Worldview of Animal Anti-Cruelty Laws
4/5 of world's countries have at least basic anti-cruelty laws (in green) where 1/5 still don't (in grey).
Many of the green countries also have general animal protection laws, specific regulations and prohibitions for certains activities and practices involving animal abuses, with around 10 countries worldwide having constitutional provisions to protect animals. Some countries in South-America and the Indo-Pakistanese regions have adopted first Court decisions on animal rights.
However, there is still a long way to go to protect all animals from all the massive crimes they are victims in a legal way everyday worldwide for food, experiments, hunting etc.
. WAJ research led in 2024 about the legal protection of animals against criminal acts discovered a stricking fact:
- Less than 5% of animals are protected by anti-cruelty laws (mainly companion animals) with enforcement issues
- It is less than 1% when including other sentient aquatic and invertebrates (eg: fish, cephalopods, decapods ect).
In this sense, while many animal health and welfare laws exist to regulate the use of animals in farming, transports, slaughters or experiments, they aim more are reducing the worst pain suffered by billions of animals, than allowing a real well-being for these animals who are still legally tortured (eg: live mutilations), sequestrated (eg: small cages) and massively murdered, on a daily basis, with at least 500 million terrestrial animals killed every day only for food.
Regional overviews of legal obligations & prohibitions towards animals
EUROPE
Constitutional & Anti-Cruelty Animal Laws Overview
In 2024, we gathered the last available laws in the European countries to underline the following information:
– A brief comparison of anti-cruelty laws in the 27 EU countries to underline the common points & top punishers;
– A brief overview of the evolution of Constitutional provisions for animals in European countries in June 2024.
Anti-cruelty Laws in EU countries
To date, every EU country has anti-cruelty laws. ‘Cruelty’ is usually defined as inflicting ‘unnecessary’ suffering (knowing that these laws tend to be restricted to companion and/or vertebrate animals). Zoophilia is prohibited.
Aggravated cruelty is usually committed when involving the death of the animal, many animals, recidivism etc.
Who are the top punishers (in theory)? Which countries provide for the maximum penalties in their criminal laws?
-> Prison: Bulgaria and Romania provide up to 7 years, and above all Greece with up to 10 years in prison!
-> Fines: Spain and Luxembourg provide with up to 200,000 euros and Ireland with up to 250,000 euros!
In practice, we can observe a general lack of enforcement, knowing that the penalties decided by the Judges are usually lower than the maximum provided. However, the tendency is a constant increase of the penalties provided for animal cruelty. In 2023 and 2024, 4 EU countries uplifted the prison sanctions 1-3 years higher: Croatia, Slovakia, Portugal, Netherlands.
Animals in European Constitutions
At the highest level of the laws, the role of Constitutions is to ensure the rights and duties of the citizens in every country.
– Slovenia: Since 1991, Constitution (Art. 72) states that “the protection of animals from cruelty” shall be regulated by law”.
– Switzerland: Since 1992, the Swiss Constitution (art.120) provides for the “dignity of living beings” in biotechnology.
– Germany: Since 2002, the German Constitution (art.20 A) explicitly includes the “protection of animals”.
– Luxembourg: Since 2007, the Constitution (art.11 bis) provides for the “protection and welfare of animals“.
– Austria: In 2013 the Federal Constitutional Law on “sustainability and animal welfare“.
– Italia: Since 2022, the Italian Constitution (art.9 al.3) provides the need to “safeguard animals“.
– Belgium: Since May 2024, the Constitution (art.7 bis) includes “the protection and welfare of animals as sentient beings”.
Interestingly, we can observe that this progression concerns neighboring countries in the same region of Central Europe.
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ASIA-PACIFIC
Asia-Pacific Animal Law Overview (APALO)
The laws are important instruments to better protect animals. However, these laws can be hard to access in some regions of the world. In order to better know what is prohibited to do against which animals in which countries and empower animal advocacy, World Animal Justice (WAJ), in partnership with the Institute of Animal Law of Asia (IALA) and with the support of the Asia for Animals (AfA) Coalition launched the Asia-Pacific Animal Law Overview (APALO).
WAJ Database of Animal Laws is expanding in other regions of the World! After Asia, in the second prioritary region identified to share existing laws and provisions in force to protect animals and empower animal advocates to foster animal law enforcement and reforms is Africa
2025: Launch of the African Animal Anti-Cruelty Laws Project!
Led by World Animal Justice (WAJ) in collaboration with the Lawyers for Animal Protection in Africa (LAPA), this project will aim to compile and present in a friendly way and easy interface the laws protecting all animal categories and cruel acts in African countries (at least in one thrird of countries all over the continent) and also adopted by the African Union, such as the Animal Welfare Strategy for Africa (AWSA) or the 2024 Ban on Donkey Skin Trade).
