Enforce

LEGISLATION and ENFORCEMENT

Law 36 in Puerto Rico requires that each of the 78 Municipalities have an animal shelter. In fact, only six (6) Municipalities can be said to be in some sort of compliance. The problem is that while the Law was put on the books, no funding was made available. According to the US Humane Society statistics and recommendations, a population the size of Puerto Rico should have from 1,350 to 1,800 runs available for stray dogs and 540 to 630 kennels for cats. Actually, there are no more than 300 kennels available for stray dogs and less than 100 kennels for cats. Emergency services only exist in the Caguas facility which is also the only one open 7 days per week. Though the San Juan Municipal shelter from 1993 to1999 was being run under contract by the University of Puerto Rico with some 26 employees and an alleged budget of $700,000 per year, most other shelters rely on volunteers or small handouts from local governments. In 1995, donations from the Legislature to animal shelter organizations were less than $100,000. One shelter, the Ponce Municipal Shelter, gained considerable notoriety in 1995 when PETA sent a taskforce to take over the shelter because of the level of abuses that had been observed in that shelter. Now, nearly five years later, the conditions have improved thanks to a new million dollar facility and a professional veterinarian on staff. In July of 2000 the Municipality of Carolina opened its nearly finished $1.2 million facility also under the management of a professional Veterinarian.

Law 67 in Puerto Rico was established to protect animal rights and among other things establish penalties for animal cruelty. However, the fines and incarceration penalties were not very high and consequently little attention was given to offenders. As a result of this and unclear establishment of responsibility as to enforcement has allowed animal abuse to continue unchecked. In April 1996, a Bill was introduced in the Puerto Rico Legislature to REDUCE or ELIMINATE the penalties for cases involving animal abuse or neglect. Hearings were held on May 13th and the FOUNDATION along with many other groups testified successfully to have the Bill defeated. Still, the maximum fine remains at $500 for animal cruelty.

Working with the World Society for the Protection of Animals in Boston, the American Humane Association in Denver and the U.S. Humane Society in Washington, D.C., the FOUNDATION successfully stopped the inhumane trapping of domestic dogs by the ADC branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture within the densely populated urban center of San Juan. The Agent involved, Angel Rodriguez, was photographed by FOUNDATION personnel and withdrawn from Puerto Rico. However, the battle with ADC is not over as reports continue to surface of this same Agent being involved elsewhere on the Island apparently doing the same thing. The Ponce area residents report massive poisoning of dogs at the Landfill being run by Browning Ferris Industries and on the access road to the landfill, eyewitnesses have seen the truck drivers deliberately running over the many stray dogs that frequent the area.

In September of 2000, a new legislative initiative was signed into law by the Governor establishing for the first time an Animal Control Office at the State level. The funding level established was $1.5 million annually and would help establish animal shelters in all the Municipalities and be run by a Board that would include Veterinarians licensed to practice in Puerto Rico.