We can legally abuse and kill them for their fur, their flesh or use them in labs as unwitting test subjects. The overarching hurdle in Canadian law is that animals are still mostly classified as property. Defining animals in legal terms as property is problematic as it not only ignores their sentience, but it also negates their rights and access to justice. Animals deserve and need legal recognition and protection, mostly from human exploitation, but animal protection laws are hard to secure and difficult to enforce. Formalizing sentience is essential for ascribing legal protections for animals. Spain is the most recent country to pass legislation that treats animals as sentient beings.Ĭanada should follow the example of the UK, Spain and other countries, and move to classify animals as sentient under law. Originally, the bill excluded invertebrates, until a rigorous independent review concluded that animals don't need a backbone to benefit from the recognition. The bill is a victory for animal justice, especially as invertebrates - such as lobsters and octopi - have been included among the sentient. It can be easy to feel a disconnect between animals’ sentience and our own sentience, which makes it even more important to have legislation that offers protection to those without a voice."The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but "Can they suffer?" Almost two and half centuries after the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham pronounced those words, the United Kingdom has introduced a landmark animal bill that formally recognizes in law that animals are sentient. Until more countries officially recognize all animals as sentient and offer them protection under the law, you can make a difference by calling lawmakers to push for change and by avoiding industries that cause suffering to sentient animals, like the animal agriculture industry and the animal entertainment industry. According to a 2013 scientific review: “ is animals’ capacity to feel both positive and negative states that drives the animal welfare movement and is the reason why animal protection laws exist.” Photo: Wikimedia Commons Sentience is the ability to feel and experience emotions, including joy, pain, and fear. In fact, the UK officially recognized squid, lobsters, and octopuses as sentient.
One of the only contesters of the bill was Angel Lopez Maraver, former president of the Spanish Hunting Federation, who felt the bill was “insanity, nonsense, stupidity,” citing that it humanizes animals.Īnimal sentience has been under fire lately.
The new bill came with a lot of support across the country, and the world, with few Spanish opponents. El Pais reported that Guillermo Diaz, with the Citizens Spanish political party, stated that until this new law passed, “animals were not considered different from a television” in regards to custody battles or other civil legal issues.
#SPAIN ANIMAL SENTIENCE CODE#
Photo: Pexels/Blue BirdĪccording to El Pais, the Spanish Criminal Code already had legislation regarding animal sentience, but the Spanish Civil Code had yet to adapt such changes – until now.īecause there were already animal sentience laws in place, the Spanish Civil Code’s new bill will mostly impact animal welfare cases regarding property, family, and divorce. Under the new law, custody of pets in a divorce case will also be taken into account on a legal level, where a judge can rule what may be the best for the pets and owners alike. The distinction between seeing an animal as sentient, versus an inanimate object, by the law will impact legal decisions regarding the seizure, abandonment, and mistreatment of domestic and wild animals alike. A new bill on animal sentience recently passed in the Congress of Deputies in Spain that allows non-farm animals the protections of “sentient beings.”
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