Animal disease prevention law | Vet investors will not be accountable for administrative malpractice

Investors in animal medical service firms are exempt from being punished for administrative violations committed by companies under the latest amendment to the animal disease prevention law that is being proposed.
Yesterday, government representatives met with members of the First Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL) where they presented the text for the amended law and discussed the amendments. According to the latest version of the text, investors in veterinary and animal service establishments are no longer required to be held accountable for administrative violations committed by companies in which they have an interest.
The law amendment also requires veterinary and animal service establishments to report any spread of animal disease to the local government within 24 hours.
Previously, investors in veterinary and animal service establishments, as well as veterinarians or administrators of such establishments were all obliged to declare any spread of disease to the local government, otherwise they would face a penalty.
The new amendment has removed investors from the relevant articles, as the local government now considers that capital investors are not heavily involved in operations of the veterinarian or animal hospital, besides allocating money.
Another consideration to the law’s amendments was that it would take a veterinarian and animal medical service provider more time to declare to the government if investor consensus is required. Furthermore, in such a situation, the law amendments considered that the timely reaction to an animal disease outbreak might be delayed.
Either the veterinarian or the company administrator can declare an animal disease case to the Macau SAR government.
Aside from being exempt from the obligation of declaring cases of animal disease, an investor in a veterinarian or animal medical service establishment will also not be liable for any administrative violations recorded at the facilities once this bill is passed and comes into effect.
This law has produced a consensus between government representatives and lawmakers. The AL committee will hold one last meeting for a final review of the government’s work on the law before it goes to the AL plenary meeting.
This specific law, despite being related to animal disease, does not provide a definition for veterinarian, however. According to Ho Ion Sang, Chairman of the Committee, the local government is preparing two laws, one specifically related to veterinary professionals and the other one relating to animal hospitals.
The SAR government believes that with the future veterinarian law and animal hospital law, Macau will have more regulation over animal-related matters.