Law Enforcement, Cruelty Prevention and Animal Welfare Act B.E. 2557: A Case Study for Exemption of Offenses and Guidelines for Punishing Offenders

Abstract

This objectives of this Thesis are, inter alia, to fmd (l) the objectives of the Act on Protection Against Torture and Welfare of Animals BE. 2557; (2) the crimes and penalties and their exceptions under the Act and
the rationales therefore; (3) the appropriateness of the exceptions and the penalties; (4) the similar legislations of Switzerland, the United States of America (USA), Malaysia, and India; and (4) the ways and means to improve the Act.

This Thesis finds that some of the exceptions to the Act are not in accordance with the objectives of
the Act. For instance, Article 21 provides that “the following acts shall not be treated as tortures according to Article 20”, namely (1) “slaughter of raised animal for food”, (8) “lacerating or maiming of ears, tails, hairs, horns, or tusks of animals due to reasonable causes and not harmful to animals”; (9) “provision of animal fights according to local customs”. These exceptions are not for protection of animals because killing may be in the form of torture, the lacerating or maiming are invariably hurtful, and animal fights are naturally fatal and may cause cripple and death to animals.

Therefore, the Act should be somewhat amended, such as slaughter of animals should be done in
the fastest and least pain manner, the lacerating and maiming of animals should be banned; and fighting of animals should be abolished forthwith and make them crimes as soon as possible.

Furthermore, the philosophical rationales underpinning the Act should be improved so that animals shall be recognized as having rights as animal rather mere living property of human.