Prohibited acts against living creatures
- Section 1 makes it unlawful to overdrive any living creature.
- Section 1 makes it unlawful to overload any living creature.
- Section 1 makes it unlawful to torture any living creature.
- Section 1 makes it unlawful to torment any living creature.
- Section 1 makes it unlawful to neglect to provide with the necessary sustenance or shelter any living creature.
- Section 1 makes it unlawful to cruelly beat any living creature.
- Section 1 makes it unlawful to needlessly mutilate or kill any living creature.
- Section 1 makes it unlawful to cause or procure another person to do the prohibited acts, including causing or procuring that a creature is overdriven, overloaded, tortured, tormented, cruelly beaten, needlessly mutilated, or needlessly killed, or deprived of the necessary sustenance or shelter.
Who is covered and what conduct is punished
- Section 1 penalizes any person who violates the prohibited acts.
- Section 1 expressly covers cruelty committed directly and cruelty committed through causing or procuring the prohibited conduct.
- Section 1 focuses on cruelty to any living creature.
- Section 1 includes conduct based on both active harm (torture, torment, cruel beating, mutilation, killing) and harmful deprivation (neglecting sustenance or shelter).
Criminal penalty for violations
- Section 1 imposes a fine of not less than five nor more than two hundred pesos for violations.
- Section 1 provides for subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency.
Severability, repeals, and transitory rules
- Act No. 3547 includes an effectivity rule in Section 2, with no express separability, repealing, or sunset provision stated.