Police changes have seen more animal abuse cases investigated

Police have investigated 117 reports of animal abuse in the last three years, when two police officers per district were tasked to investigate such cases and the involvement of local neighbourhood policemen in their investigation began, the justice ministry announced on Tuesday.

In a statement, the ministry responded to “various media reports on the issue of creating animal police”, saying the measures taken thus far have yielded “positive results”.

“Specifically, since 2014 we have had a total of 117 cases, which we have investigated, contrary to previous years, when the cases that reached the stage of investigation had been very few,” the ministry said.

“In 2014, 31 animal abuses were investigated, 50 in 2015, 32 in 2016, and four in the first two months of 2017.”

Some of these cases ended in conviction by a court, in others the court cases are ongoing, and still others have been investigated and are about to be filed in court, the ministry noted.

Meanwhile, it added, the government has modernised and amended the law on keeping dogs in a bid to address incidents of neglect, abandonment and abuse.

The proposal has been submitted to parliament for voting.

But despite the good results brought by the cooperation of 11 police officers dedicated to animal abuse reports and 75 neighbourhood policemen, which cover 129 municipalities and local councils, the justice ministry said it continues to assess methods of addressing animal abuse incidents.

Such methods include the creation of a team of policemen that will be tasked with safeguarding animals’ welfare, responding to reports of abuse or poor living conditions, it said.

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