The seed of animal rights spreading.

I have awesome news (Or at least I really qualify them as awesome).
This 19 January 2016, Valle de bravo, Mexico became the first municipality in the American continent in declaring to the dogs and cats non-human persons with rights as living beings. It has been a task of many years of work.
When you're given the title of "Person" that immediately grants you certain constitutional rights in their case somehow similar to those of men and women.
You can't hurt them, kill them, torture them without punishment. You can't traffic with them illegally. In theory of course, since laws can always be broken especially where there is a lot of corruption. However a big triumph for animal rights activists, animal lovers, animals and humanity itself. I think.
No more "Imma shoot ma' dog cuz he ma' property. The same way you can't shoot a child because it's "yours".

That's seriously great news :highfive: felicidades!

A step in the right direction!

The only thing that bothers me about this is end-of-life consideration. How does the law handle the issue of, say, cancer at the end of a pet's life? Does it mandate chemo? Would it censure an owner for NOT putting the animal through chemo, etc? How about euthanasia for a nonfatal condition (say, extreme arthritis that is affecting a pet's quality of life in an extreme way)?

It's those types of issues that this type of law often handles poorly.

Those are VERY good questions. I'd have to check the legislation to see as far that goes what's allowed and what's not. To what extent those rights go or what are the constitutional adaptations for non human persons.
Maybe that's why this is being done in a small scale.

I would think this also mean you can't have your cats declawed anymore b/c that is very painful for cats.

I would think this also mean you can't have your cats declawed anymore b/c that is very painful for cats.

At least in that town most likely. With all this questions now I'm really curious about digging deeper in the legislation.
If a person scratches because he or she is aggressive you wouldn't cut their fingers off. So it raises a lot of very interesting questions.