Direito brasileiro e a senciência animal

Abstract

The animal sentience can be defined as the ability of non-human animals, through physical and mental substrates, to express feelings such as happiness, sadness, fear, among others. Such animal features also allow them to understand their surroundings and suffer both physically and mentally. Through the bibliographic method, it was sought to verify if the Brazilian State guards and protects animal sentience at the time of making its rules. Therefore, the relationship historically built between humankind and numerous animal species was analyzed, moreover it was verified how the different societies saw and used animal life. It was confirmed and conceptualized animal sentience through doctrinal research and solid cases. As an alternative way of highlighting the importance of animal preservation, the ecological relevance of animal life to human preservation was established. Constitutional and infra constitutional norms were analyzed, with the intention of verifying if the animal sentience is already protected in the legal order. Making use of jurisprudence, the interpretation given by the judicial power was evaluated, and whether it already uses the principle of animal sentience when stating the law. It was verified that animal life through assorted ecological processes makes human life viable. The conception of sentience is still shy in Brazilian legal ordering, it's still adopted a more instrumentalized view of animal life; currently there is no rule that explicitly endorses this principle. Animal sentience is not yet widely spread in Brazilian courts, since there are few jurisprudences that use this principle.