Universal Declaration wins key preliminary to U.N. approval

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 200&
PARIS–The 169-nation World Organization for Animal Health
(Office International des Epizooties) on May 25, 2007 ratified the
present edition of the Univ-ersal Declaration on Animal Wel-fare,
including recognition of animals’ sentience.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals and ancestral
bodies have sought since 1952 to win United Nations approval of
various versions of the Universal Declar-ation, which evolved out of
documents drafted for presentation to the League of Nations in 1924
and 1926.
If approved by the U.N., the Universal Declaration would
become international law. OIE ratification is regarded as a critical
preliminary to placing the declaration before the U.N., which has
not yet reviewed any of the drafts. Created by the League of Nations
in 1920, the World Organization for Animal Health was among the few
surviving League projects that were moved to the U.N. when it formed
in 1945.

`ANIMAL PEOPLE extensively reviewed the history and content
of the Universal Declaration in “Compromise & the Universal
Declaration on Animal Welfare,” July/August 2005.
A petition in support of the declaration is online at
<www.animalsmatter.org>.