ANIMAL launches decisive initiative to strongly forward the
legislative protection of animals in Portugal and starts to set up
the first Animal Sanctuary in the country
SCROLL DOWN FOR "5 simple but crucial steps"
ANIMAL launches campaign to
establish and enact a new and modern animal protection law in
Portugal
[Click here to
read more]
National
Survey “Values and Attitudes Towards Animal Protection in Portugal”
CIES/ISCTE/Metris GfK shows that the overwhelming majority of the
Portuguese people believes it is “important” or “very important” to
have a new law to protect all animals in Portugal and this majority
also believes that the enactment of such a law is “urgent” or “very
urgent”
[Click here to read
more]
ANIMAL is
starting to set up the first Animal Sanctuary in
Portugal
[Click here to
read more]
Main
reasons and objectives of the “Manifesto ANIMAL”, the guiding
proposal for a Portuguese Animal Protection
Code
[Click
here to read more]
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. * . *
Please take the following 5 simple but crucial steps to help
protect companion animals and ban bullfights, animal circuses, the
fur trade, animal experimentation and other barbarities in
Portugal
A
pioneer legislative accomplishment for animals in Portugal is
within our reach, but we need your support :: Please support the
“Manifesto ANIMAL”, to end the crimes without
punishment
Please
take all the 5 following simple but crucial steps to help advance
the legislative protection of animals in Portugal. A stronger set
of regulations to protect companion and wild animals, the
establishment of legal rights for great apes, cetaceans and
elephants, the abolition of bullfights, animal circuses, the entire
fur trade, of animal experiments and other barbarities are within
our reach, but we need your support. You can greatly
help:
Please
click here
to Sign the “Manifesto
ANIMAL”
Please
click here
to Send a Message to the President of the Portuguese
Parliament Supporting the “Manifesto ANIMAL”
Please
click here
to Sign the Online Petition in Support of the “Manifesto
ANIMAL”
Please click here to Make a Donation to Support the
“Manifesto ANIMAL”
If
you run an animal protection group,
please consider adding your group to the list of animal protection
organisations which already support the “Manifesto ANIMAL” and its
goals
–
please contact us at
info@manifestoanimal.org
Main
Objectives of the “Manifesto ANIMAL”
The
“Manifesto ANIMAL” is a comprehensive guideline for a much needed
and desired Animal Protection Code in Portugal. It aims to show the
way forward for the legislative protection of animals in this
country, where these have been, and still are, so desperately
unprotected, unattended and, moreover, victims of all sorts of
aggressions in an environment of total impunity. More than just
calling the Parliament to establish and enact such a law, the
“Manifesto” also aims to show to the Portuguese
Parliament how exactly the Portuguese State can and should correct
its faults in this field. Among many other legislative landmarks
for animals it seeks to institute, the “Manifesto” and its
supporting campaign aim to:
-
establish general basic obligations of the Portuguese State, with
its institutions and agents, towards animals and the protection of
their health, welfare and lives;
-
establish the obligation of the Portuguese State, with its
institutions and agents, of defining, in a very restrictive way,
what exactly should be legally permitted in terms of using /
exploiting / killing animals, of formally and specifically
authorising and regulating these activities in a strict and clear
way, and of defining and forbidding, again in a strict and clear
way, which activities are forbidden, also establishing strong
penalties to enforce when illegal acts are
practised;
-
establish the obligation of the Portuguese State of educating the
public, especially children and youngsters in schools, about
animals, their characteristics, their needs and their
dignity;
-
establish a set of obligations of veterinary doctors towards
animals and the protection of their health, welfare and lives as
their main professional duty and responsibility and to establish
penalties for those veterinarians who, in the course of their
practise, act contrarily to, or refuse to act in favour
of, the protection of the health, welfare and lives of
animals; among these obligations, veterinarians working in fields
in which the infliction of pain and/or death to animals is legally
permitted and specifically authorised by the State, are especially
mandated to ensure, as strongly and satisfactorily as possible,
that the animals are subjected to the minimum suffering and
distress as possible and that the animals are treated with as much
dignity as that situation may allow;
-
establish the obligation of people and companies holding animals
under their care, regardless of the purpose they have to do so, if
and once they are unable to keep and treat the animals accordingly
to what this proposed Animal Protection Code is called to
stipulate, to immediately give them to the care of animal
protection organisations which are prepared to take them – and
establishing the obligation of the person or company taking this
step to become responsible for providing financial assistance for
the care of the affected animals until the natural end of their
lives;
-
establish the obligation of law enforcement agencies, especially
the police and veterinarian authorities, of intervening promptly in
the cases in which the above obligation is not spontaneously
observed by the entity keeping the animals, with these authorities
seizing the animals immediately and placing them under the care of
an animal protection organisation which is prepared to take them –
and to make sure that that entity will not fail to take
responsibility for providing financial assistance for the care of
the affected animals until the natural end of their
lives;
-
ban all forms of amputation / mutilation of animals (clipping of
ears, tails, etc.), regardless of the species, except when that is
medically recommended and when that medical recommendation is based
on a health necessity of the animal or on the need to prevent the
animal from being able to breed (sterilisation);
-
establish all acts of passive (e.g., abandonment) or active (e.g.,
aggression) violence to animals a crime punishable with up to 1
year of imprisonment, and with up to 3 years of imprisonment when
the act of violence causes severe harm, lesions and / or death to
the abused animal;
-
establish simple and quick legal procedures for police and
veterinary authorities to take action to prevent, fight and
penalise animal cruelty;
-
establish the obligation of municipalities of collecting,
recuperating when injured or ill, vaccinating, spaying/neutering
and rehoming stray animals, except in which concerns feral cats,
which municipalities should trap, vaccinate, spay/neuter and return
to the safest public places
-
where they can be relocated and where they can feel integrated in
their natural habitats;
-
ban the sale of live animals in pet shops, markets and fairs,
except in animal markets which meet all the new law´s regulations
and which are licensed to operate;
-
ban the keeping, selling and buying of wild animals (birds, fish,
rodents and alike included) as pets;
-
make the trafficking and currently lawful trade of
wild and exotic animals a crime;
-
forbid holding great apes, cetaceans and elephants in captivity,
and to forbid inflicting pain and death to animals of these
species; to establish only two exceptions to these prohibitions: 1)
the permission to keep these animals in non-profit-making
sanctuaries and rescue centres for their protection, and only when
these facilities have all the necessary conditions to keep the
animals safe, comfortable and as free as possible; and 2) the
permission of inflicting some necessary pain/suffering when that is
a necessary implication of medical treatments and/or procedures to
treat them for any possible illness or injure that they may suffer,
and of killing them, in the cases in which true euthanasia is
advisable, in their best interest, to end their suffering when i)
they are severely injured or ill, ii) when they cannot be
satisfactorily recuperated from that severe injure or illness, and
iii) when they cannot lead lives free from
suffering;
-
forbid the breeding, farming and/or killing of dogs, cats and
horses for their skin, fur and / or for any part of their anatomy;
to forbid the trade of any product resulting from the breeding,
farming and/or killing of dogs, cats and horses;
-
forbid the hunting or breeding, farming and killing of animals for
their skin and fur, except when those animals are bred for meat
consumption and only when their meat is traditionally and widely
used for food in Portugal, but forbidding the farming and killing
of rabbits for their skin and fur, despite their lawful use for
meat;
-
forbid the sale, purchase, importation and exportation of any kind
of skin and fur except of those animals which are bred for meat
consumption and only when their meat is traditionally and widely
used for food in Portugal, but forbidding any trade in rabbit
fur;
-
forbid all types of bullfights;
-
forbid all sorts of fights between animals and between animals and
humans (affecting more directly dog fights and cock
fights);
-
forbid the keeping and use of domestic and wild animals in circuses
and in any sort of exhibition, except in licensed zoos operating
accordingly to the proposed regulations in the Animal Protection
Code being called for;
-
forbid the use of wild animals in publicity (of any
sort);
-
forbid target shooting with live animals;
-
forbid game bird shooting;
-
forbid horse races and dog races (greyhounds and other
dogs);
-
establish much stricter zoo regulations, also making them
applicable to all kinds of zoos which are allowed to operate, and
have their activity regulated, under this proposed new law; to
permanently forbid the construction of new zoos in the country and
to forbid the breeding of animals in zoos, except in the cases in
which these belong to endangered species and there is an officially
supervised breeding program to try to ensure the survival of the
species through the breeding of captive specimens in zoos
which are officially recognised and authorised to perform that
work;
-
forbid all forms of experiments on animals;
-
establish strict rules for rescue centres, rehabilitation centres
and sanctuaries for animals, be they official or non-governmental,
and to make mandatory their non-profit making
standing;
-
establish stronger rights and duties for non-governmental animal
protection organisations, namely to make their intervention powers
broader and stronger – as much as their
responsibilities;
-
establish stronger animal welfare regulations for animals farmed
for their meat, milk and eggs, forbidding the force-feeding of
animals, the keeping of farm animals in cages (laying hens and
rabbits), crates and stalls (sows and veals), forbidding the ritual
slaughter of animals, except when 1) these belong to species which
are usually and widely used for food in Portugal, when 2) the
animals´ flesh will be necesarrily consumed after the animals are
slaughtered, and when 3) the ritual slaughter takes place in a
licensed slaughterhouse with the animals being adequately stunned
before the slaughter; and generally making animal welfare legal
requirements for the exploitation of farm animals much
stricter, so that extensive / organic farming becomes progressively
mandatory through legislation.
*
. * . *
ManifestoANIMAL.org
:: No More
Crimes Without Punishment
::
Animal.org.pt
Please
do not keep this message only for yourself :
Forward it to those you know who also care about
animals
Do
you believe that the
“Manifesto ANIMAL”
is important?
Go
to
info@animal.org.pt
Do
you run an animal protection group?
If so, please
consider adding your group
to the list of animal protection organisations which already
support
the
“Manifesto ANIMAL”
and its goals
Please
contact us at
info@manifestoanimal.org
About
ANIMAL
ANIMAL is a non-governmental organisation working to educate the public about animals, their characteristics, needs and rights, investigating and exposing the exploitation, torture and killing of animals and campaigning to abolish all forms of animal abuse in Portugal. ANIMAL also carries lobbying efforts to forward animal protection through legislation and takes legal action to enforce animal protection legislation, also involving the media in highlighting the suffering and killing of animals and how important and urgent it is to end it.