CONSIDERACIONES SOBRE EL TRATO A LOS ANIMALES EN EL DERECHO ADMINISTRATIVO

Abstract

The precise aim of this work is to examine the present legal framework in administrative law regarding animals. Traditionally animals are seen legally as mere things susceptible to appropriation, as established still by the Civil Code. We analyse how the necessary protection of the environment, coupled with a fresh social sensitivity to animals close to people, has given rise to a new public regulation of all fauna. People’s initial right to ownership is subject to serious
rectification by way of a broad set of limits, obligations and duties of a public nature that are incumbent upon public bodies in relevant cases. Such public regulation has not, however, lost the markedly anthropocentric stamp that has always characterised the relationship between the law and animals.