Respect for animals to be included in French school curriculums for the first time at the start of the 2024 academic year: a step forward to be encouraged for interspecific protection

Abstract

At the start of the 2024 school year, animals officially made their appearance on the new moral and civic education syllabus. If we have any criticisms of the Education Code as well as expectations as to how the new learning areas should be approached, it should be emphasised that including animals in the moral and civic education curriculum is not a trivial choice. In fact, it has the consequence of questioning and renewing the notion of "living together", by promoting the harmonious coexistence of the living (human, animal, nature). This new programme encourages respect and protection through an intraspecific approach (between humans) but also, in a novel way, through an interspecific approach (towards animals). We need to go further, however, by explicitly including animals in the curriculum of the various subjects taught during the compulsory schooling period, which must guarantee every pupil the necessary means to acquire a common foundation of knowledge, skills and culture. The entire school curriculum must enable pupils to learn about animals in all their complexity. To this end, the notion of "animal sentience" could be mobilised, as could that of "animal culture". Understanding the extent of animals' cognitive and emotional capacities will naturally lead younger generations to love them and, consequently, to want to defend them. Finally, the animal issue needs to be included in teacher training programmes, so that teachers have the necessary knowledge to pass on to their pupils and the teaching resources they need to implement these teachings.

Keywords

Animal, Respect, Curriculum, Moral and civic education, Animal rights

Suggested Citation

Quesne, Aloïse (2024). Respect for animals to be included in French school curriculums for the first time at the start of the 2024 academic year: a step forward to be encouraged for interspecific protection. Journal of Animal Law, Ethics and One Health (LEOH), 92-98. DOI: 10.58590/leoh.2024.006

 

* Associate Professor of Private Law at the University of Evry Paris-Saclay, Member of the Institut Universitaire de France, Founding Director of the Legal Clinic One Health-Une seule santé.

 

Content

• I. Facts
• II. Comment
• 1. From respect for companion animals... to respect for all animals?
• 2. Preventing animal abuse to better curb human abuse
• III. Future prospects: From the desirability of tackling animal issues in moral and civic education lessons to integrating them into other subjects

 

I. Facts

The start of the 2024 school year will see the inclusion of animals in the new moral and civic education curriculum. The respect due to companion animals will now be taught to pupils from the first year of primary school (cours préparatoire, CP, UK Year 2). The programme also includes a discussion of the animal cause with pupils in Year 10 (la troisième), and animals will be mentioned when environmental protection and the preservation of biodiversity are considered with pupils in Year 11 (la seconde).

II. Comment

Law no. 2021-1539 of 30 November 2021 aimed at combating animal abuse and strengthening the bond between animals and humans created a paragraph in article L. 312-15 of the Education Code, which states that "Moral and civic education also raises pupils’ awareness of respect for companion animals in primary, secondary and high schools. It presents companion animals as sensitive and helps to prevent any act of animal abuse".^[1]

Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher, was the victim of an Islamist terrorist attack on 16 October 2020, when he was murdered in front of his secondary school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, following a moral and civic education lesson in which he had got his pupils to work on freedom of expression based on cartoons, including those of Mohammed, prophet in Islam, published in the weekly Charlie Hebdo. This tragic event focused media attention on the nature of this teaching, the aims of which we will briefly outline: at all stages of schooling, moral and civic education aims to "help pupils become responsible and free citizens, develop a critical sense and adopt a reflective attitude".^[2]

The aim of this teaching is to enable pupils to understand why and how rules are drawn up, and to acquire their meaning. By way of illustration, the Education Code states that this teaching forms "knowledge of and respect for the rights of the child enshrined in law or in an international commitment and an understanding of concrete situations that infringe them. This includes information on the role of non-governmental organisations working to protect children".^[3] Through debate, argumentation and reasoned questioning, pupils should acquire the ability to express a personal point of view, feelings and opinions, and to think critically. They learn to distinguish between their particular interests and the general interest.

While the 2022 and 2023 school years unfortunately saw no trace of respect for animals in the school curriculum, the situation will be different in 2024, when animals officially make their appearance on the new moral and civic education syllabus.^[4] This now includes the learning axis "Addressing the issue of respect for companion animals", to teach pupils in the first year of primary school (Year 2) the respect due to the environment and to living beings, based on an understanding of collective rules.^[5] This important step forward is to be welcomed, as it will help to develop respect for every individual (human and non-human), empathy and responsibility towards others from an early age.

As part of the traditional forms of commitment taught in college, the Year 10 syllabus includes the example of associative commitment to the animal cause.^[6]

At hight school, the Year 11 syllabus includes work on protecting the environment and safeguarding biodiversity. This includes a reference to the animal as an "object of law" in the context of "respect for living".^[7]

1. From respect for companion animals... to respect for all animals?

Since 2015,^[8] article 515-14 of the Civil Code has recognised that animals are "sentient living beings", but they remain subject to the property regime in the absence of a separate legal regime.^[9] We therefore hope that the notion of animal sensibility will be addressed by teachers in each of these modules.

While we deplore the fact that companion animals are the only animals covered by the Education Code, it is to be hoped that the condition of animals used for farming and wild animals will be raised in the Year 10 syllabus when "the animal cause" is discussed.

It is also desirable that the legal status of the animal as an object of law, which is dealt with in Year 11, should be the subject of a debate with the pupils, giving them the opportunity to analyse and discuss the consequences of this status.

The protective provisions of the Civil Code and the Criminal Code (which only apply to domestic animals, including those that are wild by nature, tamed by man or kept by him in captivity) are subject to numerous exceptions (slaughter of animals for human consumption, bullfighting, etc.).

As far as wild animals in the wild are concerned, the French Environmental Code distinguishes between several categories: protected species, species that can be hunted or fished and species that are likely to cause damage (ESOD). Although wild animals in the wild are biologically sentient beings, they are not considered as such under French law, and mistreatment of them is not punishable by law. In their state of freedom, wild animals are therefore only protected as part of the environment and not as individuals.^[10]

On the other hand, the individuality of companion animals has recently been taken into account by the courts through an award of damages to an animal. In a landmark decision handed down on 11 January 2024, the Lille Criminal Court recognised the damage caused to the animal itself.^[11] In this case, it was a young cat named Lanna, who was violently beaten to death with a wooden slat. After the cat died, her body was thrown into a rubbish bin. As the principal penalty, the court handed down an 8-month suspended prison sentence and, as an additional penalty, a permanent ban on future animal ownership.^[12] The animal protection association, which had brought a civil action in this case, was awarded damages to compensate for material and non-material loss, procedural costs and, for the first time, damages for injury to an animal. The association was awarded 100 symbolic Euros in compensation for the suffering suffered by the animal herself. Six months later, the judges once again recognised the animal damage.^[13] On 11 July 2024, the Chambéry Criminal Court convicted a man of mistreating three dogs that had been discovered in a deplorable state of health. In addition to various penalties, 100 Euros per dog were awarded to the Société Protectrice des Animaux (SPA) for animal-related damages.

2. Preventing animal abuse to better curb human abuse

With the Taquet law – a law concerning the protection of children – of 7 February 2022,^[14] abuse was given a legal definition in the Social Action and Family Code: "Abuse within the meaning of this Code refers to any person in a vulnerable situation when a gesture, word, action or failure to act compromises or undermines their development, rights, fundamental needs or health, and when this undermining occurs in a relationship of trust, dependency, care or support. Abuse can be one-off or long-term, intentional or unintentional. It may originate from an individual, a group or an institution. Abuse and neglect may take many forms and be associated with these situations".^[15] While this text does not cover the ‘animal abuse’ enshrined in the law of 30 November 2021, this definition shows that abuse committed against humans covers a wide range of forms of violence and negligence (blows, insults, deprivation of freedom, care or food, sexual abuse, etc.). In the same way, animal abuse is just as multifaceted (abandonment, acts of cruelty, deprivation of food or care, sexual abuse,^[16] etc.).

What these different forms of abuse – human and animal – have in common is that the all the victims are vulnerable beings.^[17] To this end, a plan to combat violence against children for the period 2023-2027 was launched by the Government at the end of November 2023, while a national plan to improve the welfare of companion animals was launched in May 2024. The aims of this plan include preventing and combating the mistreatment and abandonment of companion animals. In 2021, the police and gendarmerie recorded 12,000 offences involving domestic, tame or captive animals, up 30% compared to 2016. Of these offences, 35% involved mistreatment, 34% serious abuse, 14% involuntary harm to the life and integrity of the animal and 5% abandonment.^[18]

What's more, there is a link between violence against animals and violence against humans.^[19] The national plan to improve the welfare of companion animals states that "the potential link between animal and human abuse (particularly domestic violence) has now been documented and should be seen as a warning sign".^[20] A study in 2020 revealed a propensity among perpetrators of bullying at school to also abuse animals.^[21]

Generally speaking, developing a positive relationship with animals is associated with greater consideration for humans.^[22] Learning to respect animals also means learning to respect humans. It is therefore necessary to change the paradigm by developing this aspect in school curricula.

III. Future prospects: From the desirability of tackling animal issues in moral and civic education lessons to integrating them into other subjects

While we have been critical of the new provisions in the education code and expectations about how to approach the new learning syllabus, it should be noted that including the animal in the moral and civic education program is far from an insignificant move. In fact, it has the consequence of questioning and renewing the notion of "living together", by promoting the harmonious coexistence of the living (human, animal, nature). This new programme thus encourages respect and protection through an intraspecific approach (between humans) but also, in a novel way, through an interspecific approach (towards animals).^[23]

If the animal issue has already been dealt with in some courses or, indirectly, in subjects such as Life and Earth Sciences (SVT), from the point of view of species and biodiversity,^[24] it must now be included in the curriculum of the various subjects taught during compulsory schooling, which must guarantee each pupil the necessary means to acquire a common base of knowledge, skills and culture.

Consideration for animals is the result of a process that Fernand Méry,^[25] a veterinarian and great defender of the animal cause, described in these terms: “Know them to understand them, understand them to love them, love them to defend them.” The whole curriculum must therefore enable students to know animals in all their complexity. To do this, the notion of "animal sentience"^[26] could be mobilized, as well as that of "animal culture".^[27] Understanding the extent of cognitive and emotional abilities of animals will naturally lead younger generations to love them and, therefore, to want to defend them.

In this wake, “history programs must also transmit the memory of animals sacrificed during wars: for example, millions of horses were used and lost their lives during the First and Second World Wars.”^[28] 11 million horses, 100,000 dogs and 200,000 pigeons were in fact recruited into the Great War.^[29] The travelling pigeons played a decisive role, like "Vaillant", the last carrier pigeon at the disposal of Commander Raynal, encircled with his men at the Fort de Vaux in 1916. Vaillant carried out his mission at the risk of his life, which earned him official recognition of the country.^[30] What is often ignored, however, is that the French army still has pigeons. The fortress of Mont-Valérien, in Suresnes in the Hauts-de-Seine, is home to the last military dovecote in Europe where 200 passenger pigeons are kept by the 8th Transmission Regiment.^[31] 

In the same sense, "philosophy teachings, for their part, must be rethought in depth and stop using archaic concepts opposing human to animal, which are formally disproved by modern scientific knowledge. Literature and French programs must focus on the crucial and revealing roles given to animals in novels by their authors."^[32] The relationships between humans and animals must therefore be explored in all their diversity, in order to teach a vision of the animal that is not only biological and utilitarian.^[33]

Finally, it is important to draw attention to teacher training. In addition to improving of school curricula, animal issues need to be integrated into teacher training programmes and continuing education. Teachers must have the necessary knowledge to be able to pass it on to their students, and they must have educational resources that are useful in implementing these teachings.