The relevance of domestic animal welfare in the litigious marital dissolution of guardians

Abstract

This article addresses the relevance of domestic animal welfare in the litigious marital dissolution of guardians. It analyzes the application of philosophy in the context of the relationship between humans and nature, based on anthropocentrism, speciesism and the role of psychology in interspecies relationships. It also explains the legal status of animals in Brazil, identifies animal rights and recognizes the legal protection provided to domestic animals into the Brazilian legal system. Furthermore, it relates provisions from Family Law and Environmental Law to domestic animals, identifies phenomena available within the legal family sphere and demonstrates the relevance of domestic animal welfare in the litigious marital dissolution of guardians. The general objective of this article is to investigate whether the determination of custody and guardianship of domestic animals in contentious marital dissolution should consider, in addition to the interests of the guardians, the right to animal welfare. Regarding the methodology used in the investigation phase, the inductive method is applied; in the data processing phase, the Cartesian method is employed; and the results report is composed based on inductive logic. Moreover, this article affirms the relevance of domestic animals in the judicial process of the dissolution of a stable union or contentious divorce, as it presents decisions that adopt an analogy to the provisions of the Civil Code in terms of Family Law, which allow the discussion of custody/guardianship and, according to the judge's understanding, of the particularities and relevance of the domestic animal involved.