The October 2014 animal rights law at least has given the authorities a framework within which to investigate and if necessary prosecute those who "without reasonable cause, inflicts pain, suffering or any other physical abuse to a companion animal…”
Animal rights groups and those that look after abandoned and mistreated pets may be cautiously optimistic that in a country that seems to take forever to achieve change, there have been 98 crimes registered against animals and 4,536 fines in the first year of the law’s operation.
One of the main problems has been the scope of the law being restricted to pets as high profile animal abuse cases have hit the headlines such as the tragic situation of the terribly neglected horses in Lagoa where their care and wellbeing conveniently was shuffled from one authority to another to the acute detriment of the animals involved.
The GNR has been active, normally in response to complaints by the public, and the threat of imprisonment and stiff fines for animal abusers may have served to reduce the incidence of maltreatment but how this can be measured is not clear.
The GNR’s first year ‘animal crime’ total was an average of about eight per month with prosecutions to follow. Fines have been running at an average of 12 per day to a total of 4,536, with 426 in the Algarve, but these mostly were for lack of identification chips, lack of vaccinations and for animals kept in poor sanitary conditions.
The law covering the mistreatment of animals, which entered into force on October 1, 2014, is at least clear and states that "anyone who, without reasonable cause, inflicts pain, suffering or any other physical abuse to a companion animal is punishable with imprisonment up to one year or a fine of up to 120 days."
The same law states that for who abuse animals which "results in the death of the animal, the deprivation of an important organ or limb or serious and permanent damage to their ability to walk, will be punished with imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of up to 240 days."
The law also states that the person in charge of looking after a pet animal, should he put the animal in danger through lack of care or food, can be punished with imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of up to 60 days. "
The GNR now offers a helpline number for those that wish to report cases of suspected of actual abuse (808 200520) which is available 24 hours and now has national coverage.
A good first year for the GNR, or 'could do better..?'
