Legal personhood of animals demanded

A researcher has proposed that the concept of legal personhood could also apply to animals alongside humans and corporations, said the University of Helsinki in a press release.

Constitutional protections do not apply to animals and current legislation is not taken seriously enough, remarked the Academy of Finland post-doctoral researcher Visa Kurki.

Only legal persons can have rights. According to current legislation, animals are property comparable to objects. At the same time, animals can be perceived to have rights on the basis of the same laws.

“It’s high time to consider animals as legal persons, too, having legal rights,” said Visa Kurki.

Kurki said the current Animal Welfare Act in Finland contains a number of pleasant-sounding stipulations. The third section of the Act says that animals must be treated well and that no unnecessary pain and distress may be caused to them. Regardless of these premises, distress is almost always considered ‘necessary’.

“For example, the law allows for castrating piglets and reindeer calves without pain relief. The same applies to the overbreeding of dogs.”

It is also easy to circumvent the current Animal Welfare Act and bans on keeping animals caged, as well as to pass on the responsibility for criminal activity to others.

The system also treats animals differently, depending on how much time they spend in sight of humans. Kurki pointed out that fur animals, for instance, live in cramped cages without the opportunity to live species-specific lives, while individuals of the same species living in zoos in view of humans enjoy much better living conditions.

“Constitutional protections don't apply to animals, and if you consider the frequent crimes in which animals are the victims, current legislation is not taken seriously enough.”

Kurki is vice-chair of the Finnish Animal Rights Law Society, an association established in 2018