23/05/2007
A new animal welfare law has been discussed in Spain. It will set some basic rules for the farming, transport and slaughter of animals bred to be eaten, as well as for those used for experimentation.
This law will not affect those animals that are killed in bullfights, neither those who are hunted, fished or so-called “companion animals”.
Some practices will be forbidden by this law, such as the killing of nonhumans for doing films or TV advertisements. But what the law basically will do is to regulate the way in which nonhumans are used for purposes which will remain perfectly legal. Those who cause “unnecessary harm” to nonhuman animals will have to pay fines of up to € 100 000 / £ 68 000 / $ 135 000. The question, of course, is how to define what an unnecessary harm is (for instance: since a vegan diet is perfectly healthy, and killing animals to eat them harms them, their breeding for this purpose should be considered a case of unnecessary harm). According to this, it seems that the impact of the law in the situation nonhumans endure will not be really significant. Perhaps we can point out, in any case, that it reflects a social awareness concerning the issue which is growing in many countries.