Animal abandonment: what penalties do owners risk?

60,000 is the number of animals abandoned each year on French roads during the summer. A figure that rises to 100,000 over the course of the entire year, earning France the inglorious title of “European champion” in pet abandonment. A real plague against which protection associations such as the Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) are struggling to fight with limited means. The state, for its part, has tightened the sanctions envisaged in recent years. So what does the law provide for pet owners in the event of abandonment?

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More abandonments, fewer adoptions: the shelters of the SPA are already saturated

Since the beginning of the summer, 11,461 animals have been welcomed by the SPA, including 7,712 cats. For the month of July 2022 alone, 8,000 animals have found refuge in one of the 56 centers of the association”,or 11% more than last year, when there had already been a boom in abandonments”warns the director of animal protection of the SPA, Sandrine Weltman, for which “the situation has never been so tense in our centres“. In fact, the shelters whose capacity is limited to 7,000 places in total are already full”.We can’t even accept all dropouts anymore, they’re on a waiting list“, she is alarmed.

Saturation aggravated by the drop in adoptions. “Instead of starting the summer with 4,000 animals in our shelters, we had nearly 6,500. So we quickly reached saturation and this figure is not decreasing.” explains the president Jacques-Charles Fombonne. So what is responsible for this increase compared to the year 2021, which was already a record year for the number of abandoned animals? “In question, the irresponsible and impulsive purchases of animals during the various detentions, in order to be able to go out or take care of them, answers Anissa Putois, communication manager of the animal rights association PETA France, questioned by our colleagues at National Geographic. “Once normal life resumes, the animals are abandoned because they need too much time and resources.” she complains.

“My animal is not clean, I abandon it”. A phrase too often heard in shelters as an excuse… Let’s find out the reasons for this behavior and how to remedy it. #StopAbandon

Video link: : https://t.co/BfJWD1LQNS

– SPA France (@SPA_Officiel) July 15, 2022

What are the penalties for the owner in case of abandonment?

By law, abandoning a pet is a crime. And like any crime, it is punishable. According to the government website, “Abandonment of a pet, tamed or kept in captivity is punishable by up to 3 years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 45,000 euros”. A sentence that may be accompanied by a ban on keeping an animal by court decision, as well as a ban “to exercise the professional activity which made it possible to prepare or carry out the abandonment”for a maximum period of five years.

Furthermore, if the abandonment takes place knowingly and with the aggravating circumstance, the perpetrator can incur up to 4 years in prison and a fine of 60,000 euros. Finally, if the abandonment has led to the death of the animal, the penalty can go up to 5 years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros.. If the law on animal abuse has tightened in recent years, the means put in place for its application remain insufficient according to associations such as PETA. “Faced with the scale of abandonment in France, urgent and effective measures have long been needed. […]“We need to go much further and put preventative measures in place to really reduce the number of abandoned animals“, insists Anissa Putois.

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Abandoning your pet in the middle of nature, “an act of cruelty”

“Abandonment on the public street or in nature is considered an act of cruelty punishable by a fine of €30,000 and 2 years’ imprisonment.“, recalls the SPA on its website. If departures on holiday, or the irresponsibility of certain people who wish to have a pet without being able to provide it with the necessary care, are the cause of many abandonments, it sometimes happens that we are not able to satisfy the needs of the animal. In fact, even a change in the living situation, the loss of a job, the illness or even the death of the owner, are causes of But whatever the reason, the association reminds you that if you have no choice but to abandon your pet, you must do so in a shelter, otherwise you will condemn it to death.

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