Legal interpretations of the relations between people and other animals

Abstract

The relations between people and other animals are indissoluble. Most often they are determined by deeply rooted anthropocentrism – because animals serve various human purposes – from emotional to economic. The article attempts to provide interdisciplinary insight into the philosophical, sociological and legal foundations of the human-other animal relationship. To what extent is it a relation between two autonomous entities, and to what extent is the unilateral exploitation of animals by humans? Animals are present in human reality; hence it is necessary to specify their status in relation to people. The Act on the protection of animals, even if it embodies the highest humanist (or posthumanist) values, will be criticized until it ensures that these values have real significance in social life. The article attempts to answer the question of how legislation and jurisprudence reflect the social perception of close relationships between people and other animals. From this perspective, the question of what social changes must take place in order for these declarations to have a real dimension which translates into an improvement of the actual status of animals, and not just symbolic status, is also important. It is possible that the legislator has already exhausted the range of promises to animals, and that the role of making these declarations a reality rests with society and jurisprudence. The acceptance of animals and the improvement of their status depends on their ‘humanization’, or on their release from anthropocentric patterns, which would make them autonomous entities.