QuestionsQuestions (Act No. 3547)
Act No. 3547 is an act defining and penalizing cruelty to animals.
It is unlawful to overdrive, overload, torture, torment, or neglect to provide necessary sustenance or shelter; to cruelly beat; to needlessly mutilate or kill; or to cause/procure such acts to be done to any living creature.
Yes. Section 1 covers acts done by the offender personally and also acts where the offender causes or procures another to overdrive, overload, torture, torment, deprive the animal of sustenance or shelter, beat cruelly, needlessly mutilate, or kill.
It refers to failing to give an animal the basic food (sustenance) or protection (shelter) it needs, when such neglect constitutes cruelty.
The penalty is a fine of not less than five pesos nor more than two hundred pesos.
If the offender is insolvent, subsidiary imprisonment is imposed in case of insolvency.
It implies that when the offender cannot pay the fine due to insolvency, imprisonment will be served as a substitute for the unpaid fine.
Yes. Section 1 expressly prohibits needlessly mutilating or killing any living creature.
No. Liability may arise from other prohibited acts such as overdriving, overloading, torture, torment, neglect of sustenance or shelter, or cruel beating, even without death.
Section 2 states that the Act takes effect on its approval.
It was approved on November 22, 1929.
“Any person” violating the provisions is punishable, including those who cause or procure the prohibited acts.
Yes. Section 1 states that the prohibited acts apply to “any living creature.”
Yes. Section 1 includes those who “cause, or procure to be” overdriven, overloaded, tortured, tormented, deprived of sustenance or shelter, cruelly beaten, needlessly mutilated, or killed.
That the accused committed or caused/procured one of the prohibited acts (overdrive, overload, torture, torment, neglect sustenance/shelter, cruel beating, needlessly mutilate or kill), against a “living creature,” and that this constitutes cruelty under the law.