Tutela jurídica dos animais de estimação: impacto da família multiespécie, bioética e jurisprudência brasileira

Abstract

The awareness of animal rights and their need for legal protection reflects profound changes in contemporary society, especially with regard to pets. This paper seeks to explore the implications of this influence, with an emphasis on the impact of the multispecies family on the legal protection of pets, with special attention to bioethics and Brazilian importation. Therefore, the present study aims to make a direct association with the problems and questions that refer to the issues that encompass the need for specific protection for pets, observing, in particular, the “family” relationships in which these animals are inserted, in addition to the growing appreciation of animal rights and their implications in today's society. Analyzing Brazilian protection and the notion of multispecies family, the paper discusses how Property Law is insufficient to address the complex relationships between humans and animals but argues that Family Law should not be the only one destined to address these demands either. Using a hypothetical-deductive method, this research reviews bioethics, animal sentience and legislative reform proposals to argue that animals are recognized as sentient beings, worthy of adequate protection. The general objective of this research is to analyze and understand the considerations that encompass the legal protection of pets from the perspective of Brazilian legislation and law. In addition, the study seeks to explore some of the nuances that involve the legal protection of animals, considering the debates in the field of moral philosophy and bioethics, foreign legislation, international regulations as well as the debates for the new Brazilian Civil Code and the drafts of the draft law so far posted. After reading this framework, the conclusion reached was that the full development of the animal should be a guiding principle in the human-animal relationship, recognizing its dignity and its own needs, which go far beyond simple insertion into a family nucleus, so that the treatment of human beings towards non-human animals, above all, must be based on respect for the other and on the understanding that animals are sentient beings, even before being objects of our affection.