Those who have treated animals cruelly will no longer be able to keep them
On 22 December 2022, after several years of intensive work, Lithuania was finally matured for changes – on this day, amendments to the law prohibiting the keeping of animals, if they were treated cruelly, were adopted in the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, for people who treat animals cruelly.
For the development and implementation of this project, we thank current and former members of the Seimas Ieva Pakarklyte, Aiste Gedviliene, Dovile Sakaliene and Linas Balsys.
We thank all the members of the Seimas who supported these amendments to the laws.
Congratulations to the entire animal-loving community on this historic event – on Christmas Eve, the animals will have something to be happy about!
You can read the approved drafts here:
– Draft Law on Amendments to Articles 6 and 21 of the Law on the Welfare and Protection of Animals No. VIII-500: https://bit.ly/GGI-GGAI-Pakeitimas
– Draft Law on Amendments to Articles 346 and 589 of the Code of Administrative Offenses: https://bit.ly/GGI-ANK-Pakeitimas
How the vote on the ban on the keeping of animals to those who have treated them cruelly took place
We share a record from the meeting of the Seimas, during which amendments to the Law on the prohibition of keeping animals that were cruelly treated, were adopted. Before the vote, in the Hall of the Seimas, there were opinions “not to burden the institutions with some unnecessary registers that will only waste the budget funds”.
We would like to remind you that one of the main reasons why the ban on keeping animals has long been needed and the funds of the state budget have been wasted.
Calculate how many cases of animal cruelty must be handled by officials, the same courts in order for a person to be punished for cruelty to an animal and from him/her the animal is confiscated.
Calculate the costs of mandatory confiscation of the animal, its maintenance. And what is the point of confiscation of animal, if a person acquires another one the next day? That is how we have lived so far – there is nothing we could do about it, we just had to watch desperately from the outside until a person commits a crime with a new animal again.
After the adoption of amendments to the Law, the “circle” closes – after the authorities, after the courts confiscate the animal, the abuser will not be able to purchase the animal the next day. Moreover, this is how the state budget will be saved – you cannot buy, keep an animal, cannot torture it, and therefore the workload of officials will decrease. Non-governmental organizations will also have a reduced workload and will be able to direct their energy towards other works.
The results of the vote can be found here: