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Long overdue Animal Welfare Bill up for Cabinet approval
Animal Rights activists are hopeful that the long overdue Animal Welfare Bill will be enacted under this Government’s 100-Day programme.
Animal Rights Activist and Attorney-at-Law, Lalani Perera who was a member of the Law Commission sub-committee that drafted the Bill, said the new Laws seek to replace the existing Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance enacted over a century ago by the colonial rulers, and is totally insufficient to address the cruelties that animals undergo today.
“While many countries in the West, as well as India, Singapore and Malaysia, have strengthened their animal welfare laws, Sri Lanka, despite its rich animal friendly cultural heritage, lags far behind,” she said.
The Bill which was initiated when former Supreme Court Judge, Dr. A.R.B. Amerasinge chaired the Law Commission, has many salutary features. The most important being provision for the establishment of a National Animal Welfare Authority with wide powers, including advising the government on the formulation of a national policy on animal welfare, monitoring the progress of investigations and criminal proceedings relating to offences against animals, supervising and monitoring institutions which provide animal care services and instituting prosecutions for offences under the Act.
“The existing Ordinance recognises only a few offences, but the Animal Welfare Bill creates a range of new cruelty offences, among them the confinement of an animal in a cage where its movement is restricted, tethering or chaining an animal for an unreasonable length of time, killing an animal in a cruel manner and training an animal in a way that is detrimental to its health.
The other offences are abandoning an animal, making an animal available for hunting, castrating an animal unless it is performed by a qualified veterinarian, confining a bird by means of a ring, chain etc., and administering any poison to an animal. These offences are punishable with substantial jail terms and fines ranging up to Rs 100, 000, unlike under the present Law where the maximum fine is a mere Rs 100.
There is provision also to regulate pet shops, so that animals do not suffer while on display. It also provides for the appointment of Animal Welfare Inspectors who are empowered to direct any person to take remedial steps against animals not being cared for or experiencing pain,” she said.
The Bill is to be submitted shortly for Cabinet approval.