Review of the Draft Bill to Combat Animal Cruelty in Iran's Judiciary

The Director General of Legislation and Regulations of Iran's Judiciary announced that the Ministry of Justice has prepared a draft bill prohibiting animal cruelty, which has also been reviewed at this center. On Saturday, November 20, Jafar Kazempour stated in an interview with the official news agency of the judiciary, Mizan, that the initial text of this bill was proposed by the Ministry of Justice and has been reviewed at this center with the presence of representatives from responsible agencies. According to Mr. Kazempour, this bill stipulates penalties for any form of torture and cruelty to animals for any motive and in any manner, even if it does not result in the death of the animal. He did not mention the details of these penalties. The bill lists various forms of animal cruelty, including 'beating', 'imprisonment', 'mutilation', 'sexual abuse', 'unnecessary surgeries that lead to unnatural and distressing conditions for the animal', 'unbearable mental torture', and 'abandoning owned animals in cities or villages or outside of them if the animal cannot survive in nature or poses a danger to people or nature'. The bill also prohibits 'conducting scientific experiments and genetic modifications without the permission of the competent authority', 'keeping, buying, selling, and transporting animals in unsuitable conditions and contrary to legal regulations', 'training animals for illegal purposes', 'training for other purposes such as using them for display with illegal violent and humiliating methods', and 'poisoning aquatic animals and other animals or poisoning their water and food and killing them in any way'. This bill must be approved by the government and then the parliament to become law. Previously, Farhad Dabiri, senior advisor to the head of Iran's Environmental Protection Organization, stated on November 3 that the bill to prohibit animal cruelty would soon be presented to the Islamic Consultative Assembly as an amendment to the Islamic Penal Code. According to Mr. Dabiri, penalties such as fines and free services to animals for up to six months are determined for killing or mutilating animals. Last year, the then head of Iran's Environmental Protection Organization promised that the bill to combat animal cruelty would be presented to the government. Previous laws in Iran have established penalties for illegal hunting of animals. A draft animal protection law was submitted to the Islamic Consultative Assembly 13 years ago but was not put on the agenda due to what was referred to by the then representatives as 'lack of suitable social conditions'. This bill comes after numerous reports of abuse of domestic and wild animals in various cities in Iran and the dissemination of images of such abuse on social media, which have outraged public sentiment. On February 21, 2016, after a video of a dog being abused in Golestan province was released, several animal rights advocates and some actors, including Hedieh Tehrani, Mitra Hajjar, and Shohreh Soltani, gathered in front of the Environmental Protection Organization. In recent years, there have also been reports of stray dogs being killed with poison or sterilized by the municipality of Tehran or other cities, which have been heavily criticized by environmental advocates. September 20 has been designated as 'Day of Combatting Violence Against Animals' in Iran.