The PAN (People-Animals-Nature) bill aims to reinforce the sanctioning regime applicable to crimes against pets and to extend protection to other animals, by changing the Penal Code and the Penal Procedure Code.

“More than five years after the law that criminalized the mistreatment and abandonment of pet animals came into force, it is urgent to revisit this regime with a view to strengthening the protection of pet animals, which requires the necessary clarification of the penal or concepts established there,” says the PAN, which proposes to extend protection against the practice of ill-treatment to all animals and not just companions.

The PAN also wants to make the crime of killing an animal autonomous, thus distinguishing between death resulting from mistreatment and intentional death and changing the crime of abandonment in order to cover situations in which ownership of the animal has not been formally transferred to official collection centres or associations, as well as increasing sanctions in cases of ill-treatment, including a two-year prison sentence.

In turn, the PSD bill proposes criminalizing the conduct of anyone who kills a pet animal without legitimate reason.

“It is proposed that the conduct of anyone who kills, without a legitimate reason, a pet animal should be punished with a prison sentence of up to three years or with a fine, also punishing the respective attempt. This amendment responds to a set of appeals from various entities, in addition to clarifying that which has always been the intention of the legislator”, reads the social-democratic proposal.

The Socialist Party, on the other hand, proposes a set of "one-off changes" to the rules of the Penal Code on this matter, "seeking to respond to the problems consensually diagnosed through the application of the law".

In this sense, the PS considers it “fundamental to clarify” the regime of punishment of attempt and negligence and that there should be a distinction between situations of simple abandonment, in which the existing penal framework is justified, from those cases in which the abandonment of the animal results in danger for the animal's life.

The PS also “makes a double change to the concept of pet animal for criminal purposes, making it clear on the one hand the inclusion of errant pet animals subject to registration, as well as deleting the number two of article 389, which generates several mistakes and with no real use in the exegetical plan or in the application of the criminal rules in presence, which are clear and precise”.

The bill of the Left Bloc is another initiative under discussion in the Assembly of the Republic, considering that “it is now necessary to reinforce the legal regime in force taking into account the learning of recent years and taking into account the various proposals for solving some inconsistencies and inconsistencies in logistics”.

The BE defends that the crimes related to mistreatment cover "not only pets, but also all sentient animals whose experience is associated with human beings, regardless of the role they play".

As a preventive measure, while the judicial process is underway, BE proposes that the animal should be able to be temporarily removed from its legal holder if he is accused of mistreatment of the same or other animals”.

The Left Bloc project also extends the period of inhibition of legal detention of animals from five to 10 years for those convicted of crimes of ill-treatment.