Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/36903
Appears in Collections:Psychology Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: The creation of a systematic framework to assess dog laws and their relationship to societal changes in the United Kingdom
Author(s): Weir, Sarah A
McDevitt, Lynsey
Andrews, Clare
Kessler, Sharon E
Contact Email: s.a.weir@stir.ac.uk
Keywords: dogs
companion animals
animal welfare
dog control
dangerous dogs
regulation
breeding
sales
legislation
legal comparison
Issue Date: 2025
Date Deposited: 20-Feb-2025
Citation: Weir SA, McDevitt L, Andrews C & Kessler SE (2025) The creation of a systematic framework to assess dog laws and their relationship to societal changes in the United Kingdom. <i>Animals</i>, 15 (5), Art. No.: 647.
Abstract: Dogs and humans have shared a complex relationship throughout history, with law serving as an important tool to manage dogs’ integration into human societies. As dogs increasingly become regarded as family members in Western countries, and as similar trends emerge globally, it is vital to understand how legislation balances the interests of stakeholders. Existing studies often focus on localised disputes and fragmented legal areas, limiting understanding of how dog-related laws interact and potentially conflict. We developed a conceptual framework to systematically analyse dog-related legislation, using the United Kingdom as a case study. Identified through a systematic search, laws were evaluated using content analysis based on the benefits provided to stakeholders, the regulated aspects of dog ownership, and whether benefits afforded to stakeholders occur in public or private spaces. We found that the greatest legislative focus was on dog welfare, dangerous dogs, and dog control, with little emphasis on areas like the breeding and sales of dogs. Eighty-two percent of laws that manage dogs in public space predominantly benefited the general public, often disadvantaging dogs and their owners, while 81% of laws that govern dogs within the home favoured dogs. Owners consistently faced legal obligations but gained few benefits. These findings highlight misalignments between the law and dogs’ evolving societal roles, potentially contributing to public space conflicts and low compliance. The framework offers a tool for cross country com-parisons and assessing legislation for other species with similarly shifting roles.
DOI Link: 10.3390/ani15050647
Rights: © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Licence URL(s): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
animals-15-00647.pdfFulltext - Published Version3.37 MBAdobe PDFView/Open



This item is protected by original copyright



A file in this item is licensed under a Creative Commons License Creative Commons

Items in the Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

The metadata of the records in the Repository are available under the CC0 public domain dedication: No Rights Reserved https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

If you believe that any material held in STORRE infringes copyright, please contact library@stir.ac.uk providing details and we will remove the Work from public display in STORRE and investigate your claim.