Legal status of animals and proposals for amendments in congress in the Brazilian National Congress

Abstract Human history is marked by the interaction with animals, which are directly related to various themes of social history, economic, material, cultural, religious and symbolic. However, the Brazilian legal system regards animals as objects. In this context, there was an exploratory research in the database of the National Congress, in order to try to locate legislative proposals that deal with the legal treatment offered to animals, identifying nine proposals that relate directly to the issue of the legal status of animals. The Brazilian legal system is founded on the anthropocentric view, but the existence of legislative proposals demonstrates the relevance of the debate to the legal realm and shows a chronological evolution in the view that animals would be entitled to rights, justified by their recognition as sentient beings.