Marcelo argues that animal welfare should be “properly legislated”.

The President of the Republic said this Saturday that animal welfare must be “duly legislated,” recalling that Parliament can do so either “through ordinary legislation” or through the ongoing constitutional review process.

In a note published on the official page of the President of the Republic under the heading “The President of the Republic defends respect for the welfare of animals”, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa states that “he has received several messages about the prohibition and punishment of cruelty to animals. “.

“This issue today for our society is a widely shared value and an undeniable requirement that is shared and defended by the President of the Republic and which should be properly enshrined in legislation,” the communiqué says.

The head of state recalls that “during the process of revising the Constitution, the parliament can approach it in this context, and the legislator, in the context of ordinary legislation, will condense and strengthen the norms and sanctions applicable in the field of good. to be an animal.”

On Wednesday, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) asked the Constitutional Court to declare unconstitutional a provision criminalizing fines or imprisonment for anyone who kills or mistreats pets without good reason, according to a press release published on Wednesday. . , fair Prosecutor General’s Office.

According to the note, the request for unconstitutionality arises after three decisions of the TC on this matter.

Article 387 of the Criminal Code makes it a crime of cruelty to companion animals for the conduct of any person who, without good reason, causes pain, suffering or any other physical abuse to a companion animal (e.g. dogs and cats), a crime punishable by deprivation freedom for up to one year or a fine for up to 120 days.

Information about this initiative of the prosecutor’s office at the Constitutional Court was provided by the Expresso Online publication, which states that the plenary session of judges of the Constitutional Court will decide the fate of the law on the protection of animals, created eight years ago and targeting three decisions recognized by the Customs Union as unconstitutional.

According to Expresso, TC has already declared the law unconstitutional in serious cases, such as the case of the dog Pantufa, who died in agony after a cold-blooded caesarean section. The owner, who threw the dogs still alive into the trash, was first convicted, but then acquitted – and in another case, when the owner mocked the dog for six years.

At the request of the MP, the Intervenção e Resgate Animal (IRA) organization is holding a demonstration in Lisbon today in defense of the criminalization of animal cruelty.