La acción penal pública a favor de animales domésticos derivada del reconocimiento de los derechos de la naturaleza en Ecuador

Abstract

In Ecuadorian legislation, in the Constitution of 2008, the rights of animals are implicitly recognized within the rights of nature, and later with the Organic Code of the Environment, the reforms of the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code and other ordinances, the recognition is extended of your rights. Despite these advances, legal protection is relative, since, when crimes that threaten their integrity and life are committed, all the procedural and investigative momentum corresponds to the victim, being unable to assert their rights by themselves, which can only enforce their rights, if an animal protection agency or a private defender appears in the criminal process filing a complaint and continues with the cause until it ends, finding the person responsible for the crime, that he be sanctioned and obtain reparation comprehensive. All of which sounds simple, but, in most cases, animals do not have legal sponsorship because animal defense agencies, non-profit entities do not have sufficient financial resources to pursue criminal proceedings, pay for expertise and promote the process and as a result, the crime remains in impunity. For this reason, with the reforms to the COIP that typified the crimes against animals that are part of the urban fauna within the private exercise of criminal action, the legal right of life and integrity of these is protected, but this protection is insufficient and there are difficulties to apply it.