The Minister of Justice Georgi Georgiev proposes new, more severe punishments for cruelty to animals, when the act is filmed for the purpose of distribution or is committed for the purpose of material gain. The punishment in these cases is proposed to be imprisonment from 3 to 10 years and a fine from 5 to 20 thousand leva.
„The case of 14.03.25 from Pernik shows an extremely sadistic attitude towards animals, which, in addition to being not a one-time event, was also filmed for the purpose of obtaining material gain. "Therefore, we propose the creation of new texts in the Criminal Code that directly address the filming and distribution for payment of torture and animal abuse," the Minister of Justice said.
The Ministry of Justice has already prepared amendments to Art. 325b of the Criminal Code, which propose that acts of extreme cruelty to animals be sanctioned with imprisonment from 2 to 8 years and a fine from 2 thousand to 10 thousand leva. "This is a double increase in the upper limit, which gives the courts greater opportunities to individualize the sanction, taking into account the specific degree of public danger of the perpetrator," explained Minister Georgiev. The previous amount of the sanctions – from one to four and from two to four years, does not allow for the exercise of the court's discretion, due to the very small difference between the special minimum and the special maximum of this type of sanction.
“The proposed measures are an expression of the determination to counteract such manifestations that scandalize society and are an expression of permanent and complete disregard for public order and a sense of impunity and unprovoked cruelty“, said Georgi Georgiev.
The Minister has requested information from the prosecutor's office on the number of reports filed and cases initiated for cruelty to animals under Art. 325b of the Criminal Code over the last 3 years. “Together with the prosecutor's office, we will analyze the cases and trends so as to refine the legal framework“.