In typical Thai legislative fashion, a bill which was proposed as an amendment to the 2014 Cruelty Prevention and Welfare of Animal Act was pushed for cabinet approval on Tuesday without prior public consultation. The bill, which requires pet owners to pay a pet registration fee or face a hefty fine has drawn what it deserves -- an angry backlash and widespread concerns.
Its pay-or-be-fined approach is authoritative and will do little to stop pets being abandoned. A public outcry has prompted Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to call for a review of the bill even though his cabinet just approved it.
Now that the party who drafted the bill, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, is being forced to rework the bill, it will need to communicate more with pet owners and those providing shelters to stray animals in order to come up with a proposal that is more acceptable.
In addition to registration fees, there should be other measures to genuinely guarantee the welfare of pets and protect them from the irresponsible actions of their owners.
With about 1 million stray dogs and cats in Thailand, the ministry's bill, without a doubt, has good intentions. The re-emergence of rabies has killed about 30 people over the past two years. During this same time period, there have been cases of both stray and pet dogs harming or even killing people, which has prompted public safety concerns.
To ensure public safety and control of stray animal populations, some animal rights activists have proposed not only pet registration but also sterilisation and rabies vaccinations as key measures.
A critical concern regarding the bill is not the registration requirement but how local authorities will spend the money they collect from registration. Under the bill, pet owners are required to register each animal they own at a cost of 450 baht -- 50 baht as a fee, 100 baht for an animal health booklet, and 300 baht for an ID microchip. Violators of this law face a fine up to 25,000 baht.
While the cost is affordable to some, it is seen as burdensome to many, especially those who own more than one pet or who shelter stray animals.
Given that there are about 10 million dogs and cats throughout the country, a sum of 4.5 billion baht would be added to state coffers if every owner followed the law.
Many owners are not against registration but want to see the money spent on promotion of animal welfare. Sterilisation and vaccination are services, among others, that should be made available to all dogs and cats. Some owners also the ban on pets in public parks and transport lifted.
Worse still, the registration fee and fine may prompt some irresponsible pet owners to dump their pets ahead of the promulgation of the law.
Pet abandonment is also a result of novice owners who frequent pet shops where they are tempted to become a pet owner but later decide to dump their pets. Regulations are needed to better control pet shops and impose screening on qualifications of those who want to buy or own pets. This is to ensure owners have adequate time and resources to properly look after their animals.
In fact, there is no need for a bill to impose such a hefty fine because the current 2014 Act already imposes a penalty of up to 40,000 baht for those who abandon their pets, torture them, or do not provide them with proper living conditions. But law enforcement remains a big problem. Dogs and cats are still being dumped and tortured by humans.
The bill should not be used as a tool for punishment but one that encourages registration and makes the process affordable and practical for all. Otherwise, the bill will only serve as a burden on good owners and allow irresponsible owners to get away with abandoning their pets.