Ecuador becomes first country to recognise the individual rights of animals

Posted by David Henning on 5 April 2022

In a landmark hearing that revolved around the life of a woolly monkey kept as a pet for 18 years, Ecuador has ruled that animals are holders of legal rights, and have the power to enforce those rights before the court.

A woolly monkey. Picture: Wikimedia Commons/ Ltshears

Estrellita, a woolly monkey, was taken from the wild and raised as a pet for 18 years by a librarian, Ana Beatriz Burbano Proaño. Environmental authorities seized the monkey in 2019 on the grounds of possessing a wild animal, prohibited in 2019.

Burbano then filed a petition that demanded Estrellita be returned to her, requesting that the court declare that ‘her’ monkey’s rights had been violated, the case made its way all the way to Ecuador’s constitutional court in December last 2021.

In 2008, Ecuador became the first country in the world to recognise nature as a legal entity, but it was never clear whether individual animals could benefit from them. Estrellita’s hearing was the first to recognise the individual right of an animal as enshrined in the rights of nature.

A 57-page government document released in January 2021 ruled that the rights of nature apply to wild animals and found that Estrellitita’s rights were violated by Burbano when it was taken from the wild, and by the government when it moved the animal to a zoo.

It stated that the government must develop new rules and procedures to ensure the constitutional rights of animals are protected

When it comes to wild and farm animals, the court made it clear that human activities, such as animal husbandry and fishing are permissible because these activities are in line with biological interactions between species that are a natural part of balancing ecosystems and protect people’s rights to benefit from nature.

With animals now the holders of legal rights and with ‘the power to enforce those before the court,’ still hinged on the representation of a human, similar to how corporate representatives act on behalf of a company, there are calls for the Ministry of Environment to develop procedures the ensure the constitutional rights of animals are respected.

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