The animal welfare law, promoted by the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, entered into force on September 29, becoming the first state law that regulates the relationship with dogs, cats and other pets.
This legislation introduces important changes with the objective of end animal abuse. To this end, it establishes tougher sanctions and jail terms for those who mistreat or abandon their pet and, among other initiatives, obliges dog owners to hire a liability insurance.
Among the main measures included in this law, zero sacrifice and abandonment, control of the import and export of pets, creation of state registries and control of breeding. Besides, with this law the PPP are eliminated (potentially dangerous dogs) and the breed of the dogs will no longer be taken into account to determine if a dog is dangerous or not, but will depend on the behavior of each animal.
Another of the measures and one of the most controversial is the obligation to take out civil liability insurance for our dogs. This rule is included in article 30.3 of Law 7/2023 of March 28 on the Protection of Animal Rights and Welfare. “In the case of keeping dogs and throughout the life of the animal, the owner must take out and keep in force a civil liability insurance for damages to third parties (…)” Said insurance must have sufficient coverage to cover the possible derived expenses, the law states.
The insurance will have to be contracted before the entry into force of said law and the main objective is that the owners do not have to pay any unexpected expense derived from damages to third parties caused by the animal. So the insurance would be responsible for covering these expenses.
This insurance can be contracted with any regular insurance companycan be contracted individually or included in other previously contracted insurance such as home insurance. The price of insurance is around 30 euros annual in its simplest version, and the policies contracted must cover up to 120,000 euros. To this basic insurance Veterinary coverage can be added for an approximate price of 400 euros and accident insurance for around 100 euros.
Likewise, the law warns that in case of not having contracted insurance for our animal and the state security forces and bodies request it for some reason. problem the incidentcould lead to a fine ranging from a simple notice to a penalty of up to 10,000 euros.
This animal protection measure is added to previous regulations such as the approved in 2021 in which companion animals such as dogs and cats were legally considered part of the familyin addition to beginning to regulate custody and visitation in the divorce house.
2023-09-01 16:14:13
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