Animal rights by country or territory

Animal rights vary greatly among countries and territories. Such laws range from the legal recognition of non-human animal sentience to the absolute lack of any anti-cruelty laws, with no regard for animal welfare.

As of November 2019, 32 countries have formally recognized non-human animal sentience. These are: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.[citation needed] It has been proposed that the United Nations (UN) pass the first resolution recognizing animal rights, the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare, which acknowledges the importance of the sentience of animals and human responsibilities towards them.[citation needed]

The Great Ape Project is currently campaigning to have the United Nations endorse a World Declaration on Great Apes, which would extend to non-human great apes the protection of three basic interests: the right to life, the protection of individual liberty, and the prohibition of torture.[citation needed] Six countries currently ban the use of great apes for scientific research, and Austria is the only country in the world to ban experiments on lesser apes.[citation needed]

In 2009, Bolivia became the first country to banish animal abuse and harm in circuses.[1] The United States of America is the only country in the world that has banned killing horses for consumption,[citation needed] and India have banned killing cows for consumption in some of its states.[citation needed]

Cow is the national animal of Nepal and cow slaughter is a punishable offense as per the prevailing law.

In 2014, the Jain pilgrimage destination of Palitana City in Indian state of Gujarat became the first city in the world to be legally vegetarian. It has banned buying and selling meat, fish, and eggs, as well as related jobs, such as fishing and animal farming.[2][3][4][5]

  1. ^ "The perfect storm: How the Bolivian Ban on Animal Circuses was won". Animal Defenders International. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  2. ^ "Culture / society | Worldcrunch - Real news. True sources. Seriously international". Archived from the original on 8 October 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  3. ^ "In India, The World's First Vegetarian City". IndiaDivine.org. 7 March 2015. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  4. ^ "Jain monks want a ban on the sale of non-vegetarian food". The Independent. 6 July 2014. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  5. ^ van Popering, Ruben (2015). Jain Vegetarian Laws in the City of Palitana : Indefensible Legal Enforcement or Praiseworthy Progressive Moralism?. Linköping University, Department of Culture and Communication, Centre for Applied Ethics.