Consultorio jurídico: una alternativa para abordar las problemáticas que involucran animales

Abstract

The law 84 of 1989 was the first to introduce cruelty behaviors against animals within the Colombian legal system, then the penal code typified the damage to natural resources applicable to wildlife and the damage to the property of others, mainly related to goods, but also to pets. Later, law 1863 of 2003 prohibited the use of wild animals, native or exotic in fixed or itinerant circuses in the national territory and finally for the year 2016, the laws 1774 and 1801 were in charge to offer the category of sentient beings to the animals, characterize animal abuse as a crime according to the severity of the damage, create the imposition of corrective measures and unify the procedures in police matters and clarify the powers of the judicial and police authorities against cases of animal abuse.

Due to the need to provide greater tools that allow citizens to have better access to the administration of justice when cases involving animals are presented, universities like Cooperativa, Rosario, Rafael Nuñez and Antioquia, in the cities Popayan, Cartagena, Bogotá, Medellín, among others, have implemented consultancies on the protection and defense of animals through legal clinics of the faculties of law.

That is way, it is important that the academy is involved and becomes one of the fundamental scenarios and pillars whose purpose is to guide and advise citizens on issues related to animals.