Law against animal cruelty extended beyond pets

Kwan Tsui Hang

The First Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL) met yesterday afternoon to debate the “Animal Protection Law.” The committee and the government representatives agreed to consider cruelty to all animals as punishable by imprisonment.
In the previous version of the law, only cases of cruelty to cats and dogs were considered for this form of punishment, while those found to have been cruel to any other animals would only be liable to pay a fine.
The new proposal lists which animals are not allowed to be used for human consumption. “In the case of dogs and cats, we cannot eat them,” the president of the committee, lawmaker Kwan Tsui Hang, explained.
The president of the standing committee also clarified that this law will not aim to regulate all animals that are customarily used for human consumption, as the Civic and Municipal Affairs (IACM) has pre-existing regulations covering them. This law will not regulate “some animals designated for human consumption. In those cases, we will apply the instructions from the IACM,” she said.
Ms Kwan also mentioned that the main goal of yesterday’s meeting was to discuss matters relating to cases of animal cruelty, as well as “simplifying some sections.” She revealed that the consensus between the committee and the government was to make cases of cruelty to all animals eligible for imprisonment penalties.
“For example, the rabbit is an animal that we can eat, so mistreatment to this animal were not considered in the previous version as eligible for higher penalties. Now we have reached this consensus with the government to change the text on this matter,” she explained.
Another topic for discussion was the possibility of adding the requirement to register cat ownership. Kwan admitted that there is no consensus on this issue. She revealed that the committee believes that registration for cats is needed but “the government says that is too difficult to perform this task, because cats often run free and it is hard to control them.” She also explained that “dog registration is currently performed not to control the number of animals or for the possibility of spotting cases of cruelty, but rather due to matters of public health and prevention of the spread of diseases like rabies.”
According to the president, the next meeting of the committee is reserved for a more in-depth discussion of all the sections in the law, of which there are more than 40.
The AL approved the creation of the “Animal Protection Law” in October 2014 and since then the details have been discussed over six meetings by the First Standing Committee.

Electoral Law will be reviewed, Sonia Chan says

Speaking on the sidelines of the First Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL) held yesterday, the Secretary for Administration and Justice, Sonia Chan, said that the government plans to hold a public consultation on the review of the Electoral Law in March or April. Following that, it plans to submit the review proposal to the AL, which it tentatively aims to do during July.
The secretary said that this review aims to strengthen competitiveness and enhance the propriety of the election process, particularly focusing on preventing acts of corruption.
On another topic, Ms Chan also revealed that she already submitted the draft law on “Inter-regional Judiciary Assistance in Criminal Matters” to the AL at the end of last year.
“There are no sovereignty conflicts between the different regions,” she said, adding, “We are following the principle of ‘One Country, Two Systems.’”
“If a party asks the Macau SAR for the transfer of a person, the territory’s courts will assess whether the crime presented by this party is considered a crime in Macau,” she added.  RM