A NEW law has come into effect which makes it a crime to abduct pet cats and dogs in Northern Ireland.
The Pet Abduction Act 2024 carries prison sentences and fines for those convicted of stealing pets from their owners.
Applicable in Northern Ireland and England, the legislation came into effect on August 24.
“I appreciate how important dogs and cats are to their owners in Northern Ireland,” Andrew Muir, Northern Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, said this week.
“As part of families, they provide companionship and joy and also support and comfort through difficult times,” he added.
“That is why it is so distressing for owners when one of their beloved pets is abducted or detained, in what is a very cruel crime.
“I therefore welcome the introduction of bespoke criminal offences for pet abduction in Northern Ireland.”
The new offences allow courts to place greater focus on the impact on the welfare of an abducted animal as well as the interests of the owner when deciding penalties rather than the financial loss.
Under the legislation, the maximum penalty for cat or dog abduction is up to five years in prison, or a fine, or both.
“The new legislation is intended to deal with the unscrupulous people who abduct a dog or cat,” Minister Muir added.
“It does not intend to criminalise genuinely kind behaviour to cats and dogs that people do not own.
“Therefore, there are a number of safeguards and exemptions set out in the Act to ensure that innocent behaviour is outside of the scope of the offences.”
The Pet Abduction Act 2024 makes it an offence for a dog or cat to be taken from a person with lawful control of the animal.
The Act also makes it an offence to detain a dog, but limits the offence to ‘taking’ cats to account for the different lifestyles of those animals.
The Act also includes a power to enable Northern Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Environment, Rural Affairs (DAERA) to extend the offences to other species of pet, subject to certain conditions.
“DAERA must consider that animals of that species are kept as a pet, and there must be evidence of a significant number or rise in cases of unlawful taking or detaining,” a DAERA spokesperson said.