Difficult to protect pets from abuse

The DvF, the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, receives about ten reports of pet cruelty every month.

“We receive many reports of cruelty to dogs, specifically Border Collies,” explains Diana Krossá Kongsbak, of the DvF.

“The abuse ranges from neglect, such as leaving the animals outside in rough weather, to intentional and malicious animal abuse.”

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But limitations in the Animal Welfare Act make it difficult to establish mistreatment of domestic animals.

The law only covers livestock, or animals for industrial use, and it has not been updated since it came into force in 2018.

“Under the current law, we are not authorised to enter private properties. Often, all we can do is to call the owners if we receive reports of pets being mistreated,” she says.

“We frequently find that the owners simply don’t know about basic animal rights. In such cases, we inform them about basic animal rights. This is usually enough to solve the problem.”

Police also have limitations

In cases of severe animal abuse where the owners do not respond to advice from the DvF, the owner is reported to the police.

However, there are also limits to what the police can do.

“They can visit the property. But if they cannot immediately establish that severe animal cruelty has taken place, the case is usually dropped because the law does not state clearly enough what the police are authorised to do.”

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

More Faroese News in English.