A tutela penal reforçada do animal de estimação na Lei nº 15.397/2026: sociedade de risco, expansão do direito penal e os limites da crítica punitivista
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Law No. 15,397, of April 30, 2026, amended the Brazilian Penal Code to include domestic animals among the circumstances of qualified theft (art. 155, § 6, I) and to criminalize the receiving of stolen domestic animals (art. 180-A), substantially raising the penalties previously applicable to such conduct. This article aims to defend the legitimacy of this specific legislative choice, connecting it with Ulrich Beck’s risk society theory, Jesús- María Silva Sánchez’s thesis on the expansion of criminal law, and José Luis Díez Ripollés’s distinction between modernizing and securitarian expansion. It starts from the observation that contemporary criminality related to pet theft and illegal resale (whose growth is indicated by official public security records) results from the transformation of social relations in late modernity, which produces new perceptions and demands for security, broadening the set of interests socially perceived as deserving of criminal protection, which would justify, under criteria of legislative rationality, the expansion of criminal law protection. As grounds for an emerging criminal legal interest, distinct from mere property, the article discusses the recognition of animal sentience by the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice and the Federal Supreme Court, the doctrine of sentient non-human animals as holders of criminal legal interests, the principle of affectivity (which underlies the doctrinal recognition of the multispecies family), and the international normative trend towards specific protection of companion animals, illustrated by the Pet Abduction Act 2024, applicable in England and Northern Ireland, and by the civil law reforms of Portugal and Spain. Finally, the article addresses the scholarly critique pointing to a disproportionate penalty in art. 180-A, arguing that such an objection does not fully hold, since this protection rests on an interest legally recognized by the Superior Courts and by specialized doctrine, amenable to dogmatic reconstruction as an emerging criminal legal interest. The research is bibliographic and documentary, drawing on Brazilian and foreign legislation, case law, official public security data and specialized doctrine, and is restricted to the provisions of Law No. 15,397/2026 concerning the protection of domestic animals.
Source: Revista fisio&terapia.
DOI: 10.69849/rc6dqm50
Author: Fernando Gonzalez Tavares
Institution: Governo do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul
Language: English
Topic: Animal Law and Welfare
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7218452859