Dignità, etica science-based, democrazia: la tutela animale nella società europea della conoscenza

The contribution aims at analyzing the contents and the consequences of the policy guidelines on animal welfare recently proposed by the EU. After a short exploration of the main philosophical and scientific assumptions legitimizing the duty to respect animals and a brief excursion into the existing European legislation on animals, the paper focuses on the potential implications for animal welfare deriving from Europe’s self-definition as “knowledge-based society” and the legal qualification of animals as “sentient beings” in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. Specifically, the assessment of the cognitive assumptions embedded in certain human practices related to animals could lead to the abolition of behaviors conflicting with the scientific and legal awareness of animal suffering.