Cuba to pass the Animal Welfare Decree Law

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 8 (ACN) The Animal Welfare Decree Law and its regulations, which are expected to be approved in Cuba this February, propose concrete actions for education, training and communication of good practices that reaffirm the country's conviction that protecting animals is preserving the future.

These regulations seek to raise the general integral culture of the population from an early age, emphasizing respect in the human-animal relationship and the elimination of any form of mistreatment towards them.

Both legal bodies will allow solving problems such as the absence of a punitive and contraventional regime to sanction conducts harmful to animal welfare, referred to hunting, fishing, trafficking and illegal trade of wild, terrestrial or marine animals in special protection regime, threatened or in danger of extinction.

According to a press release published on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG), this and other issues have been discussed on several occasions with different animal protection associations and individuals who defend animal rights.

Meetings have been held between the Temporary Working Group that drafted the legal norms that implement the policy and people and associations that watch over animal welfare in Cuba; in all of them, the humanistic essence of the subject and its marked social interest have been remarked.

A general concern is the physical and mental mistreatment to which companion and productive animals are subjected by some of their owners, and those exhibited in zoos, aquariums and fairgrounds, as well as the criticism of inadequate procedures during the collection of animals from public roads, handling and slaughter methods.

Therefore, the goals of the policy and legal norms on animal welfare are adapted to the national reality, international standards and the norms, guidelines and recommendations of the World Organization for Animal Health, of which Cuba has been a member since 1972.