This is the essential practitioner's guide to animal welfare and animal protection law in the Crown Court and magistrates' courts of England.

Animal law is a roughly stitched patchwork of domestic acts, regulations, orders and statutory codes, interlaced with international treaties, regulations and directives. The resultant body of law is immense: with acts still in force today dating back to the 1800s and dozens of enabling clauses permitting the tapestry constantly to evolve.

Sometimes prosecutors use the law to protect animals, for instance by prosecuting those thought to have abused them. Other times defence advocates are those protecting animals, for instance by defending allegedly dangerous dogs from destruction. This guide sets out the law and provides practical advice for those on either side of the courtroom.

The guide's primary focus is on criminal cases that concern kept animals, farmed animals, animals in science, wild animals, dangerous dogs and animal protection activists. It also features chapters on related civil orders in the magistrates' courts, as well as a practical chapter on funding in animal-related cases.

This is the only guide of its kind, written as a handbook for frontline practitioners in England's criminal courts. It draws on decades of experience and is written by two experts, in consultation with an array of specialists in each practice area. This makes it a must-have book for anyone practising or wishing to practise animal welfare or animal protection law.

John Goodwin, freelance solicitor, solicitor advocate and consultant, UK
Samuel March, Barrister, 9KBW, London, UK