Abstract

The review of the literature shows broad theoretical development in the approaches of the regulatory and legal protection of non-human animals, as well as of the legal status attributed to them. However, research that investigates the community's attitudes and perceptions in relation to this issue constitutes an incipient area of exploration. The objective of this study is to design and validate a scale of perceptions about the legal status attributed to non-human animals. To do this, a quantitative, exploratory-descriptive, non-experimental and cross-sectional methodology is followed. The sample consisted of 639 subjects, who answered an instrument of 26 items distributed in three variables: a) ethical-legal perceptions about non-human animals in general, b) perceptions about the rights of non-human animals according to their attributed use, and c) acceptance of the satisfaction of human needs according to the use attributed to non-human animals. The analyses of the data revealed reliabilities of .84, .97 and .90, as well as explanations of variance of 54.3%, 83.1% and 56.7% for each of the scale variables. It is concluded that the scale is original and novel, as well as valid and reliable to evaluate community perceptions on the legal status attributed to non-human animals. Implications and practices of the study are discussed.