Legal system for the protection of life, health and welfare of animals – bioethical approach within the legal framework

Abstract

Since ancient times, animals have been present in human lives and their role has been extremely important. In addition, the coexistence between humans and animals, as well as humans and the entire living world, has an enormous importance for the preservation of the natural balance of the biosphere. Consequently, the bioethical awareness of humans towards animals is growing, resulting in some interesting legal considerations, which in turn raise certain questions. The legal system for the protection of life, health and welfare of animals is the main precondition for a peaceful and undisturbed coexistence between humans and animals. This paper takes this view as its starting point and uses comparative law, historical, case law and analytical methods in order to present the entire legal system for the protection of life, health and welfare of animals in the Republic of Croatia, together with all its elements. The aim of the paper is to show whether animals are subjects or objects of the existing laws, whether they have any subjective rights or are treated as protected legal goods, how the legal sources regulate this issue in the Republic of Croatia, and whether they directly protect animals’ integrity.