps children understand how their actions affect the environment and wildlife.
A. Humane education fosters positive attitudes toward humans and animals.
Humane education fosters empathy toward animals and, more broadly, prosocial attitudes. While research into humane education’s effectiveness has been limited, existing studies support this intuitive result.[15] Promoting such attitudes is as important today as when New York’s humane education law was first enacted over a hundred years ago. Animal abuse incidents continue to occur across the country,[16] and a Google News search for animal cruelty incidents in New York will inevitably turn up several examples. Since the State’s humane education law was passed a century ago, studies have further found that animal abuse is closely tied to interpersonal violence.[17]
Critically humane education promotes positive attitudes toward animals and humans through education at a young age rather than through punishment after animal cruelty happens. Punitive criminal laws have historically been a primary tool to address animal mistreatment. While such tools may be necessary in some cases, they raise several concerns, including the disproportionate impact of incarceration on minorities.
B. Humane education teaches the importance of reducing companion animal euthanasia.
Since New York’s humane education law was amended to require education on the “proliferation of animals,” animal welfare organizations have made significant strides in using spay-and-neuter programs to reduce the number of animals euthanized. Yet each year over 700,000 shelter dogs and cats are euthanized.[18] Continued educational efforts are needed to reduce these unnecessary deaths.
C. Humane education helps children understand how their actions affect the environment and wildlife.
Humane education also helps children understand how their actions affect the environment and wildlife. Doing so can, in turn, help students make more thoughtful choices. Such lessons are critical now more than ever, when around one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction.[19]
For the reasons above, the New York City Bar Association’s Animal Law Committee, Children and the Law Committee, and Education and the Law Committee support the proposed legislation.
Animal Law Committee
Robyn Hederman, Co-Chair
Rebecca Seltzer, Co-Chair
Children and the Law Committee
Rachel Stanton, Co-Chair
Melissa J. Friedman, Co-Chair
Education and the Law Committee
Jarienn A. James, Chair
Updated and Reissued July 2022
Footnotes
[1] The full text of the Assembly bill is available at https://nyassembly.gov/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&
bn=A02082&term=2021&Summary=Y&Text=Y. The full text of the Senate bill is available at https://nyassembly.gov/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&bn=S07670&term=2021&Summary=Y&Text=Y. (All websites cited in this report were last visited on May 13, 2022.)
[2] Laws of New York, 1917, Chapter 210 (then-codified at Education Law § 700). The law was renumbered as N.Y. Educ. Law § 809 in 1947 and amended in 1976 to require elementary schools to teach students “the necessity of controlling the proliferation of animals which are subsequently abandoned and caused to suffer extreme cruelty.” Laws of New York, 1976, Chapter 138. And in 1994, New York added additional requirements to its humane education law relating to the study and care of live animals, the dissection of animals, the treatment of vertebrates, and reporting. Laws of New York, 1994, Chapter 542.
[3] Meredith Blades and Jeremy Firestone, Wind Power, Wildlife and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act: A Way Forward, 38 Envtl. L. 1167, 1176-77 (2008) (discussing the enactment of the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918). Twenty years earlier, in 1900, the United States enacted its first environmental protection law, the Lacey Act, to address issues including the increasing scarcity of certain bird species, problems such as the introduction of exotic species of birds, and interstate commerce in illegally killed and transported wildlife. 16 U.S.C. §§ 701, 702.
[4] Cal. Educ. Code § 233.5(a) (“kindness toward domestic pets and the humane treatment of living creatures”); see also HEART, State Laws Related to Humane Education, https://teachheart.org/advocacy/humane-ed-laws/ (listing state humane education laws).
[5] Fla. Stat. §§ 1003.42(2) (“[k]indness to animals”), 1006.31 (“humane treatment of people and animals”).
[6] 105 Ill. Comp. Stat. § 5/27-13.1 (“protection of wildlife and humane care of domestic animals”); 105 Ill. Comp. Stat. § 5/27-15; 105 Ill. Comp. Stat. § 5/27-18).
[7] Me. Stat. tit. 20 § 1221 (“kindness to birds and animals”).
[8] N.J. Rev. Stat. § 18A:35-4.1 (“kindness and avoidance of cruelty to animals and birds, both wild and domesticated”).
[9] Or. Rev. Stat. § 336.067 (“[h]umane treatment of animals”).
[10] 24 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 15-1514 (“No cruel experiment on any living creature shall be permitted in any public school of this Commonwealth”).
[11] Wash. Rev. Code § 28A.230.020 (“the worth of kindness to all living creatures and the land”).
[12] Wis. Stat. § 14.16(1) (allowing the Governor to designate an annual “Arbor and Bird Day” to, among other things, promote “a spirit of protection to birds and trees and the cultivation of an appreciative sentiment concerning them.” Two other states — Massachusetts and New Hampshire — have laws prohibiting in-class vivisection and requiring that classroom animals be housed and cared for in a humane and safe manner. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 80G; N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 644-8-c.
[13] See University of the State of New York, State Education Department, Bureau of Elementary Curriculum Development, The Humane Treatment of Animals: A Guide for Elementary Teachers (1976), available at https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED129612.pdf.
[14] Lydia S. Antoncic, A New Era in Humane Education: How Troubling Youth Trends and a Call for Character Education Are Breathing New Life Into Efforts to Educate Our Youth About the Value of All Life, 9 Animal L. 183, 210 (2003).
[15] William Ellery Samuels, Lieve Lucia Meers & Simona Normando, Improving Upper Elementary Students’ Humane Attitudes and Prosocial Behaviors Through an In-class Humane Education Program, 29 Anthrozoös 597, 608-09 (2016); Christine Yvette Tardif-Williams & Sandra Leanne Bosacki, Evaluating the Impact of a Humane Education Summer-Camp Program on School-Aged Children’s Relationships with Companion Animals, 28 Anthrozoös 587, 595-98 (2015); Catherine A. Faver, 32 School-based Humane Education as a Strategy to Prevent Violence: Review and Recommendations, Children and Youth Services Rev. 365, 367-68 (2010); Kate Nicoll, Cindy Trifoneb, and William Ellery Samuels, An In-class, Humane Education Program Can Improve Young Students’ Attitudes Toward Animals, 16 Society and Animals 45, 55-57 (2008); Antoncic, A New Era in Humane Education, 9 Animal L. at 195-96.
[16] Genevieve Rajewski, CSI: Animal Abuse, Tufts Now (Mar. 18, 2015), https://now.tufts.edu/2015/03/18/csi-animal-abuse (citing Humane Society of the United States estimate that nearly one million animals a year are abused or killed in episodes of domestic violence). Recent Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data from state law enforcement agencies participating in the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) shows around 10,000 animal cruelty incidents. However, this includes only reported incidents and excludes information from many states, including New York. Julie M. Palais, Using the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to Study Animal Cruelty: Preliminary Results (2016–2019), 10 Social Sciences 378, Table 1, “Number of Animal Cruelty Incidents by State for 2016–2019 from the FBI NIBRS website for each year” (2021).
[17] See generally Allie Philips, Understanding the Link Between Violence to Animals and People: A Guidebook for Criminal Justice Professionals (Jun. 2014), https://ndaa.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Link-Monograph-2014-3.pdf; see also Clifton P. Flynn, Understanding Animal Abuse: A Sociological Analysis (2012); The Link Between Animal Abuse and Human Violence (Andrew Linzey ed., 2009); Sara DeGue & David K. DiLillo, Is Animal Cruelty a “Red Flag” for Family Violence?: Investigating Co-occurring Violence Toward Children, Partners, and Pets, 24 J. Interpersonal Violence 1036, 1041 (2009); Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Animal Abuse: Linking the Circles of Compassion for Prevention and Intervention (Frank Ascione & Phillip Arkow eds., 1999); National Link Coalition, Resource Materials, http://nationallinkcoalition.org/resources/articles-research#toolsforveterinarians (collecting various resources).
[18] Barry KuKes, The Streets of Heaven Are Too Crowded with Animals Tonight (Sept. 29, 2020), https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/lifestyle/pets/2020/09/29/animal-shelters-u-s-still-euthanize-pets-fight-overcrowding/3523111001/.
[19] Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Eduardo Brondizio et al., eds., 2019), https://zenodo.org/record/6417333/files/202206_IPBES%20GLOBAL%20REPORT_FULL_DIGITAL_MARCH%202022.pdf.
