BANGKOK
Thailand has passed a law banning the trade in dog and cat meat, the killing of dogs and cats, and the mistreatment of animals - one of a series of measures the junta has implemented to correct a society it sees as having gone astray.
Well known local actors, artists and animal rights activists demonstrated in front of the national assembly to support the bill as it was cleared Wednesday, according to Thai-language online media.
Although the practice of eating dog has existed in the Kingdom for decades, it is mostly confined to the country's northeast which has a large population of migrants from Vietnam - where eating dog is more widely practiced. Strays have also been trafficked from Thailand to Vietnamese and Laotian markets - the animals stacked in cages on the back of trucks and transported across the border.
Those eating - or trafficking - dog have frequently used the excuse that it is a way of controlling the country's population of strays which freely roam the grounds of the nation's Buddhist temples.
The law is the first ever passed in Thailand that punishes those inflicting suffering on animals or mammals. Previously, traffickers had been fined for the lack of a license to slaughtering or transport dogs, but punishments amounted to little more than a fine of $25 or one month in jail.
Those intently killing dogs or cats will now be fined up to $1,200 - or will receive a jail term of up to two years. The new law also bans 20 other abuses of animals, including live feeding and bestiality.
Since seizing power May 22, the junta has tightened rules and regulations, rounded up and attempted to reeducate "political agitators," and held a series of festivals and events in a bid to bring together the country's two warring political factions and "return happiness back to the people."
It has also come under intense criticism from abroad at its attempts to clamp down on dissent after a crackdown on public political gatherings, censorship of the press and a sporadic blocking of websites.
www.aa.com.tr/en
