Thanks to a new set of regulations, authorities in Liège will now be able to allocate higher penalties for people guilty of animal abuse or negligence. Fines will thereby range from 50 to 10,000 euros, whereas the latter can even be doubled if the suspect has already been found guilty of the same crime.
Christine Defraigne, councilwoman in charge of animal rights in Liège, explains: “We hope that these adjustments will allow us to react quickly and in proportion to any sort of infraction.”
The following three offences are now considered to be punishable by law and followed by serious fines: leaving a pet inside a car in the sun, not returning a pet to its owner after identification, and keeping an animal without having the required capacities to care for it.
“The message we are trying to send is that nothing will remain unpunished when it comes to animal rights, but that all our responses have been adjusted to the seriousness of the situation”, Defraigne explains.
