On February 26th, it was announced that an Animal Protection Act was finally approved. Animal protectors have campaigned for many years to obtain it.
By IPS-Cuba
HAVANA TIMES – “We made history, it’s the law, we did it,” are some of the phrases that appear on the social media profiles of activists, animal rights organizations and citizens, who are celebrating the recent approval of Cuba’s Animal Protection Act.
The official announcement was made on February 26th via different national news channels, with information provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, although the law hadn’t been published in full at the end of this news report.
This legal document supports the implementation of Cuba’s Animal Wellbeing Policy, which was passed on January 19, 2021. A multi-disciplinary group has supposedly been working on it since 2001, bringing government agencies and civil society together, local press reports.
Independent activists and societies in different provinces of this Caribbean country have been calling for the country to have a specific law of this kind, for a very long time.
In recent years, actions and proposals to back this demand were driven by greater visibility and the articulation of an animal rights movement, ever since Internet access via mobile data became available in 2018.
The Facebook page of collaborators in the province of Matanzas, forming part of Cuba’s Animal Protection network, pointed out that while they trust that Cuban society is ready to respond to the demands of this Act, raising awareness and adopting a different mindset is necessary, and this depends more on consciences rather than a law.
IPS summarized the points that might be of interest to citizens, taken from information provided by the Ministry of Agriculture.
In the law that was just passed, the following has been established:
The law also aims to boost surveillance, protection and security systems for animals on display in zoos, aquariums and fairgrounds. Furthermore:
In regard to animal sacrifice, information provided by the Ministry of Agriculture states that it will be carried out in a compassionate and swift manner, ensuring that the animal is handled correctly and the slaughter is carried out in the most humane way possible. It stipulates:
It states that infractions of the law are violations.
It highlights that the objective of this legal document is to promote animal care, protection and wellbeing, in the nation’s education curriculum and among the general population.
Between November 3rd and 23rd 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture called upon citizens to discuss and send in their thoughts about the decree-law, which was pending approval at that time, although its structure had already been published. According to a statement from this government body, the post got almost 7000 views and over 2000 comments and opinions.
Some of the demands raised within this context were collected on the Cuba protege page. These included the need for a special unit within the Police to tackle zooicide and extreme animal abuse. Likewise, for these to be classified as a crime within the Penal Code – which is due to be updated.
It also asked to stop animal sacrifice as a means to control stray animal populations and, in the case of being necessary for another reason, to substitute the use of strychnine with an overdose of painkillers.
Another proposal was the creation of (state-led, mixed or private) municipal shelters and adoptions centers to house animals, temporarily or permanently.
One of the most repeated demands was to ban legal and non-legal fighting between all kinds of animals (including dogs, cockerels, the Cuban grassquit, fighting fish), as well as banning the commercialization and export of fighting cocks.
The Animal Protection Act will enter in force 90 days after its publication in the Cuban Republic’s Official Gazette.
Along with signatures from citizens to support the draft bill, it continued to be tweaked and was later presented to the Ministry of Agriculture.
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