MP suggests a prison sentence of four to six years for harm to a domestic animal

Published at: 04/03/2024 12:06 PM

The Attorney General of the Republic, Tarek William Saab, gave statements to the press to report on the actions taken by the Public Ministry for the protection of animals.

Saab said that “despite the fight we have waged against animal abuse, from 2017 to date, it is necessary to explicitly classify these acts as a crime”.

In this regard, he indicated that national regulations establish that everything related to the environment must be considered as public property, “and by constitutional provision, this type of action falls outside the sphere of the prosecution of less serious crimes”, for this reason, progress has been made in different projects.

In this regard, he noted that the Public Ministry suggests for harm to a domestic animal a prison sentence of four to six years and a fine of 600 tax units to 1 thousand tax units, for whoever killed the animal.”

Meanwhile, in relation to animals that are in captivity, who have been deprived of air, light, shade, food, movement, shelter, hygiene, etc., a penalty of 2 to 5 years in prison and a fine of 1 thousand to 2 thousand tax units is established. “If the crime is recorded through technological means, using cell phones or any other medium, it will have an additional prison sentence of 3 to 6 years and a fine of 600 to 1 thousand tax units,” he added.

With regard to animal abuse, a prison sentence of two to four years and a fine of 1 thousand to 2 thousand tax units are suggested.

With regard to the last point, he explained that abuse will be considered: cruel acts; use of any type of weapon, to cause animal suffering, agony, mutilation, stress, pain or bodily injury, loss or usefulness of a sense, that are against the animal's health, the use of drugs or chemical substances that affect the animal's health, in a negative way; the promotion of fights between animals or between people and animals that endanger the life and physical integrity of the animal and the promotion, management or execution of breeding, experimentation or genetic manipulation to increase dangerousness.

In addition, he said that since 2017, 1,543 cases have been treated, 322 people have been arrested and 471 people have been charged.

Mazo News Team