Brazil: Pets Can Be Registered With Their Owners' Family Name
Brazilian cartórios, or notary and registry offices, register pets with their owners' surnames. The service has existed since 2017, but it does not give the animals legal personhood.
By Marcel
Automatically translated from German · may contain errors · Read the original
Pet owners in Brazil can have their animals registered at so-called cartórios, giving them the owner's own family name. According to the news portal Dori on October 16, the Cartório Bezerra de Azevedo in Teresina, the capital of the northeastern state of Piauí, offers a corresponding custody declaration for pets, either in person or online.
Cartórios are notary and registry offices in Brazil that issue deeds and record documents. According to the Teresina cartório, officially the 3rd Office for the Registration of Titles and Documents (3º Ofício de Registro de Títulos e Documentos), the document can also give the animal a family name.
On X, the account "dailycultures" presented the option as something new: Brazilian civil registry offices, it said, were already issuing registrations for pets with their owners' surnames.
Service has existed since 2017
The service is not new, however. The PetLegal service launched in August 2017, according to the Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories (TJDFT). In June 2020, the TJDFT said that the judiciary's oversight body for the Federal District (Corregedoria) had approved the registration of pets at cartórios.
The Cartório do 2º Ofício in Brasília, Brazil's capital, says it issues a registration certificate for pets under PetLegal, which can also include the owner's family name.
According to the TJDFT, PetLegal launched in August 2017 and initially ran in seven states; registration is now also possible in the Federal District.
No legal personhood for the animal
According to the portal Ponto Jurídico, the family name can be entered in a so-called declaration of animal custody (Declaração de Guarda de Animal).
Márcia Fidelis Lima, president of the National Commission for Public Registries at IBDFAM, said, according to an IBDFAM statement, that entering the family name does not give the animal legal personhood.
