The 2016 law that prohibits Council vets continuing to kill healthy animals held in municipal kennels, comes into force this October but there are no sanctions for those Councils vets who ignore the law and carry on killing stray cats and dogs.
According to Público, local authorities have tried to buy more time but the government has not backed down - Councils have had long enough to prepare and the 2016 law will be enforced as from October 2018.
Under the new rules, animal may only be destroyed if they already are terminally ill or pose a danger to others.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the country’s veterinary authority said the adoption of legislation is not going to be postponed by the government, despite the Director General of Veterinary Medicine asking for more time so that kennels could be adapted.
During the two year adaptation period, Councils should have provided more space for the expected influx of animals and arrange funds to run the kennels properly with a sterilisation programme in place and adoption initiatives ready to be rolled out.
The law has no section on sanctions in cases of non-compliance. Last year, Council vets slaughtered close to 12,000 cats and dogs. This is the official figure but suspicions exist among animal rights organisations that the total is significantly higher.
