ANIMAL WELFARE

For too long Gibraltar has avoided or ignored its responsibilities towards animal welfare.  There are unaddressed issues regarding animal cruelty and abandonment, fouling on the streets, breeding, regulation of pet ownership and recreation for pet and owner wellbeing. We will:

• Conduct a full review of Gibraltar’s Animal Act to bring it up to date, increase punishable laws for those involved in animal cruelty, and grant greater powers to the relevant law enforcement authorities to be able to enforce laws accordingly.

• Enforce chip placement on all dogs and cats.

• Introduce a blacklist for those found guilty of criminal offences towards animals, which would prevent pet ownership.

• Ban on commercial breeding, except for exceptional circumstances where a Breeder’s Licence would be granted.

• Compulsory sterilisation and castration of all dogs and cats, with a timeframe to be determined by a qualified and licensed veterinarian (military, law enforcement and service dogs to be exempt). This will help reduce unwanted pets and animal abandonment.

• Provide greater resources to government’s Animal Welfare unit by increasing the number of officers to three. Enter into consultation with the RGP to provide an assigned contact for animal welfare.

• Ensure Animal Welfare officers have appropriate enforcement powers.

• Review the ‘Dangerous Dogs’ list and include further restrictions for those wanting to register a dog on the list.

• Encourage adoption of pets through local charities by introducing import duty on all pets.

• Greater support for local charities through grants, facilitation of premises and registration of animal charities with government.

• Creation of several mini dog parks at strategic and convenient locations for the whole population.