Minister of Agriculture Abbas Hajj Hassan. (Photo: Dalati and Nohra)
BEIRUT – Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan announced Friday that he’d notified the judiciary and that necessary measures were being taken in response to a video showing a dog being shot in the West Bekaa village of Kamed al-Loz. He dubbed the act a “ruthless crime.”
Here’s what we know:
• A video that has been circulating on social media since Friday showing a woman firing two shots at a dog while telling a girl “he wounded your face and now I’m doing the same to him.” Animal rights defender Ghina Nahfawi subsequently shared the video on Twitter, where it was the subject of public outcry, and alerted the Internal Security Forces.
• Hajj Hassan tweeted that he has “contacted the public prosecutor for environmental crimes, who will order the relevant parties to take the necessary measures.”
• Cases of animal abuse regularly cause outrage in Lebanon. In August 2017, an animal protection law was enacted. The text sets rules for the possession of domestic animals and regulations for zoos and pet shops and prohibits the possession of wild or endangered animals, among other things. Authorities, who are often accused of laxity, have been hesitant to enforce the law, thought a man was sentenced to jail time in 2018 for torturing dogs.