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Despite the fact that different legislations have included animals in their texts for decades, their inclusion in them has mostly been in an instrumental sense, considering them as working instruments whose legal protection was equal to that of mere objects or things. , property of an owner, who could claim the economic value of the loss of said animal as an instrument of economic exploitation.
We have environmental legislation where wild flora and fauna are protected insofar as their protection is inherent to that of the environment in which they live, but in this article, we are going to put aside environmental laws, which they have already been mentioned in other articles, to focus on the regulations that offer protection to animals that live more closely with humans. Keep reading this interesting article by Ecologist Verde if you want to discover what are the rights of animals.
List of the 5 freedoms of animal welfare
In the first place, we cannot fail to mention one of the declarations at the international level best known to all, since everyone, to a greater or lesser extent, has heard of it, we refer to the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights, declared by the UNESCO in 1977. It is made up of 14 items, through which animals are recognized as beings that deserve protection by the laws, as well as dignified treatment and respect at all times. In this link you can see the list of the 14 articles of animal rights according to the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights.
Besides, the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health)[1] establish some animal welfare guidelines, whose application was produced worldwide in 1993, these guidelines are a set of "5 freedoms", which are the responsibility of the human being and consist in that every animal has the right to live in the following way:
- Free from hunger, thirst and malnutrition.
- Free from fear and anguish.
- Free of physical and thermal discomfort.
- Free from injury, pain and illness.
- Free to manifest natural behavior.
Although the aforementioned is idyllic, it is necessary to point out that both statements are still a set of "good intentions", since they do not imply mandatory regulations for the different states.
What are animal rights at the legislative level
Regarding the legislative level, at present, animal rights are still very precarious, although it is true that the path that is being taken seems to be the correct one, or at least much better than the previous situation, so that more and more we can find both laws and jurisprudence (judgments of the different courts) that establish a animal protection that until now did not exist. Society is asking for a change and little by little both the laws and those who are responsible for applying them respond.
Importantly, there is still much to do in terms of legislation on animal rights it means. Regulations are currently being developed that regulate animal welfare, as well as the prohibition of torture, transport, normal against animal suffering, etc. In this sense, there are experts who call them "first generation" rights, as happened with human rights, which began with basic civil rights and later became broader rights, endowing the person by the mere fact of be related to social, economic and cultural rights, for that reason several jurists agree on the view that animal rights are evolving in the same direction, moving from regulations that see animal protection from the perspective of their usefulness for the human being, to the proliferation of animal protection laws as for his status as sentient beings that they deserve protection for themselves, that is, because they are.
An example of this can be found in Germany, where in article 20 of the fundamental law of the Federal Republic of Germany, it establishes the obligation of State intervention regarding the protection of animals.
In the case of Spain, although it is true that more and more animal rights are recognized, since we must not forget the introduction in the penal code of the crime of animal abuse (which has meant a before and after in terms of the vision of animal rights), it is still necessary to carry out a development of mechanisms aimed at making animal protection effective, especially those related to legal defense of the same refers, since, despite the fact that the exercise of criminal action against animal abuse It corresponds to the prosecution in terms of its status as a public prosecution, in practice, the lack of these mechanisms means that the prosecution must be carried out by different associations in defense of animals or by volunteer lawyers. We have an example of a mechanism in Zurich, where they have a public defender for animals that are abused.
Likewise, in January 2022, the Government of Spain created the Directorate General for Animal Rights, which we hope that in the not too distant future will make good proposals, and above all applicable and realistic proposals, as far as animal protection is concerned.
From Ecologist Verde we encourage you to learn how to report animal abuse and Where to report animal abuse in Spain, in case you come across a case.
Examples of sentences related to animal rights
Although there are currently laws that continue to qualify animals as things, society no longer sees it that way. In recent years, there has been a big change in the way you think about animalsTherefore, laws such as the Civil Code of Catalonia, the Lisbon treaty, as well as some regional and municipal laws already qualify animals as "Sentient beings", as is the case of the Canary Islands Animal Welfare Law. Likewise, due to the relationship that many people currently have with their animals, the courts have begun to rule on the basis of not only the material damage suffered by the "owner" of the animal, but also compensate the human companion of said animal, for the moral damage caused by its loss. In this sense, the judgment of the court of first instance No. 32 of Barcelona is noteworthy, which was issued in 2007 by the magistrate Guillermo Arias Boo, in which we could see the following legal basis is of an overwhelming social reality, and says the following:
“It is clear, moreover, that the damage suffered by people who lose a loved one goes far beyond the loss of property that it may represent for them. Actually, it is priceless. Walt Disney already said, at the beginning of "The Lady and the Tramp", that if there is one thing that nobody has been able to buy for money, it is the wagging of the tail of a dog. Thus there is no money to compensate the plaintiff, her husband, and their children for the loss they have suffered. But that should not serve as a pretext for failing to acknowledge, even symbolically, by means of pecuniary compensation, however insufficient it may be, that there is a person who must answer to them, according to civil law, for the moral evil that they have had to suffer ”.
Following in the same order, we cannot forget sentence 102/2018 of January 15, 2022, issued by the Criminal Court No. 2 of Mérida, a sentence that was later confirmed in its entirety by the Provincial Court of Badajoz, in the which a man was sentenced to 27 months in prison for an individual for throwing two dogs into a well and later stoning them to the death of one of them, being convicted of two crimes of animal abuse of art. 337 of the Penal Code, basing the ruling on the consideration of animals as sentient beings, through the following words:
"Dogs are living beings endowed with sensitivity." "For this reason, we cannot limit the protection of the animal to the domain of the owner." And continue: "The relationship between the person and the animal transcends the domain: the faculties of use and enjoyment of the animal, as well as the provision on it, must respect its condition of being sensitive, so that the owner must preserve animal welfare and , of course, he must refrain from mistreating him, abandoning him and, above all, from causing him a cruel death. "
“ANDn the crime of animal abuse, the protected legal asset is not property" as "In gIn general, it is understood that it is animal welfare, linked to the absence of unnecessary pain or suffering”. Thus "The penal norm is based on a series of duties that people have towards animals.”
Based on what is stated in this article, it can be summarized that we are currently facing an "embryonic" phase, in which some foundations are being developed on which it will one day rest. animal law, every day more present in our society. There is still a long way to go in this regard, since current state regulations focus more on the hygiene and health conditions of animals, both in livestock farms and in zoological centers, lacking regulation in terms of animal welfare and protection, although the direction that is taking is the correct one.
After knowing all this, now we also advise you to read these other articles about Animal exploitation and How to avoid animal abuse. We also encourage you to watch this video on why it is important to protect endangered animals.
If you want to read more articles similar to What are the rights of animals, we recommend that you enter our category of Society and culture.
References- OIE (World Organization for Animal Health): https://www.oie.int/es/
