A lost monkey in an Ikea carpark is an illegally traded pet, so does he have a legal owner?

When it comes to animal ownership, courts turn to Roman-era laws to try and figure out if an animal is tame or wild.

It may work sometimes, but leaves out the modern idea of the animal's best interests.

And it doesn't explain how an elephant can have a criminal rap sheet.

Content warning: This program contains stories where animals are punished as if they are criminals. Some listeners may find this confronting.

Featuring:

• Professor Katy Barnett, Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne, and co-author of Guilty Pigs
• Dr Michelle Granden, psychologist
• Mary Roach, author of Animal, Vegetable, Criminal
• Professor Sindhu Radhakrishna, National Institute of Advanced studies in Bengaluru, India

With thanks to Dr Michelle Granden whose research inspired the title of this episode

And extra sounds from bird enthusiasts:

• Mike Dooher, XC402422. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/402422 (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0)

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Rebecca McLaren, Producer
• Hamish Camilleri, Sound Engineer

This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Taungurung people.

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.