Mental Health RAISR4D

Recognizing Non-Human Animals as a Vulnerable Class in Assessments of “Dangerousness to Others”: Application in Animal Hoarding

19/05/2026

AI Summary

Recognise non-human animals as a vulnerable class within dangerousness assessments, enabling preemptive protection when substantial harm is foreseeable.
Current criminal cruelty statutes are reactive, permitting harm before intervention; advocate civil measures like forfeiture and targeted mental health responses instead of prosecution.
Dangerousness concepts already appear in multiple animal law areas; apply grave disability parallels to animal hoarding to justify early civil intervention.

Behav Sci Law. 2026 May 19. doi: 10.1002/bsl.70065. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

We argue that the forensic concept of “dangerousness” should be expanded to protect non-human animals when danger is readily foreseeable and before it materializes into substantial harm. The criminal justice approach is limited in this respect because it relies on cruelty statutes that are largely reactive, embodying the adage that “some must suffer first” before intervention can occur. We demonstrate that dangerousness principles and/or language are already embedded-often implicitly and sometimes explicitly-in at least five areas of animal law. We highlight the well-accepted “grave disability” criteria used in assessing dangerousness to self because of the parallels to the deficits noted in animal hoarding, with the main difference being the absence or presence of animals. A civil approach focused on forfeiture (and when appropriate, mental health intervention) rather than prosecution could help bridge the gap between the care animals deserve and the deficiencies that criminal law will currently tolerate.

PMID:42155095 | DOI:10.1002/bsl.70065

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