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Lawmakers in a French National Assembly committee voted to officially change the legal status of animals from “personal property” to “sentient living being.”  The law still must pass the full Assembly and Senate.  The current law states that animals have no more rights than objects.  The 30 Million Friends Foundation collected 700,000 signatures to petition for the change. A recent poll found that 89 percent of the country approves of the change.  Since 2009, the European Union governing body has officially considered animals sentient beings under the Lisbon Treaty, but many national governments have not yet updated their laws.

Foie Gras: Product of Terroir (the land) or Product of Terror?

If animals are reclassified as “sentient living beings,” will their circumstances improve?  Foie gras (fatty liver of ducks or geese), a staple in the French diet, is so cruelly produced that it is described by activists as a “delicacy of despair.”   Is this change merely symbolic (which is better than nothing, I suppose) or will regulations be changed in animal enterprises that will actually require the businesses to treat them as living beings instead of inanimate objects?