ABSTRACT A robust debate regarding the ideal legal status of nonhuman animals has been taking place for some time among legal scholars, philosophers, animal scientists, social scientists, and humanists. Significantly less attention has been paid, however, to exploring how members of the public conceptualize the legal treatment of animals, including what they see as the primary merits and drawbacks of proposed animal rights frameworks. Using focus groups with a non-activist population, this research explored how members of the public conceptualize the treatment of animals in society, generally, and under the law, specifically. From there, it set out to investigate how they responded to key concepts and messages used by advocates, as well as opponents, of animal legal rights. The findings help explain how individuals activate an interconnected mix of psychological and cultural norms, interpersonal and inter-species experiences, and mediated communication connections to form attitudes toward different categories of animals. What takes shape is an often contradictory set of beliefs about what animal legal rights could or should entail, as well as which animals are deserving of legal protections. While respondents hoped for a world in which animals were treated with greater respect, and they generally saw welfare-oriented legal protections of animals as valuable, when thinking about actual implementation, their support for animal legal rights was tempered by a set of intuitive and logistical misgivings. Primary objections centered on questions of how legal lines could be drawn to include certain species but not others, as well as the pragmatics of how animals could advocate for a defense of their own rights. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of these findings for researchers, as well as legal and advocacy practitioners.

中文翻译：

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利用焦点小组探索公众对动物合法权利的看法

摘要 一段时间以来，法律学者、哲学家、动物科学家、社会科学家和人文主义者就非人类动物的理想法律地位展开了激烈的辩论。然而，对于探索公众如何对动物的法律待遇进行概念化，包括他们认为拟议的动物权利框架的主要优点和缺点的关注程度明显较低。这项研究使用非激进主义人群的焦点小组，探讨了公众如何概念化社会中动物的待遇，一般来说，特别是在法律之下。从那里开始，它开始调查他们如何回应动物合法权利的倡导者和反对者使用的关键概念和信息。这些发现有助于解释个体如何激活相互关联的心理和文化规范、人际交往和跨物种体验以及中介沟通联系，以形成对不同类别动物的态度。形成的是关于动物法律权利可以或应该带来什么以及哪些动物应该受到法律保护的一系列经常相互矛盾的信念。虽然受访者希望一个动物得到更多尊重的世界，他们普遍认为以福利为导向的动物法律保护是有价值的，但在考虑实际实施时，他们对动物合法权利的支持受到了一系列直觉和逻辑的影响。疑虑。主要反对意见集中在如何划定法律界限以包括某些物种而不包括其他物种的问题，以及动物如何倡导捍卫自身权利的实用主义。本文最后简要讨论了这些发现对研究人员以及法律和倡导从业人员的影响。