One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: The Search for ‘Rights’ in the Ecuador Animal Rights Bill

Abstract

The Ecuadorian Constitutional Court ruled in the Estrellita case (2022) that animals, as elements of nature, are subjects of rights, and ordered what became the Bill Organic Animal Law (Bill LOA), due for debate in the Ecuadorian National Assembly in August 2024. This is the world’s first bill that seeks to legislatively recognise animal rights. Therefore, Ecuador’s actions in this realm will serve as a catalyst for global discourse, prompting reflection and reaction in legal frameworks world over. However, our critical analysis of the Bill LOA reveals that the text is noble in its objectives, but deficient in its articulation. Its content often ends up being a manifestation of the practices it pledged to disrupt: speciesism, anthropocentrism, and the instrumentalisation of animals. This article proposes that the National Assembly pause and reflect, treating the Bill LOA as an agent of change, rather than the immediate mechanism to achieve it. It further identifies where the text turned against its own ideals, and key questions that need to be resolved before passing a law that forever undoes the reification of animals.