How Science and Law are transforming animal rights in our world

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For most of modern legal history, animals have lived in a strange category: beloved at home, but treated in court like furniture. That gap is narrowing. In Spain, a landmark reform to the Civil Code and related laws now states that animals are not “things” and must be treated as sentient beings—a shift already influencing how courts handle pet custody, debt seizures, and compensation when an animal is harmed. (mpr.gob.es)

The move is part of a broader, global recalibration: lawmakers are beginning to write into statutes what science has been showing for decades—that many animals experience pain and pleasure, learn and remember, form social bonds, and in some cases show complex problem-solving that looks a lot like intelligence.

Spain’s “pets are family” moment — what the reform actually does

Spain’s reform is often summarized online as “pets are family, not property.” The legal reality is a bit more precise—and arguably more powerful: animals are no longer classified as mere objects under the Civil Code framework, and judges are directed to consider animal welfare in disputes that involve them. (The Library of Congress)

Key impacts include:

• Family breakups: courts can take the animal’s wellbeing into account when deciding who keeps a pet after separation. (Global Practice Guides)
• Debt and seizures: the reform limits treatment of companion animals as assets that can be seized like property (a point popular explainers emphasize, though the exact boundaries depend on the legal context). (The Library of Congress)
• A broader cultural signal: Spain’s official gazette text frames the change as aligning law with contemporary understanding of animals’ capacity to feel. (mpr.gob.es)

Viral explainers like AlwaysPets have helped the story travel—particularly the idea that courts must now treat pets more like dependents than possessions—but the bedrock is the published statute itself. (alwayspets.com)

Are there other countries that legally treat pets like more than property?

Yes—though different jurisdictions get there in different ways.

1) Civil codes that explicitly recognize animals as sentient beings (not “things”)

• France amended its Civil Code in 2015: animals are “living beings gifted with sentience,” even while remaining subject to property rules in some contexts. (Légifrance)
• Portugal reformed its Civil Code in 2017 so animals are no longer “things,” but sentient beings with a dedicated legal status. (animallaw.info)
• Colombia (Law 1774 of 2016) declared animals “sentient beings” and strengthened protections against pain and suffering. (animallaw.info)

2) Family-law and custody reforms that treat pets as more than assets

• In the United States, several states have moved toward “best for the animal” language in divorce cases. Alaska was the first (effective 2017) to require courts to consider a pet’s wellbeing when awarding possession. (animallaw.info)

3) Constitutional recognition (the “highest-law” approach)

• Belgium recently enshrined animal welfare in the Constitution, explicitly referencing animals as sentient beings—an important lever for future litigation and policy. (Le Monde.fr)
• Switzerland and Germany are often cited in legal scholarship for embedding animal protection principles at constitutional level and through distinctive frameworks like “animal dignity.” (lawcommons.lclark.edu)

What animal-rights and welfare laws are spreading globally?

Countries tend to legislate animal protection in clusters—companion animals, farmed animals, wildlife, and research—often pushed by public opinion, trade standards, and scientific evidence.

Companion animals

• Tougher anti-cruelty statutes, higher penalties, bans on puppy mills, and—more recently—pet custody standards. (TIME)

Farmed animals

• Restrictions on extreme confinement (e.g., cage and crate limits), transport and slaughter rules, and labeling or import standards. The World Animal Protection Index notes major variation in farm-animal coverage and enforcement across countries. (World Animal Protection US)

Wildlife and entertainment

• Bans or limits on wild animals in circuses, stronger habitat protections, and crackdowns on trafficking—often unevenly applied. (World Animal Protection US)

Research and testing

• Cosmetic animal-testing bans have expanded in some regions, while biomedical research rules vary widely; debates increasingly include not just mammals, but also invertebrates. (LSE)

Who’s leading — and who’s behind?

There isn’t a single universally accepted “league table,” but one of the most widely cited comparative efforts is the World Animal Protection Animal Protection Index (API), which grades countries (A–G) on legislation and policy commitments across themes like recognition of sentience, farming, companion animals, wildlife, research, and governance. (api.worldanimalprotection.org)

On the API’s country pages, a number of European countries cluster toward the higher end (often in the B band)—including Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom—while others score lower due to gaps in coverage or enforcement. (api.worldanimalprotection.org)

The index is also blunt about why some countries lag: lack of basic anti-cruelty legislation, broad exemptions, limited transparency, scarce resources, and weak enforcement mechanisms. (Food Safety)

It’s important to say what “behind” usually means in these rankings: not that people care less, but that laws may be missing, narrow, or unenforced, especially for farmed animals and wildlife, or where traditional practices and industries get wide exemptions. (Food Safety)

The science that changed the conversation: sentience is no longer fringe

Modern animal law is increasingly built on a simple idea: if a being can suffer, the state has an ethical reason to limit that suffering. Scientific consensus doesn’t claim all animals think like humans. But it increasingly rejects the older assumption that animals are unfeeling automata.

Two influential scientific statements capture the shift:

• The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness (2012) argued that humans are not unique in the neurological substrates that generate consciousness, pointing to evidence across mammals, birds, and other animals. (fcmconference.org)
• The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness (2024) goes further in public messaging, stating there is strong support for conscious experience in other mammals and birds, and that evidence increasingly supports broader attributions (with uncertainty acknowledged). (Google Sites)

One line from EU law—often quoted because it’s unusually direct—shows how science has already seeped into governance: policymakers must pay “full regard” to welfare requirements “since animals are sentient beings.” (EUR-Lex)

Evidence of sentient creatures?

Do Chimpanzees have photographic memory? And do Fish have feelings?

A widely cited study reported that young chimpanzees demonstrated extraordinary working memory for numerals, in some tasks outperforming adult humans when digits were briefly displayed. (ScienceDirect)

That isn’t quite “photographic memory” in the everyday sense. It’s better described as high-capacity, rapid visual working memory under specific experimental conditions—still a major clue that some cognitive abilities in other species can rival or exceed ours in narrow domains. (ScienceDirect)

Fish have become the new frontline in the sentience debate for a simple reason: humans use them at enormous scale, and historically we’ve been comfortable assuming they don’t feel much.

Evidence fish can experience pain-like states

• Research on rainbow trout identified nociceptors and reported that morphine reduced pain-related behaviours—used by some researchers as evidence that fish responses aren’t mere reflexes. (wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org)
• Reporting and academic work has highlighted accumulating evidence of learning, memory, and sophisticated behaviours in multiple fish species—fuelling calls to treat fish welfare more seriously. (The Guardian)

The sceptical view

• A prominent review in Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture argues there are strong reasons to maintain scepticism about claims of fish pain/sentience, warning policymakers about overinterpreting limited or ambiguous data. (Taylor & Francis Online)

The honest takeaway for readers: fish sentience is not a settled “yes/no” in the way pop culture wants it to be. But the scientific center of gravity has shifted from dismissal to serious evaluation, and that change is already showing up in policy discussions.

Invertebrates: the surprise expansion of “who counts”

One of the biggest recent developments is legal attention to animals far from cute-and-cuddly.

In the UK, a major evidence review commissioned for government assessed sentience in cephalopod molluscs (octopus, squid, cuttlefish) and decapod crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, crayfish), summarizing hundreds of studies. (LSE)

This kind of work matters because it changes the legal perimeter: once a government officially recognizes a group as plausibly sentient, industries face pressure to reform handling, slaughter, transport, and farming practices. (LSE)

Switzerland’s rules on crustacean handling—requiring stunning before cooking, and restricting transport on ice—are an example of law reacting to a shifting scientific and ethical baseline. (TIME)

What this means for the future: three trends to watch

1) “Sentience” will keep moving from symbolism to enforcement
More countries can recognize animals as sentient on paper without changing day-to-day outcomes. The next decade’s battleground is likely to be enforcement mechanisms: inspections, penalties, transparency, and narrowing broad exemptions that allow suffering to persist. (Food Safety)

2) Courts will increasingly treat companion animals as relational, not transactional
Spain’s model—importing animal welfare into family disputes—fits a growing reality: people structure homes, routines, and even mental health around companion animals. Expect more jurisdictions to copy pet custody standards and restrict seizure/sale rules that clash with social norms. (The Library of Congress)

3) The moral circle will keep widening beyond mammals
The cutting edge is moving toward beings we used to consider “too simple”: fish, crustaceans, cephalopods. Scientific uncertainty won’t stop the trend; it may actually accelerate precautionary reforms where the stakes involve billions of animals. (LSE)

A few lines that capture the shift (and why they matter)

• EU treaty language bakes in a new starting point for policy: animals are sentient, so welfare must be considered. EUR-Lex
• Spain’s published reform modernizes the Civil Code’s assumptions about animals’ status. (boe.es)
• Major scientific declarations (Cambridge 2012; New York 2024) have helped normalize serious discussion of animal consciousness beyond activism and into institutions. (fcmconference.org)

In other words: the world didn’t suddenly discover animals have minds. We finally built enough evidence—and enough cultural discomfort with old cruelties—that the law is starting to catch up.

References for further reading

• Spain Law 17/2021 (Official State Gazette, BOE) (boe.es)
• Library of Congress summary of Spain’s reform (The Library of Congress)
• EU Treaty (TFEU) Article 13 (“since animals are sentient beings…”) (EUR-Lex)
• France Civil Code Article 515-14 (Légifrance)
• Portugal Civil Code sentience reform overview (Global Journal of Animal Law) (animallaw.info)
• Colombia Law 1774 (Animal Legal & Historical Center) (animallaw.info)
• World Animal Protection Animal Protection Index (api.worldanimalprotection.org)
• Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness (2012) (fcmconference.org)
• New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness (2024) (Google Sites)
• Chimp working memory (Inoue & Matsuzawa, 2007) (ScienceDirect)
• Fish pain/sentience evidence and debate (wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org & Taylor & Francis Online)
• LSE evidence review on cephalopods & decapods (LSE)
• Switzerland crustacean welfare rule reporting (TIME)
• AlwaysPets explainer link provided by user (alwayspets.com)