Animal rights vary greatly among countries and territories. Such laws range from the legal recognition of
non-human animal
sentience to the absolute lack of any anti-
cruelty laws, with no regard for
animal welfare.
As of November 2019, 32 countries have formally recognized non-human animal sentience. These are: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.[citation needed] It has been proposed that the
United Nations (UN) pass the first resolution recognizing animal rights, the
Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare, which acknowledges the importance of the sentience of animals and human responsibilities towards them.[citation needed]
The
Great Ape Project is currently campaigning to have the United Nations endorse a
World Declaration on Great Apes, which would extend to non-human great apes the protection of three basic interests: the right to life, the protection of individual liberty, and the prohibition of torture.[citation needed] Six countries currently ban the use of
great apes for
scientific research, and Austria is the only country in the world to ban experiments on
lesser apes.[citation needed]
In 2014, the
Jain pilgrimage destination of
Palitana City in Indian state of
Gujarat became the first city in the world to be legally
vegetarian. It has banned buying and selling meat, fish, and eggs, as well as related jobs, such as fishing and animal farming.[2][3][4][5]
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