#SPAIN ANIMAL SENTIENCE MOVIE#
#SPAIN ANIMAL SENTIENCE CODE#
#SPAIN ANIMAL SENTIENCE SERIES#

With the approval of the new law, whoever finds an animal must hand it over to its owner as long as there are no well-founded indications of abuse or neglect. The existence of mistreatment of animals or the threat of causing them will also be appreciated,” the article states. “The joint custody will not proceed when the judge warns of well-founded indications of domestic violence. The rule also prohibits the sale of the animal in the case of divorce, as long as both members of the couple do not agree, and allows the judges not to give joint custody of the animal when there is a sentence for animal abuse. This reform will affect the approximately 30,000 married couples with pets that divorce annually as well as domestic partners that break up, according to the amendment introduced by the Senate that Congress has respected. The law establishes criteria on which the courts must make the decision of who to deliver the animal’s care to, prioritising its welfare. The judges, for example, will have to take animals into account when sentencing inheritances or divorces as the reform establishes that the magistrates must specify the “regime of coexistence and care” of animals when a marriage is legally broken and the spouses are not in agreement.

#SPAIN ANIMAL SENTIENCE CODE#

The change of consideration of the character of companion animals in the Civil Code will have concrete effects on many aspects. Therefore, animals are now considered to have certain rights and are not considered mere objects, as they have been up to now in.Īfter Congress has approved practically all the amendments included by the Senate, the law will enter into force as soon as it is published in the Official State Gazette in the next few days. Yesterday, December 3, the Congress of Deputies definitively approved the reform of the Civil Code that changes the legal regime of animals so that, in the eyes of the law, they are considered “sentient beings” in Spain.

Our leaflets have also been distributed in other cities in the United States, Spain and the UK.The approval of the Civil Code reform in Spain for animals to legally be considered “sentient beings” and not objects has been approved. We have done this regularly in the San Francisco, California area, where we have set up tables at San Francisco’s Sunday Streets, Oakland’s First Fridays, and Berkeley’s Solano Avenue Stroll. In addition to this, we’ve been doing public outreach by leafleting and tabling. As Animal Ethics works to make an impact in academia, it’s important to us to collaborate with academic institutions so they start to pay more attention to the issue of the moral consideration of animals.

Both universities were involved as well in the organization of these events, together with local students concerned about antispeciesism. A total of eleven talks were given in these universities, addressing different aspects of speciesism, the legal status of animals, the situation of domesticated and wild animals, and the similarities between women’s movements and animal advocacy.

#SPAIN ANIMAL SENTIENCE SERIES#

We also organized two series of talks in Spain, at the universities of Madrid and Santiago de Compostela. Such events also help us to get more people involved in their defense. Events such as these allow us to convey our message in a detailed way, so they are an excellent way to help our audience to develop a clear view of why sentient beings deserve respect.

#SPAIN ANIMAL SENTIENCE MOVIE#

We are planning additional talks and movie screenings of antispeciest-related films followed by discussions of the points raised by them. On October 25th, we gave a talk at Animal Place’s Vegan Republic in Berkeley about speciesism, the discrimination against nonhuman animals.

We’ve also continued leafleting and tabling as we regularly do in order to reach a wider audience. In recent months, Animal Ethics organized several events with the aim of raising awareness about speciesism, the reasons to respect sentient beings, and the situation of nonhuman animals.

Spain animal sentience