THE SPECIST EPISTEMOLOGY AND THE MITIGATED ADVANCE IN THE PROTECTION OF ANIMALS IN BRAZIL

CASE STUDY OF THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS FOR THE CREATION OF THE SANSÃO LAW (LAW No. 14,064 OF 2020)

Abstract

Contextualization: In 2019, Bill No. 1,095 was presented in the Chamber, which aimed to make the legislation regarding the mistreatment of animals more severe as a whole. After modifications, the Project was sanctioned as Law nº 14.064 of 2020, which amended the Environmental Crimes Law (Law nº 9.605 of 1998) creating §1º-A of article 32, in order to promote an increase in the penalty for of the crime of mistreatment of animals, restricting its scope, however, to dogs and cats only.

Objective: The work aims to understand the reasons why Law nº 14.064 of 2020 restricted the increase in the penalty for the crime of mistreatment of animals only to dogs and cats.

Method: In this work, the inductive method was used, carried out through a bibliographic review and empirical document analysis, based on a qualitative approach. Specifically, an analysis was made of the legislative process covered by Bill nº 1.095 of 2019, which gave rise to Law nº 14.064/2020 and, in addition to reading and analyzing the bibliography on Animal Law and official documents that make up the legislative process in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Federal Senate, the contents of the meetings and public hearings held during the procedure were analysed.

Conclusion: It was possible to conclude that the increase in the penalty for the crime of mistreatment was restricted to dogs and cats due to a speciesist epistemology, based on an anthropocentric worldview, which permeates the discourse of the Brazilian legislature.