Responsible Policies for Animals'

Draft Bill To Establish Basic Rights of All Animals
and Prohibit Rights of Corporations

Responsible Policies for Animals (RPA) offers the following Bill as an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States when human beings achieve sufficient understanding and moral progress to embrace and ratify it. Signed and dated copies of this Bill and letters of endorsement are mailed to RPA, P.O. Box 891, Glenside, PA 19038, USA. RPA welcomes attorneys', legislators', scientists', historians', political scientists', educators', executives', and others' advice as this Bill evolves and enters into public consciousness. RPA welcomes newspersons' interest in this Bill and the realities behind it.

Whereas all persons require basic autonomy, ecology, and dignity rights to experience a fulfilling life;

Whereas nonhuman animals are biological persons;

Whereas denying nonhuman persons basic rights undermines the Constitutional principles of justice, tranquility, defense, welfare, and liberty for human and nonhuman persons alike;

Whereas rights of corporations and other nonliving entities undermine the Constitutional principles of justice, tranquility, defense, welfare, and liberty for human and nonhuman persons alike; and

Whereas all persons require justice, tranquility, defense, welfare, and liberty to experience a fulfilling life,

Therefore be it established that …

All nonhuman animals shall henceforth be considered persons under the Constitution and laws of the United States of America and shall possess the following unalienable equal individual autonomy, ecology, and dignity rights. A person's being nonhuman shall not constitute a Constitutional or legal basis for unequal treatment.

Corporations, institutions, industries, and other nonliving entities shall henceforth not be considered persons under the Constitution and laws and shall possess no rights comparable to those of persons.

No human being, or government or other human-created object, facility, industry, or entity, shall abridge the autonomy right of any nonhuman animal not to be captured, sexually or reproductively molested ("bred"), owned, used, exploited, controlled, or manipulated, genetically or otherwise, by any human being or human-created object, device, or entity.

No human being or government, or other human-created object, industry, facility, or entity shall abridge the right of any nonhuman animal not to be injured, killed, or captured without due process of law as applied to human beings. Self-defense may only constitute an exception to this provision in circumstances like those involving humans.

No human being, or government or other human-created object, industry, facility, or entity shall abridge the right of any nonhuman animal to move about freely, seek food, water, or shelter, communicate, play, congregate, associate, migrate, court, reproduce, raise offspring, or otherwise behave as natural to the animal's species unmodified by humans through "breeding," genetic manipulation, or other means.

Any human being shall have standing to sue for enforcement of these rights on behalf of any nonhuman animal(s) and to redress grievances on behalf of any nonhuman animal(s) through the same institutions and procedures as established for human beings.

March 2012

For a PDF version, click here.

Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc., P.O. Box 891, Glenside, PA 19038