Police have arrested 17 people for abandoning or mistreating pets and recorded nearly 10,000 crimes over the past five years, according to data sent to Lusa by the PSP and GNR.
17 arrests were made between 2018 and 2022 by the Public Security Police, who arrested 15 people for abuse and two for abandoning pets.
The year with the most arrests for cruelty to companion animals was 2021 with six, followed by 2019 and 2022 with four each, and in 2018 one person was arrested.
The PSP indicates that animal abandonment arrests were made in 2019 and 2020, one each year.
Data sent to Lusa shows that between 2018 and 2022, the PSP and the National Republican Guard recorded 9,732 animal abandonment or cruelty crimes.
The PSP also reports that there were 1,615 cases of animal abandonment and 2,278 cases of animal abuse in five years, for a total of 4,402 cases.
While GNR accounted for 5,330 crimes, 3,385 of which were animal cruelty and 1,945 animal abandonment, with this type of crime recorded in 2022 as the highest in five years.
Last year, GNR recorded 1,195 pet abandonment and abuse crimes, 1,008 in 2021, 1,030 in 2020, 1,089 in 2019 and 1,008 in 2018.
The PSP, on the other hand, registered a decline in 2020 and 2021 due to the covid-19 pandemic, increasing again in 2022. Last year the PSP counted 865 crimes, in 2021 there were 833, in 2020 there were 801, in 2019 there were 952 and in 2018 there were 951.
GNR also reports that there have been 18,690 administrative offenses for this offense in the past five years, with the highest number in 2018 (5,393), followed by 2019 (5,107), 2022 (3,357), 2020 (2,587) and 2021 (2,246). .
These security forces allege that ill-treatment offenses are provided for in the Penal Code and that the facts are brought to the attention of the State Ministry and the perpetrators are identified.
According to the GNR, dogs are the animals with the highest levels of abuse and neglect, and generally collected animals are taken to official collection centers (CROs) under municipal or inter-municipal administration, and in some cases are also taken to zoophiles. associations.
GNR also receives complaints, which can be filed through SOS Ambiente e Território 808 200 520, www.gnr.pt (Serviços/SOS Ambiente) or email [email protected], registering 20,823 complaints between 2018 and 2022 after increasing every year, it first decreased in 2022.
PSP also has an animal welfare line ([email protected]) to receive complaints: 12,175 complaints have been registered in the last five years and this trend is growing.
This line received 2,149 complaints in 2018, 2,278 in 2019, 2,362 in 2020, 2,462 in 2021 and 2,924 last year.
The PSP says that these complaints include not only criminal cases of abandonment and abuse, but also all cases related to the welfare of the animal and suspicious situations that subsequently need to be checked and investigated by the police.
This police emphasizes that part of the complaints received through this line “is not aware of subsequent criminal or administrative actions, since it has been established that the reported situation does not correspond to any offense or the evidence collected does not allow invoking suspicion.”
The most frequent complaints received by the PSP through this line are complaints from neighbors about barking dogs on the balcony, dirty and unpleasant smells in the yard, absence of owners without leaving water or food for animals, walking the dog without a leash and aggressiveness of animals.
Cruelty to companion animals has been a crime since 2014, and several people have already been convicted at first instance.
However, the Constitutional Court has already overturned those convictions on the grounds that they are not covered by the Constitution.
Recently, the prosecutor’s office applied to the Constitutional Court with a request to recognize the unconstitutional norm providing for criminal liability in the form of a fine or imprisonment for killing or cruelty to domestic animals without legal grounds.
The request for unconstitutionality arises after three decisions of the TC on this matter.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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