@suzanagartner
ACAP is a comprehensive legal framework for recognising and protecting the interests of all sentient animals.
All animals are sentient beings whose lives, interests, and experiences matter in their own right.
ACAP advocates for the compassionate treatment, legal recognition, and meaningful protection of all animals regardless of species, including:
companion animals, farmed animals, or wildlife.
Rooted in scientific evidence of animal sentience, ACAP recognised that animals are individuals and sentient beings. It challenges outdated legal classifications that treat animals as property. Instead, it urges a shift toward a rights-respecting approach in which animals’ inherent worth, vulnerability, and capacity for emotional expressions and experiences are fully recognised.
ACAP promotes social, cultural, and legislative modernisation that reflects growing public acknowledgement that animals are not here for human use, but _with us_ on this shared planet.
Purpose and Vision
ACAP seeks to reshape legal, social, and moral frameworks to reflect society’s growing understanding of animals as sentient, emotional, relational beings. It encourages lawmakers, communities, and individuals to shift from an outdated property-based model to one grounded in empathy, justice, and protection.
ACAP envisions a world where animals are no longer harmed, exploited, or objectified; their interests are recognised; and where humans live in respectful coexistence with all other beings.
Core Principles
1. Sentience as the Foundation of Legal and Ethical Duty
ACAP affirms that all animals, regardless of species, experience pain, pleasure, emotion, and cognition. Sentience is the moral baseline that demands protection, respect, and the rejection of unnecessary harm and exploitation of animals.
2. Animals Are Not Property
Under ACAP, animals should not be classified as “property,” “objects,” or “things” under the law. Instead, they are to be recognised as living, breathing, sentient beings with legal interests, whose welfare, agency, and best interests must be considered in all contexts.
3. Guardianship, Not Ownership
For animals living directly under human care (e.g., dogs, cats, horses, rabbits), ACAP promotes the concept of guardianship over ownership.
This relationship is based on responsibility, compassion, and respect—not control or dominion. Guardians are expected to act in the best interests of the animals in their care.
4. Protection for Farmed Animals
ACAP extends beyond companion animals to include farmed animals, which make up the vast majority of exploited beings. It emphasises that their sentience, emotional needs, and intrinsic value are equal to those of any other animal, and calls for:
* the end of industrialised confinement
* the elimination of practices that cause pain, fear, or distress
* legal standards that protect farmed animals as individuals, not commodities
This aligns ACAP with vegan ethical principles and the global movement for animal liberation.
5. Respect and Safeguards for Wildlife
Wild animals deserve protection from harm, habitat destruction, human encroachment, and exploitation.
ACAP supports the preservation of ecosystems and the recognition that all wild species have a right to live free from human-caused suffering and exploitation.
6. The “Best Interests” Standard for All Animals
ACAP urges governments and courts to apply a best-interests-of-the-animal standard—similar to the best-interests-of-the-child principle. This includes:
* family law disputes involving companion animals
* estate and guardianship matters
* custody, relocation, and care decisions
* any legal context in which an animal’s future or well-being is at stake
Animals’ needs, feelings, and welfare must guide decision-making, not their property status.
7. Adoption of Animal Companions and Ethical Human–Animal Relationships
ACAP strongly opposes the commercial breeding and sale of companion animals, which contributes to overpopulation and the killing of animals in shelters. Instead, ACAP promotes:
* Adoption of homeless animals from shelters and rescues.
* Lifelong commitment to that animal.
* Responsible and compassionate guardianship.
Human–animal relationships should be based on mutual trust, affection, and care—not exploitation or commodification.
#Inspiredbyanimals #companionanimalprotection #companionanimalphilosphy