--- title: "Lawyer Suggests Giving Animals the Right to Vote" description: "Humans have always decided what happens to animals without the creatures themselves having a vote. What if that changed?" date: "2023-10-17" modified: "2023-10-17" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/lawyer-animal-voting-rights" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "animal rights" - "politics" - "the digest" - "voting" --- # Lawyer Suggests Giving Animals the Right to Vote ![Humans have always decided what happens to animals without the creatures themselves having a vote. What if that changed?]() *\Image: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images\* ## Animal Magnetism Humans have always decided what happens to animals without the creatures themselves having a say. What if that changed? That provocative question is the subject of a [recent article in its journal *Analysis*](). Chicago-based attorney Ioan-Radu Motoarcă argues in the paper and an [accompanying public-facing essay]() that though animal cruelty laws have [in some ways improved our fellow critters' lives](), the world is overall not that much kinder to animals now than it was before those regulations. His idea? Granting animals voting rights by appointing human representatives to vote for them, seeking to serve their interests. "Thus, monkeys, parrots, and other creatures in the Amazonian forests in Brazil would have a say in the adoption or rejection of laws impacting their environment," the attorney wrote. "Pigs, cows, and chickens on animal farms would have a say on laws related to their life conditions." Motoarcă acknowledges in his paper that the concept "sounds preposterous," but argues that the radical proposal could be considered a "natural outcome of our fundamental democratic commitments." ## Centuries of Concern It's certainly an interesting argument — to say the very least — though of course, internet culture warriors made a point to poke fun at it. To be fair, it's a bit hazy how the system would work in practice. Who would decide which specific human representatives would represent each animal, and what their values were? At the end of the day, wouldn't it just be a bunch of humans arguing about what's best for animals, which is the current situation? Even just treated as a thought experiment, though, it *is* true that humans tend to animals and their habitats pretty horribly. And at the end of the day, all accepted ideas about governance — like that women or non-white people should vote, or heck, democracy itself — were once radical ideas. So even if this one might be a bit out there, maybe it's worth listening to some well-intentioned ideas from the fringes. **More on animals:** [*Autopsy Found That Neuralink Implant "Ruptured" Monkey's Brain*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()