Jusfundamental Need for the Rights of Sentient Non-Human Beings

The animal is a living being identical to any human being, who also enjoys emotions such as happiness and pain, and deserves equal respect. In a world that claims to be civilized, where there must be an imperative concern for others, this must be extended to sentient non-human beings, as a result of the permanent evolution of the Principle of the Dignity of the Human Person. In view of the hierarchical importance of the Fundamental Law in a State of Democratic Law and the obligatory jusfundamental safeguarding of the rights enshrined herein, this bibliography presents an in-depth scientific investigation that seeks to demonstrate the need for express constitutional protection for animals, with the aim of full compliance with the principle mentioned, in particular, in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic. This normative analysis should obviously also be transposed to the supreme laws of other states with a similar scope.