Spain: Animals Are No Longer Objects
Spain updates its Civil Code: pets and wild animals are no longer considered things. Animals receive their own rights for the first time.
Thanks to an update of the Spanish Civil Code, animals in Spain now have more rights.
Pets and wild animals in Spain will no longer be regarded as «objects» under a law just passed. This is the result of years of pressure from animal welfare organisations.
Under the new law, animals may no longer be captured, mistreated, or abandoned.
The Spanish lower house, the Congress of Deputies, passed the law last Thursday — four years after it was first proposed.
According to El País, animals had already been recognised as sentient beings under European law, the Spanish Penal Code, and regional administrative laws — but not in the Spanish Civil Code.
The Legislation in Detail
The Civil Code is to be updated to recognise animals as sentient beings and grant them stronger legal protection. Although wild animals are included in the draft legislation, the changes primarily concern domestic animals. Among other things, this is intended to acknowledge the bond between an animal and its family.
In Spain, 200,000 animals are abandoned every year, said Juantxo López de Uralde of Unidas Podemos in a conversation with El País.
Until now, «animals were not considered anything different from a television set», said Guillermo Díaz of the centre-right party Ciudadanos.
From now on, animals may no longer be separated from their owners during separations or divorces without regard for their wellbeing. Courts must ensure that the animal’s needs are met, regardless of ownership. In addition, pets and farm animals can no longer be seized as assets to settle unpaid debts.
A Step Forward
The legislation also addresses the mental and physical health of companion animals. «The costs of healing and caring for an animal that has been injured or abandoned by third parties may be recovered by those who paid them, provided they were incurred and even if they exceed the value of the animal», the draft law states.
«If the injury of a pet has led to its death or to a serious impairment of its physical or mental health, both the owner and the persons living with the animal are entitled to compensation for the moral damage suffered.»
María González Lacabex from INTERcids, a legal organisation specialising in animal welfare, praised the new legislation.
«It is a step forward and states that in separations and divorces, not only the interests of people but also those of animals must be taken into account», she said, according to El País.
