Dept ready to bring animal cases to court — director
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Veterinary Services Department is ready to bring cases related to animal welfare to court.
Its director, Dr Nasip Eli said that this had been made possible after the department’s investigation officer and prosecution officer underwent training carried out by the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak.
“For the record, two courses have been held in 2016 and 2017, and I believe we are ready to bring cases that are related to animal welfare to court,” he said at the SPCA Gala Night held at the Horizon Hotel here.
Dr Nasip, who was represented by the Assistant Veterinary Director, Dr Zul Bahar Hj Abdul Rashid, also said that not every case would be prosecuted especially when improvement notice had been complied fully.
He added that until now, only one case had been brought to justice and the perpetrator had been sentenced to jail.
“Let me assure you that our department is serious in promoting animal welfare agenda and we welcome the support of NGOs that share the same aspirations,” he said.
He also said that if the public at large were aware of their responsibilities toward animals, less welfare issue would be brought before court.
However, he reminded that the task of raising such awareness lies in not just the government, but also NGOs and the private sector who played a significant role in reaching the public through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes.
In his speech, he also shared that the department was preparing a web portal app to ease the registration and licensing of 15 activities that involved animals as required by the First Schedule, Section 5(1) of Animal Welfare Enactment 2015 such as animal boarding, animal riding and spelling, performing animal, breeding of animal, research, testing and teaching on animals, animal rescue and rehabilitation, activities relating to animal pound and animal shelters, quarantine of animals, animal training, captivity of live animal for sale activities, captivity of live animal for conservation or entertainment activities, animal care or treatment, slaughtering of animals, animal disposing and stray controlling by individual, organization of body corporate.