Wildlife as quasi-property

Angela Fernandez

Chapter 111 in Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Animal Law, 2025, pp 422-424 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Free-living animals can be the object of individual appropriation as long as they are not protected, and their capture does not violate any state management regulations or ‘game laws’. However, the property status of any legally pursued animal is ‘quasi’ or qualified in at least two senses. First, if this animal escapes, the qualified title of any individual pursuer is defeated. Second, the state's title to the common property into which an animal belongs or returns upon escape is the title of a trustee, qualifying or limiting what the state can do specifically to what is in the best interests of the trust beneficiary, the public, who are comprised of nonhunters as well as hunters. Captive ‘wild’ animals are best thought of as ‘semi-wild’ given the way that they straddle the categories of ‘tame’ or ‘domesticated’ and ‘wild’, which also has a qualified kind of legal status.

Keywords: Wild animals; Free-living animals; Capture rule; Wildlife management; Captive animals; Exotic animals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781803923666
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