Animal cruelty leading to death becomes a criminal offence in Georgia
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, May 31
Torture killing of animals and birds becomes a criminal offence in Georgia as the Georgian Parliament has approved an amendment to the law on its third and final reading on Wednesday.
The crime is now punishable with 120 to 240 hours of community work, domestic arrest from six to 12 months, a fine, or an imprisonment for up to one year.
Torturing animals and birds [which does not cause death] will be fined from 100 to 500 GEL.
Previously the fine stood at 40 GEL.
IDFI, a local NGO, says based on the Georgian Interior Ministry that the highest number of investigations on the cases of animal cruelty were launched in 2015 and 2016, 21 and 15, respectively.
In 2006-2011, only a few cases were being launched each year. The cases include administrative violations as well as crimes punishable by criminal law.
“Unfortunately, Georgia is not being evaluated by any of the global indices on animal protection. Even though information disclosed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Supreme Court seems to suggest a low prevalence of animal cruelty in Georgia, we believe that this data fails to reflect the reality of animal protection in the country.
“The low number of official animal cruelty cases in Georgia is most likely due to lack of citizen reports, which itself is due to lack of public awareness about animal rights,” IDFI wrote before the adoption of the amendments.
IDFI believes that the information campaign is in need to raise the people’s awareness regarding animals rights.
