From objects to sentient beings, changing the legal status of animals in the civil code
ON Tuesday, April 20, the majority in the national parliament agreed to process a bill that aims to modify the legal status of animals in Spain.
At DeAnimals (www.deanimals.com) we meet lawyers and advisors specialised in animal law to analyse laws, sentences and current cases, and at the meeting on Friday, April 23, we analysed this future reform of the civil code, the content of which I am going to tell you about in this article.
The main aim of the future reform is to give all animals the legal status of sentient beings so that they are no longer considered for legal purposes as objects or livestock. In addition, among other aspects, it also modifies some aspects related to ownership, occupation, offspring, profiting, and trading of animals, and regulates for the first time, that in cases of sentimental breakups between couples (annulments, separations or divorces) who cohabit with pets.
In these cases the judge will adopt measures (visiting arrangements, custody times, expenses, etc.) that he/she deems appropriate in the interests of the family and the welfare of the animal, regardless of who the animal’s ownership papers or microchip are registered to.
The proposed law is the start of the legal phase to create a specific law that will modify the civil code, the mortgage law and the civil procedure law, in order to finally comply with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union signed by Spain in Lisbon in 2009, article 13 of which regulates that animals are sentient beings.
The directorate general for animal rights has promoted this reform, which had been at a standstill in the parliament since 2017 due to the change of government at that time.
Although the proposed law approved on April 20, 2021, represents a new step forward, it must be made clear that there is still no new law that modifies the aforementioned civil regulations and that, therefore, some more time will have to elapse before the proposed law becomes a definitive law.
However, this future law and the legal reform of several civil regulations will change the legal status of animals so that they are no longer classified as objects.
This is an important issue as animals will, at last from a legal point of view, be recognised as sentient beings in Spanish civil law.
This was that was already happening in administrative rules on animal protection that regulate pets and domestic animals, and also in the penal code since 2003, when the offences of criminal damage to objects and criminal damage to animals (animal abuse) were differentiated for the first time as separate offences.
The fact that animals are sentient beings is obvious to science and also to people who are not emotionally handicapped.
Likewise animals in these situations cannot be embargoed, something which the current legal wording allows and is another reason why this reform is necessary.
It is logical, for those of us who have empathy, respect and sensitivity towards animals, that all this media commotion is strange, because it is something that is clear to us and we do not need the civil code to expressly tell us that animals are beings endowed with sensitivity.
We do not need a legal norm that tells us and regulates something as obvious as the fact that all animals are living beings, that they feel pain, joy, sadness, etc.
But, unfortunately, in Spain there are still some people and even some public administration personnel who need laws to make it clear, express and unequivocal that all animals are sensitive beings and are not objects, hence the importance of this future reform of the legal status of animals in the civil code.