Los animales y las medidas coercitivas de carácter procesal

Abstract

The legal configuration of animals as sentient beings, in the light of the proclamation contained in art. 13 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union contrasts with the situation of the animal-thing of the Spanish legal system. All the proposed reformations in recent times have focused on the recognition of the animals as sentient beings; however, in the matter of procedure law, they have go as far as declaring the company animals can´t be the object of a seizure. In essence, animals can be the object of procedural coercive measures like seizure, deposit and confiscation, and can be affected by other measures such as evictions, protection orders and rulings adopted in separation and divorce procedures. With independence of the animal’s recognition as sentient being or their consideration as things, their living being nature makes them creditors of a specific regulation running away from regulation conceived for inanimate objects. In the present work, all the procedural measures that may affect an animal will be covered and analyzed: seizure, deposit, confiscation, eviction, rulings adopted in family procedures and protection orders. In all those cases, we´ll try to offer a solution based on the actual legal system, attempting to adapt it to the special nature of the animals as living beings. However, the inexistence of a specific legal framework dooms to the necessary reformation of the Spanish procedural laws. Because of that situation, we´ll conclude this work with a proposal of reformation of the civil and criminal procedure laws that incorporates the particularity of the animals as object of procedural coercive measures.