KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) – The St Vincent and the Grenadines parliament has approved legislation targetting dog owners who are not honouring their duties and responsibilities.

The Dog Bill 2024, provides penalties for a range of offences, including taking dogs to certain beaches, causing the animal to escape from one’s property and not cleaning up after the pet when it defecates in a public place.

“… if you wish to be a dog owner, there’re responsibilities and buying the dog or accepting a dog as a gift is just a start. After that, it is your dog and you have to be responsible,” Agriculture Minister Saboto Caesar told legislators when he presented the bill, which was passed without debate or opposition.

He said that one of the main objectives of the law is to deal with dogs on beaches.

“There are some persons who own dogs, and when they go to the beach, they will take the dog to the beach, and it is a nuisance.

“We have all been to the beach before, seen someone walking towards you, your family with a dog. And persons have to either run in the water, persons have to remove themselves from the beach.

“We must bring a stop to this,” Caesar said, adding that under the new law, the minister of agriculture by an order published in the Gazette, will list some beaches where people cannot take dogs.

“We are well aware, we are seeing a significant expansion in persons and going to the beaches more. We have more tourists in the country, our room stock is going up, and we have to be very, very careful,” Caesar said.

“So, there are some beaches that will be listed and gazetted where you cannot take dogs, and it will be within the purview of the minister also to ensure that there are clear signs showing the beaches where you can and cannot take dogs.”

The law also makes it mandatory that certain breeds of dogs be muzzled unless they are in a vehicle or on the owner’s property.

“Sometimes you’re walking along the road and you see someone coming. I don’t want to name any particular breed, because I grew up knowing that they say, once it’s a dog and he has teeth, it can bite, but there are certain breeds that we are going to list, which if you have these dogs in the public, that they must be muzzled,” Caesar said.

The law also creates offences for instances in which a dog attacks a person or an animal.

“If the attack occurred as a result of the dog being teased, abused, attacked or otherwise provoked, that can be a defence” Caesar said, noting “we know sometimes an owner will have a dog, and someone will come and provoke the dog or tease the dog, and then the dog may get loose and cause damage to an animal or to a person. The owner of the dog will be able to use that as a part of his defence”.

The law, however, states that a dog must not be encouraged to attack.

“And I remember growing up when you sometimes meet a dog as children, you want to see the two dogs scramble, and we’ll say, in common parlance, you sick the dog.  … The dog must not be encouraged to attack a person,” Caesar said, adding that a person who sets or urges a dog to attack another person or animal is committing an offence.

“But there are some exceptions, and I want us to be very careful attention to these exceptions — except if you are defending yourself or your property — because we know that persons use dogs as guards. So, if someone is on your property, that’s a whole different thing.”

“… if you are in a public place and you’re with your dog, and you just want to basically show the strength of your dog, and it’s a somewhat a macho thing to see which dog will beat the other dog, we are not permitting that.

“But the exception if you are defending yourself or your property, if you’re a police officer in his duty, if you’re doing lawful hunting in the course of the hunting, or if it’s a working dog — a dog owned by a farmer on a farm.”

The minister said that the dog that has attacked or bitten may be secured or seized.

“And if the dog bites someone, the dog can be seized,” he said, adding that the law outlines the procedure for this.

The law further states that except it is an assistance dog being used by someone with a disability, the owner of a dog that defecates in a public place commits an offence if the owner does not immediately remove and properly dispose of the excrement.

The law also notes that a person may lawfully seize a dog if doing action is reasonable and necessary for the prevention of damage to property.

“… and it’s very important that it goes on … to note that under the procedures for dealing with seized or surrendered dogs that you cannot seize a dog and keep it at your home and basically do nothing. That will be considered as stealing the dog, as theft…. if you seize a dog, the dog has to be brought before the persons who are recommended to take care of these dogs.”

The law also empowers the court to issue a nuisance dog order. Under this provision, a magistrate, if satisfied, may issue an order that the dog is habitually at large.

“And we all know that there are certain gates you don’t want to walk past because that person, they own a dog and they don’t tie the dog. So, when you start to approach that area, you have to start to run,” Caesar said.

Further, a dog owner who does not ensure that the animal does not escape from their property could face an EC$1,000 (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) fine.