Vietnam: Is it illegal to dump infected animals into the environment? What is the fine imposed on entities dumping infected animals into the environment?
Is it illegal to dump infected animals into the environment in Vietnam?
Pursuant to the provisions of Article 13 of the Law on Veterinary Health 2015 as follows:
Prohibited acts
1. Conceal, fail to report or delay reporting the infected animals, animals suspected of being infected, animals dying of infectious diseases that lead to the spread of animal epidemics.
2. Report, make list or verify the inaccurate number and amount of animals that are infected, dead, infected animal products subject to destruction; report, make list or verify the inaccurate number and amount of materials/chemicals used for prevention and fighting against animal disease for profiteering.
3. Fail to notify or declare outbreaks of animal diseases in the cases subject to notification or declaration according to the regulations in this Law.
4. Provide inaccurate information about the situation of animal disease.
5. Fail to implement or delay implementation of the preventive measures against the animal diseases according to the regulations in this Law.
6. Fail to comply with the preventive measure against animal disease at the request of competent agencies/organizations.
7. Dump infected or dead animal and the derivatives thereof, discharge waste water/waste matter carrying pathogens to the environment.
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Thus, according to the above provisions, dumping infected animals into the environment in Vietnam is a violation of the law.
What is the fine imposed on entities dumping infected animals into the environment in Vietnam?
For individuals:
- Pursuant to the provisions of Point a, Clause 6, Article 5 of Decree 90/2017/ND-CP as follows:
Violations against general regulations on prevention of animal diseases
1. A warning or a fine ranging from VND 200,000 to VND 300,000 shall be imposed for failure to take samples for testing or analysis for animal disease diagnosis at the request of competent authorities.
2. A fine ranging from VND 500,000 to VND 1,000,000 shall be imposed for any of the following violations:
a) Failure to comply with instructions by manufacturers or by veterinary authorities for use of veterinary drugs;
b) Failure to notify the Commune-level People’s Committee or the veterinary authorities or Commune-level veterinary staff of veterinary drugs which are discovered to cause harms to animals, environment and humans.
3. A fine ranging from VND 1,000,000 to VND 2,000,000 shall be imposed for concealing, failing to report or delaying reporting the infected animals, animals suspected of being infected, or animals dying of infectious diseases to the commune-level People’s Committee or the nearest veterinary authority or the commune-level veterinary staff.
4. A fine ranging from VND 3,000,000 to VND 4,000,000 shall be imposed for failure to report to the veterinary authorities of testing results indicating that an animal carries pathogens on the List of animal diseases subject to outbreak declaration and the List of diseases capable of transmitting between animals and humans.
5. A fine ranging from VND 4,000,000 to VND 5,000,000 shall be imposed for trading, erasing or altering contents of the Certificate of animal epidemic-free establishment.
6. A fine ranging from VND 5,000,000 to VND 6,000,000 shall be imposed for any of the following violations:
a) Transport or discharge infected or dead animals and/or poultry and the derivatives thereof to the environment;
b) Trade breeding animals infected with infectious diseases.
Accordingly, individuals dumping infected animals into the environment in Vietnam shall be fined from VND 5,000,000 to VND 6,000,000.
For organizations:
- Pursuant to the provisions of Clause 2 Article 4 of Decree 90/2017/ND-CP amended by Clause 3 Article 3 of Decree 07/2022/ND-CP as follows:
Fines and competence to impose fines
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2. Each fine prescribed in Chapter II of this Decree shall be imposed for the administrative violation committed by an individual, except for the cases prescribed in Article 22, Clause 3 Article 24, Clause 5 Article 27, Clause 1 Article 28, Article 29, Article 30, Article 31, Article 32 and Article 33 of this Decree. The fine incurred by an organization is twice as much as that incurred by an individual for committing the same administrative violation.”
Thus, according to the above-mentioned regulations, organizations dumping infected animals into the environment in Vietnam shall be fined from VND 10,000,000 to VND 12,000,000.
What is the statute of limitations for imposing penalties for dumping infected animals into the environment in Vietnam?
Pursuant to the provisions at Point a, Clause 1, Article 6 of the 2012 Law on Handling of Administrative Violations, as amended by Point a, Clause 4, Article 1 of the Law on Amendments to Law on Handling of Administrative Violations 2020 as follows:
Statute of limitations for the imposition of penalties for administrative violations
1. The statute of limitations for administrative violation sanction is regulated as follows:
a) The statute of limitations for imposition of an administrative penalty shall be 01 year, except in the following cases:
The statute of limitations for imposition of penalties against administrative violations arising from the following sectors and activities: accounting; invoices; fees and charges; insurance business; price management; securities; intellectual property; construction; fishery; forestry; investigation, planning, exploration, extraction and use of water resources; oil and gas and other mining activities; environmental protection; atomic energy; management and development of houses and offices; land; levees; press; publishing; commodity production, export, import and trading; manufacturing and trading of banned and counterfeit goods; foreign worker management, the statute of limitations for sanctioning administrative violations, shall be 02 years.
The statute of limitations for imposition of penalties against administrative violations arising from taxes shall be subject to laws on tax administration;”
Thus, the statute of limitations for dumping infected animals into the environment in Vietnam shall be 01 year.
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