Buenos Aires legislature approves mandatory animal sentience education in schools
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The Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires approved the Ley Compasión, making education on animal sentience and nature protection mandatory in the local school system.
The law requires all state and private educational institutions in the city to include content regarding compassion and respect for animals. The NGO Sintientes, founded by Liz Solari and led by Máximo Mazzocco, created the project. Legislator Emmanuel Ferrario pushed the bill through the legislature, which passed the measure unanimously with 56 votes.
The law targets students at every level, from early childhood and primary education to secondary and higher teacher training. The goal is to teach children and adolescents to recognize animals as sentient beings and provide them with tools to protect these animals from abuse. The Ministerio de Educación porteño will manage the implementation by defining minimum content for each educational level.
The curriculum will focus on five main areas: recognizing animal sentience, responsible care of nature, preventing animal abuse, coexistence in public spaces, and accessing public animal health services like vaccinations and neutering. To put the law into practice, the ministry must train teachers and develop educational materials. The project's supporters base the law on research suggesting that childhood cruelty toward animals can be an early indicator of future violent behavior.
They argue that teaching children to care for other sentient beings can help reduce violence and bullying. The law also aligns with other initiatives by Sintientes, which seeks to change the Civil and Commercial Code to stop classifying animals as things and to ban animal testing for cosmetics.
