PETS IN THAILAND

[PeteC]

Stay tuned for additional installments. If I miss them, check the Spectrum section of the Bangkok Post next week.

Previous Installments below. There a more but now archived at the Bangkok Post and I cannot access them. Pete

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investi ... -part-five
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investi ... n---part-4
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investi ... part-three
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investi ... n---part-2
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investi ... --part-one
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investi ... m-thailand
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investi ... --part-two

PETS IN THAILAND X Man Bites Dog Part One

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investi ... g-part-one

Published: 12/08/2012 at 02:18 AM
Newspaper section: Spectrum

What duties do you have to your pet under Thai law? For example, what if you keep your dog indoors and don't give it enough food and water? Or let's say your cat is sick, you don't bother to take it to the vet and it dies? What if someone sees a dog on the street and kills it just for fun. Can he do that?

Concerning the last question, he can't. Section 381 of the Criminal Code says ''Whoever cruelly ill-treats or kills an animal with unnecessary suffering, shall be punished with imprisonment not exceeding one month or fined not exceeding 1,000 baht or both.''

Section 382 of the Criminal Code provides the same penalty for overworking an animal or for using it in a manner to which it is not suited, for example if it's too old or young.

Let's go back to the question of neglect. What if your neighbour leaves his dog tied up in his yard all day and night for a week and doesn't give it food or water? And furthermore, there's no shade where the dog has been tied up. What if the dog dies as a result?

In this case your neighbour would be exposed to the penalties of Section 381.

What would happen if you saw an animal being treated this way and just wanted to help?

Think carefully about doing anything about this unless your neighbour is a friend because if you just go on somebody else's land, even to help the animal, you may be trespassing and the neighbour may have the right to take legal recourse against you.

Of course, the best thing to do is first mention it to the neighbour and see if he does something about it. If he doesn't you can go to officials at the municipality or the police and report the problem. They will deal with it.

Both Section 381 and 382 are petty offences. Therefore, as discussed in earlier columns they are considered strict liability crimes. In other words, there aren't a lot of defences to these.

But let's look at a slightly different situation. You may have read that as a result of the floods earlier this year around Bangkok, many owners left home and were forced to leave their pets behind. Could these owners be prosecuted under Section 381?

Probably not, because an emergency such as a flood would create extenuating circumstances that go beyond even the reach of strict liability.

Here's one more question. What if your neighbour is cruel to your dog?

For example, let's say he doesn't like you. One day he sees your dog standing on the sidewalk in front of your house and kicks the dog so hard it dies.

We'll, of course this is ill-treatment, so you could have him arrested under Section 381, but there's something else. Section 420 of the Civil and Commercial Code of Thailand provides that a person who willfully or negligently injures the property of another must make compensation for the injury. Animals are considered property. This means that you could sue your neighbour for civil damages because of the death of your pet.

EDIT: The entire PET series is at the below link under "Publications".

James Finch of Chavalit Finch and
Partners finch@chavalitfinchlaw.com and
Nilobon Tangprasit of Siam City Law Offices Limited nilobon@siamcitylaw.com
Researchers:Arnon Rungthanakarn and Sitra Horsinchai
For more information see http://www.chavalitfinchlaw.com
Questions? Contact us at the email addresses above.

[margaretcarnes]

The sad thng about this is that a prosecution under Civil Damages could well result in a much harsher penalty than one of neglect or cruelty.
Thailand still has a long way to go IMO regarding prosecutions for animal neglect and cruelty. In many other countries owners can be banned from ever keeping animals again, and penalties of imprisonment not exceeding one month, or fines not exceeding 1000 baht would be considered laughable.
OK maybe in Thailand - as opposed to some other countries - animals like horses for example aren't routinely kept as pets. And it does seem that wherever you are, the larger the pet, the more serious any penalties will be. But the fact is that for a Buddhist country the treatment of so called 'pets' in the LOS can be pretty appalling - at least to our Western way of thinking.
But perhaps we should be trying to understand the Thai attitude to animals in general. I don't understand it - and I've seen extreme examples of both kindness and cruelty to animals in HH, and even more examples of 'mai pen rai'.