Quebec The animals will no longer be objects

The animals will no longer be objects in Quebec.

And do not forget those who can no longer perform human gestures every day.

Recently the minister Pierre Paradis indicated its intention to amend the civil code

professors and graduates are among the signatories a manifesto calling for a new legal status for animals.

By Claude Gauvreau

January 31, 2014 at 2:18 p.m.

The manifesto demands that the Quebec Civil Code gives the animals a status of being sensible.

In just 10 days, nearly 29,000 people, including professors and graduate of UQAM, signed the manifesto entitled Pets are notthings.This requires that the Civil Code of Québec gives the animals a status of being sensible. Written by Sophie Gaillard, a lawyer with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and Martin Gilbert, a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University, in collaboration with the author Élise Desaulniers, the document has received the . support of many Quebec personalities from the world of science, arts, culture and

media,the authors of the manifesto recall that the Civil Code currently divides the legal universe into two basic categories: people - humans and also legal persons such as corporations - and property, that is to say the rest. - houses, chairs, toasters and animals ...

In other words, a dog, a cat or a cow differs no toaster or a legal standpoint chair. Wounding or mistreat an animal and is equivalent to damaging property. Nothing more, nothing less.

Equating the animals to things, is to ignore the development of knowledge, especially in neuroscience and animal ethics, says the manifesto. StevanHarnad,professor in the Department of Psychology and holder of the Chair Canada Research in cognitive science, was one of the first signatories of the manifesto.

"The scientific community recognizes that animals have cognitive and emotional capabilities, they are living beings with sensitivity, can feel pleasure and pain, "he said. Evidenced by the Declaration on the consciousness ofCambridge,July 7, 2012, who argues that animals, including all mammals and birds as well as many other species, have as the neural substrates of human consciousness.

" If the animals are not things, so it is legitimate to take into account their interests and their moral value, among others in the way they are treated in laboratories and in factory farming, says Stevan Harnad. Anyone in contact with animals or has a pet can easily understand.

"Quebec,the last class

According to the sixth annual report of the non-profit American Animal Legal Defense Fund, published last summer, the Quebec ranks last among Canadian provinces in terms of legislation on animal protection.

The problem is the rigidity of the civil law, argues Professor of the Department of Law Martine Lachance, another signatory of the manifesto, who heads the Group International research in animal law (GRIDA), the only of its kind in the country. "Quebec has improved the regulations governing the conditions of custody and breeding of dogs and cats, she said, but many other animals remain unprotected and are experiencing great suffering, particularly farm animals and wildlife .

"TheCanadian Criminal Code includes its major shortcomings, says the researcher. The latter is not prohibited to kill unnecessarily wild or stray animal. In addition, offenses against animals, such as cruelty acts causing unnecessary suffering, appear in the section entitled "Wilful and Forbidden Acts concerning certain goods."

A third category?

The manifesto does not specify the particular form that might take the new legal status of animals.

Two options are open observes Martine Lachance. "The first, which I prefer, is to create in the Civil Code a third category, distinct from that property and that of people who recognize the sensitive nature of living animals.

The other option, which was adopted in France, Austria, Germany and Switzerland, would keep the animals in the category of goods, while giving them the special quality of material well, so distinguishing between inanimate objects.

"Whatcould be the consequences of a change the status of animals in our civil law? It all depends on the nature of the new status. Legislation that would grant protection to be because it is a sensitive would open a breach in the doctrine that the requirement to possess rights is to be human. "Extract animals of the category of goods would favor at least the establishment of measures to limit their suffering in slaughterhouses and farms," ​​notes Professor.

The aim of the manifesto is to launch a public debate in order to change the legal status of animals. "The law is always behind the company, said Martine Lachance. This is when it calls for changes that Parliament passes the act, as was the case in regard to the rights of women and marriage between persons of the same sex.

"ForStevan Harnad," the fact that the manifesto has collected many signatures in such a short time shows that attitudes have changed and that it is possible to undertake the reforms that s'imposent.»

http://www.actualites.uqam.ca/2014/4315-professeurs-diplomes-parmi-les-signataires-dun-manifeste-pour-un-nouveau-statut-juridique