2024-07-18 04:35:03
ASSEMBLY.
The National Assembly’s Biodiversity Commission approved a report in which most of the complex points of the animal protection law were excluded. This document will be sent to the Plenary to receive the contributions and considerations of the assembly members.
On July 15, the National Assembly’s Biodiversity Commission approved a modified report for the first debate of the controversial Law for the Protection and Defense of Animals. During the session, the president of the commission, Guido Vargas, requested that all the background information on the legislation be read, which began to be discussed in 2022. Vargas emphasized that the law was created by order of the Constitutional Court after the case of the monkey Estrellita, a primate rescued by animal control bodies, whose death revealed the complications of not being in its natural habitat. Vargas explained that it was essential to review the background information to clarify that the project was not an idea of the commission or the president of the Assembly, Henry Kronfle, but rather an initiative of the Ombudsman’s Office, derived from a Court ruling.
Other legislative initiatives were added to this proposal, resulting in a joint project approved on July 15. The discussion in the Biodiversity Commission generated controversy between productive sectors and animal rights defenders. The former argued that the norm, in its initial state, harmed the country’s food chain. Some of the controversial points eliminated from the report include terms such as “animal ethics” and “autonomy,” which sought to recognize non-human animals as subjects of rights and members of a moral community. Aspects such as comprehensive reparation and restoration in cases of animal rights violations were also eliminated.
Regarding animal rights, references to psychological care for animals were removed, including precepts on their existence, behaviour, intelligence, sensitivity and the prohibition of humiliating them. However, the obligation to train staff who handle animals in animal welfare and animal rights remains. For pets, the prohibition of restricting the rental or evicting a tenant for having pets was discarded. However, chaining them, limiting their mobility for long periods and mutilating them unnecessarily is still prohibited, except for veterinary reasons. One of the most controversial points was the prohibition of displaying whole carcasses of recently slaughtered animals in public spaces, which was not included in the report for the first debate. However, breaking the legs of animals before slaughter, selling raw milk in public spaces and transporting or slaughtering animals in an obvious state of pregnancy to a slaughterhouse were prohibited.
The document was sent to the President of the Assembly, Henry Kronfle, to be included in a plenary session, where contributions and observations will be received for the report of the second and final debate. Independent legislator Sofía Sánchez recalled that the project is still under construction and that a balance must be sought between protecting animal rights and considering the opinions of other sectors.