New Civil Code may enable recognition of “multispecies family”

The report on the draft of the new Civil Code, about to be processed in the Senate, brings significant changes in relation to the way animals are recognized and treated legally. The new developments could pave the way, in the view of jurists, to make the so-called “multispecies families” a reality in Brazilian Law.

For the first time, animals gain an entire section within the Civil Code, in book II, which deals with goods. The art. 91-A establishes animals as “objects of law”, recognizing them as “sentient living beings capable of their own legal protection”.

Furthermore, the proposal emphasizes the emotional relationship between humans and animals, raising the possibility of claiming damages by those who feel harmed by the loss or suffering of animals with which they maintain an emotional bond. The text says:

The affective relationship between humans and animals can derive legitimacy for the corresponding protection of interests, as well as reparation claims for damages experienced by those who enjoy their company.

Within the context of families, the proposal for the new Civil Code establishes that both in marriage and in a stable union there is an obligation to share expenses related to pets. This applies not only during the relationship, but also in the event of the dissolution of the marriage or stable union, with the division of expenses and animal charges after the relationship ends.

For lawyer and legal consultant Katia Magalhães, there are signs, in the draft report, of a dangerous analogy between pets and children. “I see very clearly that they are trying to make a comparison between pets and the smaller offspring [filhos menores de idade]. There would be an entire procedural restructuring, because today a pet it does not have legal personality – at least not yet – and does not have the capacity to go to court; this new understanding of the Civil Code prevails, giving legal personality to pets, they would be represented by their human guardian, and then they would request damages in his name. It would be another legal aberration”, he comments.

For her, the extrapolation of these new principles could pave the way not only for the progressive normalization of the concept of multispecies family, but also, “at its peak, the opening to the possibility of interspecies marriage”.

“Multispecies family” grows as a legal concept and was already included in the Chamber’s bill

The expression “multispecies family” has been increasingly used in the legal community to designate relationships between humans and animals. As affection becomes consolidated as a criterion for defining any group that lives together as a family, analogies between family bonds and the sentimental bonds between human beings and animals grow.

For Katia Magalhães, affection cannot be transformed into an isolated criterion in the definition of family. “Of course, families are also formed around affection, but there are other elements necessary for the formation of the family nucleus. When you contract ties in a marriage, for example, there are patrimonial interests and an entire property regime that goes far beyond the affection. Placing only affection as an element for the characterization of a family transforms this social nucleus governed by Civil Law into something extremely fluid, capable of understanding any type of concept”, he comments.

Following the tendency for affection to be monopolized in the definition of relationships, some authors have used the expression “Family Law” instead of “Family Law”, precisely because the first alternative can accommodate the most different relationship arrangements based on affection. This is, in fact, a reason for disagreement between the rapporteurs of the draft: lawyer Flavio Tartuce prefers the expression “Family Law” in the document, while lawyer Rosa Nery opts for the term “Family Law”.

Not only in the proposals of the commission of jurists for the Civil Code, but also in Congress, the notion of families made up of animals has already been brought up for discussion. Currently being processed in the Chamber of Deputies, there is Bill 179/23, which explicitly talks about “multispecies family”.

The document was authored by deputies Delegate Matheus Laiola (União-PR) and Delegate Bruno Lima (PP-SP), and establishes a series of rights and legal protections for animals, with an emphasis on affection in relationships between humans and domestic animals. The art. 8th of the project even states: “Pets will be considered children by affection and will be subject to family power”.

The project calls animal owners “human parents”, and says that it is their obligation, among other things, “to give the animal a name and surname” and “to direct their upbringing and demand that they give them obedience and respect, without inflicting ill-treat them.”

Just like the proposal from the commission of jurists for the new Civil Code, the Chamber’s project also addresses the protection of animals in situations of divorce or the end of a stable union, regulating custody, visits, and the attribution of assets by will.