Supervising Veterinarians as Boundary-Spanning Agents

Human–Animal Relations in Law-Science Interaction

Abstract

Boundary-spanning agency is important for weaving together different ways of doing and knowing. This article examines boundary-spanning agency in the context of courtroom contestation of veterinary expertise. Analysing Finnish supreme administrative court judgments, we highlight how knowledge claims about animal welfare and about the process of supervisory inspections are deployed and contested by both veterinarians and animal owners in a bid to set down an authoritative interpretation about empirical actuality at the inspected sites. A central finding is that veterinarians, contrary to the implications of earlier studies, are in a potent position in their supervising role. Given the lack of intermediary soft law mechanisms such as inspection guidelines, the interpretative space left between animal protection law and veterinarians’ inferences about the conditions at the inspected site leaves veterinarians with a wide mandate to make decisions about ending livelihoods and euthanising the inspected animals.