Here you can find the proposal of DDA for portugal, it will be voted in December...

It is a web translation, but I think that it is readable enough... the original text is at www.parlamento.pt

PROJECT

OF LAW N.º

269/VIII

IT ESTABLISHES THE REGIMEN OF OWNERSHIP OF POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS ANIMALS

Display of reasons

The ownership of potentially dangerous animals, appointed fierce dogs, in inadequate conditions and without rules of protection, represents a danger for the physical integrity them citizens and generates the concern of all the community.

The canine dangerousness depends on diverse aspects, as they are, for example, factors of ambiental or genetic order. The degree of dangerousness of an animal also depends, in many cases, of the type of trainings that is given to it and that it can especially be conceived to produce damages in third.

The occurrence of diverse attacks carried through for animals that have provoked serious physical aggressions in people, being, also, some cases, the ratio of its death, comes to justify that if  it legislates of efficient form in this domain.

Despite the existence of the Decree n.º 317/85, of 2 of August, more specific in substance of public health police and monitoring epidemiologist of the animal anger evidences that the Portuguese legislation is missive on this substance, what it comes to justify the presentation of the given project of law on the part of the Parliamentary Group of the PSD.

With it one pointed intends that  destined norms are customized to allow to one sound bondage between the people and the animals, the

potentially dangerous animals. One is not about a set of norms for fierce dogs, but yes a law to apply the situations of ownership of any type of potentially dangerous animal. It is intended, thus, to make responsible the owners of the animals or same, some cases, the public entities, for the damages that by the animals can be caused, compelling itself, also, the one that the holder of the animal makes an obligator insurance that will constitute indispensable condition so that the respective town license can be granted to it.

In the present diploma a new regimen of infractions is made sure and fines for who possess potentially dangerous animals, differentiating it of foreseen in the article 17.º of the General Regimen of Contra- Ordenações and in the Decree n.º 317/85, of 2 of August, for form to distinguish the special regimen that now is desired to institute of the general regimen for the ownership of dogs that if finds foreseen in this last decree-law.

Other measures are compelled, between many, the possessors of the animals to the fulfillment of demanding norms of security that they protect third of the ferocity of that they can be white, trying themselves, thus, to create one correct justification of these situations in the society and not forgetting the possibility it to character criminal of some act, on the part of the holders of the animals.

In these terms, under the cover of the article 167.º of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic and articles 130.º and 131.º of the Regiment of the Assembly of the Republic, the Members of the house of representatives below signed of the Democratic Social Party presents following project of law:

Artigo1.º

Aim

1 -- The present law has for aim to establish a set of coercive, applicable norms to the holders of potentially dangerous animals, with sight to make compatible the living together of these with people, good and other animals.

2 -- The present law is applied without damage of the established one in the current law and international conventions that tie the Portuguese State in that it respects to the protection of the animalsand the protecting species.

3 -- The fierce dogs and the pertaining potentially dangerous animals of the Armed Forces, Policy of Public Security, Republican National Guard, Municipal Policies and companies of security duly authorized, are only obliged to the obligator register and the civil liability for damages third in result of recklessness or deceit, foreseen in this diploma.

Article 2.º

Sorting of potentially dangerous animals Potentially dangerous the ones are considered

animal that integrate any of the following sorts:

) Wild beasts, originary of habitats where if they find in natural

freedom, without presence habitual human being, and whose transport

or ferocity constitutes a danger for the physical integrity it to be

human, being able to generate the serious death or injuries in people or other animals;

b)      Dogs

fierce, with physical features and of behavior that if can consider potentially violent and of attack, being able to offend the physical integrity of people and other animals, appointedly the following races, pure or resultant of crossings, and lineages:

I)           Pitbull;

II)         American Pitbullterrier;

III)         Rottweiler;

IV)       Dobermen;

V)        Staffordshire-terrier;

VI)       American staffordterrier;

VII)       Staffordshire to bullterrier;

VIII)      Bulldog;

IX)       Boxer;

X)        Argentine Dogo;

XI)      Spanish Mastiff;

XII)     Napolitano Mastiff;

XIII)    Fila de S. Miguel;

XIV)   Alsatian;

XV)  German Shepherd;

c)   Other not enclosed

animals in the categories previous, exactlythat in captivity or used as

animal of company, appointedly the reptiles, and that they can, for its

features or trainings, to constitute in any mode danger or to generate

injuries in people or other animals.

Article 3.º

Obligator register

1 -- They are citizens the obligator register, to carry through in

the city councils, all the classified animals of potentially

dangerous or kept wild beasts in captivity.

2 -- The register

is required to the city council of the area ofresidence of the interested

party, in proper model, having to include the following elements:

a)  Sanitary information emitted by medical credential veterinarian, with the indication of the profile of behavior of the animal and the carried through obligator vaccination;

b)  Certificate of the criminal register of the interested party, and under responsibility of which goes to be the potentially dangerous animal to inscribe in the municipal register;

c)  To seem of the meeting of clientele of the area of residence of the interested party, on the conditions of lodging for the animal;

d)  detailed Information of the place and conditions of lodging destined to the potentially dangerous

animal;

e)  Presentation of the obligator insurance policy for damages against third;

f)  Information on the ratio of the detention of the animal

(if destined the combat, it keeps, hunting or company of the interested party).

3 -- The city council will condition the register and the attribution of license of ownership of dangerous animal the favorable fulfilling of the requirements of the previous number, being able it effect to inspect the place and the conditions of lodging destined to the animal to register.

 4 -- The register obligatorily is required by the interested party in the maximum stated period of 15 working days after the acquisition or ownership of the potentially dangerous animal.

5 -- The inexistence of obligator register or petition presented in useful time for its possessor summons the city council to proceed to the detention of the potentially dangerous animal and to act in compliance with articles 13.º, 14.º and 15.º of the Decree n.º 317/85, of 2 of August, consisting the offenser in the practical one of a serious infraction, foreseen in the line b) of the article 11.º of the present diploma.

6 -- Each city council will constitute a computer register of potentially dangerous animals, a municipal register of permanent consultation for any authority, collective or particular person.

7 -- The form of functioning of the municipal register of potentially dangerous animals competes to the city councils prescribed, as well as emitting the licenses its ownership and to fix the respective taxes, congregated the foreseen legal conditions.

8 -- The city councils are obliged to keep the municipal register of potentially dangerous animals always up to date, inscribing the features of the animal related in the article 3.º of the present law, and all the verified infractions or occurrences, giving knowledge of the exactly, annually or always that necessary one, to Direcção-Geral de Veterinária and the Institute of the Conservation of the Nature.

Article 4.º Municipal  license

1 -- They are obligator conditions for the interested party in the attainment of license for ownership of potentially dangerous animal:

) To be bigger and not to be incapacitated;

b)  not to have been condemned for any punishable crimes with punishment by confinement or to possess I register in cadastre for any type of offences, appointedly for ownership of potentially dangerous animals;

c)  Absence of sanctions for alcohol consumption, drugs or psychotropic substances.

2 -- The owners of the potentially dangerous animals are obliged to the fulfillment of legally established the sanitary measures and to the vaccination for the last ones, having to effect its test for the purpose of attribution of municipal license.

3 -- They are still conditions for the emission of municipal license of ownership: ) The payment of the taxes of register and licensing of potentially dangerous animals, including the canine species referred in  the line

b) of the article 2.º of the present law, in the terms enunciated  for each type of dog of category C, as foreseen in the article 17.º of the  Decree n.º 317/85, 2 of August, with an aggravation of 50%;

b) the potentially dangerous sterilization of the dogs of the races or lineages is obligator, alone being able its certified test to be carried through by of medical credential veterinarian.

4 -- Are Excepted of the line b) of the previous number the destined cases the animals for reproduction, to be for the effect required for ends of study or inquiry, for laboratories or similar, societies zoophiles, and associations of creators, duly recognized and authorized, and with sanitary control and assured veterinarian.  

5 -- The dogs potentially dangerous, pertaining to the Armed Forces, forces of security, to the guard of establishments of the State, locked up in laboratories and reserved the study, or belong of the similar societies  zoophiles or, and since that they remain confined to its installations, they are exempt of the tax of register or municipal license of ownership.

6 -- The procedures adopted for the attribution of municipal licenses of ownership of potentially dangerous animals for effect of the present law will be established for the Decree n.º 317/85, of 2 of August, with the necessary adaptations.

 Article 5.º Lodging 

1 -- In the urban zones, and by each fire, it is not allowed to lodge more of the  one than a potentially dangerous animal, saved being about kennel or lodging duly permitted in the terms of the law.

2 -- The permanent lodging of potentially dangerous animals in autonomous fractions, the regimen of horizontal property, or in private condominiums is not allowed, saved when it has unanimous deliberation in the opposite taken for the general assemblies of condóminos.

3 -- The lodging of potentially dangerous animals compels to the affixture in the place, and of visible form, a board with the acknowledgment - “ Caution - Dangerous animal “.

Article 6.º

Animal transit

1 -- The use is obligator, for all the potentially dangerous animals, of harness or collar, in which a metallic plate or chip is fixed magnetic where the number of municipal register consists, as well as the name and dwelling of its owner.

2 -- It is forbidden to the presence in the public way or any other public places of potentially dangerous fierce or animal dogs without muzzle functional.

3 -- Muzzle is considered functional that one that, applied to the animal and without it to  make it difficult the respiratory function, does not allow it to eat or to  bite.

4 -- Potentially dangerous the fierce or animal dogs only can circulate in the public way or in any other public places when lead to it harnesses.

5 -- The wild beasts and the fierce dogs of the races and lineages pitbull, american pitbullterrier and Rottweiler only can circulate in the public way or any other public places since that in cages or duly conditioned by form not to be possible the any physical contact  of these with people, good or other animals.

6 -- The circulation or presence in the public way or any public places of potentially dangerous fierce or animal dog is conditional for the constitution of an obligator insurance of civil liability for actual damages the third or alien property.

 Article 7.º

Civil liability and criminal

1 -- The owner of any potentially dangerous animal consists in the duty of indemn for actual damages third in the terms of the article 483.º and n.º 1 of the article 493.º of the Civil Code, and still, in the terms of the article 59.º of the Decree n.º 317/85, of 2 of August.

2 -- Who with deceit to stir up or to allow that animal potentially dangerous it attempts against the life of somebody, incurs into the crime foreseen in the article 132.º of the Criminal Code.  3 -- Who with deceit to stir up or to allow that animal potentially dangerous it attempts against the physical integrity of somebody, incurs into the crime foreseen in the article 144.º of the Criminal Code.

4 -- Who with recklessness to make possible that a potentially dangerous animal attempts against the physical integrity or the life of somebody incurs into the crime foreseen in the article 137.º of the Criminal Code.

5 -- The attempt is punishable in the terms of the article 23.º of the Criminal Code.

6 -- The cities are responsible and consist in the duty of indemn third for damages and injuries caused for the potentially dangerous animals or others, always that, for the respective municipal agencies, they have not been taken the foreseen legal measures in the present diploma, as well as in the article 13.º of the Decree n.º 317/85, of 2 of August, and in the law of the local autarchies, appointedly in lines x) and z) of n.º 1 of the article 64.º of the Law n.º 159/99, of 14 of September.

Article 8.º

Importation of  potentially dangerous animals

1 -- The importation or entered in transit in the domestic territory of potentially dangerous animals lacks of previous consultation to Direcção-Geral de Veterinária and the Institute of the Conservation of the Nature, that will appreciate the order individually, imposing the indispensable conditions of sanitary order to the concretion of the input authorization or to its refusal.

2 -- The input authorization does not excuse to the inspection doctor-veterinary medicine in the border.

3 -- The regimen of importation of potentially dangerous animals is established in the Decree n.º 317/85, of 2 of August, in that it respects to the importation of dogs, cats and other animals of company, with the necessary adaptations.

Article 9.º

Fiscalization

1 -- The fiscalization on the fulfilment of the made use one in the present law and the backing subsidiary norms will have to be exerted by the authorities competent veterinarians and responsible municipalized jobs, in the substances of municipal jurisdiction, and for the competent jobs of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agricultural Development and Fisheries, in the remaining disposals.

2 --      To be able them of fiscalization in respect to substances to the protection of the animals and the protected species, as well as the o regimen of importation and international transit of wild beasts, they are attributed to the Institute of the Conservation of the Nature.

3 --    The responsible authorities of security and too much entities will act in the scope of its ability and proper ends, exerting a permanent fiscalization on the circulation of these animals in the public way, public zones balneares or places, when it has complaint or particular denunciation, and always that requested its intervention for the authorities of the central or local management in the scope of the present law.

Artigo10.º

Files of legal documents  of notice

In the non-observance of the rules of this diploma, 243.º is applied made use in articles 247.º of the Code of the Criminal proceeding. 

Article 11.º

Infractions 1 -- Serious infractions are  considered the following ones very:

) To abandon a potentially dangerous animal in any public place;

b) To possess potentially dangerous fierce or animal dogs without municipal register and license of ownership;

c)  To falsify documentation or to give to false declarations on the municipal register or license of ownership of a potentially dangerous animal;

d)  To train potentially dangerous animals to develop its aggressiveness with forbidden purposes;

e)  Organization of competitions, exhibitions, exercises or competitions of potentially dangerous animals with the purpose to show to the violence and aggressiveness of the same ones.

2 -- Serious infractions are considered the following ones:) To free a potentially dangerous animal without taking the measures of security indicated to prevent accidents and its escape;

b)  To circulate in public spaces with a potentially dangerous animal without using muzzle and harnesses;

c)  To circulate in the public spaces with a potentially dangerous animal without possessing obligator insurance of civil liability for provoked damages third;

d)  not to fulfill the obligation to identify to the potentially dangerous animal through magnetic board or chip;

e)  Not to fulfill the vaccination obligator of the animal;

f)   To possess more of the one than a potentially dangerous animal in a fire or autonomous fraction, without unanimous authorization of the condominium;

g)       voluntariamente To place in a limiting situation of the intellectual and physical facultieses for consumption of alcoholic beverages, estupefacientes or psicotrópicas substances, having to its guard a potentially dangerous animal;

h)  To carry potentially dangerous animals without obeying the norms of adequate security and monitoring.

3 -- Light infractions are considered the following ones:

) To circulate in saw or public place with potentially dangerous animal, without identification;

b)  not to communicate to the autarchic and sanitary authorities any excellent alteration in the behavior of the potentially dangerous animal;

c)  To carry a potentially dangerous without if making to follow of certifyd the documentation due and respective animal of obligator vaccination;

d)  not to fulfill the sterilization obligator of a potentially dangerous animal.

4 -- The infractions enunciated in the previous numbers can still

suffer accessory sanctions as the confiscation, detention, compulsory sterilization, or abate, and still the suspension or apprehension of the municipal license of ownership of potentially dangerous animal.

Article 12.º

Sanctions

1       The infractions in the previous numbers will be sanctioned with the following fines to apply for the city councils:

a ) Very serious infractions, since 200 000$ 1 500 000$;

b) serious Infractions, since 50 000$ 200 000$;

c) light Infractions, since 25 000$ 50 000$.

2 -- In situations of lesser gravity of the infraction and the guilt of the agent, the administrative authority can apply an admonition sanction, in the terms of the article 51.º of the General Regimen of Contra-Ordenações.

Article 13.º

Transitory provisions

1 -- The city councils will constitute, in the maximum stated period of 180 days after the input in vigor of the present law, a computerized municipal register of potentially dangerous animals.

2 --    The city councils will regulate and publicize, in the scope of its abilities, the efficient form to promote the register and licensing of all the potentially dangerous animals enclosed by the present law and that they be situated in its area of jurisdiction.

Article 14.º

Input in vigor

The present law enters in vigor in the following day to the one of its publication in the Daily one of the Republic.

Assembly of the