From April 20, 2021, fines of up to 10 million VND for maltreating animals in Vietnam

From April 20, 2021, fines of up to 10 million VND for maltreating livestock in Vietnam (Artwork)

Vietnam's Law on Livestock 2018 officially takes effect from January 1, 2020, with many regulations related to the humane treatment of livestock. The law includes the following notable regulations:

Article 69. Humane treatment of livestock in animal breeding

Every organization or individual involved in livestock breeding must:

1. own breeding housing and breeding space suitable for the livestock;

2. provide adequate animal feeds and water meeting hygiene conditions;

3. prevent and treat diseases for his/her livestock as per law provisions on veterinary medicine;

4. not beat or maltreat the livestock.

Article 71. Humane treatment of livestock in slaughter

Every slaughter facility must:

1. have places for storage of livestock for hygiene assurance purpose; provide sufficient water suitable for the livestock pending slaughter

2. reduce fear and pain of livestock; not beat or maltreat such livestock;

3. take measures to make the livestock pass out before slaughter and not allow the livestock to witness slaughter of their fellow-creatures.

Based on Vietnam's Law on Livestock 2018, Vietnam's Decree 14/2021/ND-CP, effective from April 20, 2021, elaborates the level of penalties for inhumane treatment of livestock as follows:

(1) The fine of between 1,000,000 dong and 3,000,000 dong will be imposed for the act of cruelly beating and torturing domesticated animals.

(2) The fine ranging from 3,000,000 dong to 5,000,000 dong shall be imposed for one of the following offences:

- Having none of pre-slaughtered animal storage facilities complying with hygiene regulations;

- Beating animals before slaughter;

- Having none of measures to stun animals before slaughter.

The above-mentioned fines are fines applied to individuals. For organizations with the same violations, the fine level is 2 times higher than the fine level for individuals.

Thus, according to this regulation, for acts of beating and cruelly torturing livestock in livestock production, a fine of between 01 and 03 million dong shall be imposed on individual breeders; from 02 - 06 million VND for farmers who are organizations. As for the act of beating, torturing livestock before slaughter or failing to take measures to induce fainting of livestock before slaughter, the fine level will be from 03 - 05 million VND for individual slaughterhouses and from 06 to 10 million VND for organized slaughterhouses.

Note: Statute of limitations for imposition of penalties for administrative offences involving the animal husbandry shall be 01 year, while the statute of limitations for those involving the production, sale, importation and exportation of animal species, animal feed, animal waste treatment products, animal products, products from live animals shall be 02 years.

>> CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE IN VIETNAMESE