2023 U.S. Animal Protection Laws Rankings

The Best and Worst States and Territories for Animal Protection Laws

Each year, the Animal Legal Defense Fund publishes its U.S. State Animal Protection Laws Ranking Report. It is the longest-running and most authoritative of its kind, assessing the strength of each state and territory’s animal protection laws by examining over 3,600 pages of statutes. Each state and territory is ranked based on 20 different categories of animal protection.

2023 U.S. State Animal Protection Laws Ranking Report

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Select an animal law category to view trends:

2023 Rank

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Territory

Guam
District of Columbia
U.S. Virgin Islands
Puerto Rico
Northern Mariana Islands
American Samoa Islands

The 56 jurisdictions included in the 2023 U.S. Animal Protection Laws Rankings Report℠ were numerically ranked based on their cumulative scores to 76 study questions covering 20 distinct animal protection laws categories. The Rankings Report analyzed enacted laws only and did not review the separate issue of how these laws are enforced. Answers to the study’s questions were based primarily on the statutory data contained in the 600+ page compendium Animal Protection Laws of the United States (Eighteenth Edition)℠. The study’s questions were close-ended and the choices exhaustive and mutually exclusive.