The Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Committee held a public presentation of the Draft Law on Pets, attended by the Speaker, H.E. Shalva Papuashvili; the representatives of the executive and local authorities, international organizations and animal defenders.

The Draft Law, submitted to the Committees for consideration, also includes the accompanying Bills, namely: the Draft Code of Administrative Offenses; and the Draft Municipal Code.

The Draft Law on Pets becomes effective as of June 2025 and envisages the creation of a safe environment for people and pets, and the establishment of human principles and methods for pet maintenance and population management.

The Draft prohibits the abandonment and banishment of pets, assigns the authorized bodies in animal management sphere, determines the obligations of the pet owners and shelter-givers, control of population and also the sterilization and castration of pets.

The Draft establishes the spheres of creation and activity of the private shelters, authorization of the breeding houses, the powers and duties of the quinological organizations and the regulations for pet maintenance in houses.

As the Speaker stated at the presentation, when discussing pet-related problems, we also imply the responsibility of the people.

“I believe that we all take one and the same side – rights of pets and human rights; this principle implies the non-violation of the rights of pets by us, people. Today, if we encounter a challenge, it is definitely caused by us, people, and thus, we shall control our behavior to prevent the prejudice to ourselves, our children and damage to our environment”.

According to the Speaker, it is principal to organize public and open discussion to avoid vagueness and make our society acknowledge the amendments provided in the Draft.

As the Chair of the Environmental Committee, Maia Bitadze stated, misleading information has been issued in the last days about the Draft, which was sometimes even targeted and served as a prerequisite for the simulations and aggression. According to her, it took years to decide to adopt a new Law to, first of all, regulate human behavior.

“When we speak about nature and living creatures, we shall first of all control our behavior since it is human behavior that resulted in innumerable stray dogs. We well realize it to be an acute problem touching a wide stratum of our society, which is the subject of dissent. Hence, while developing the Draft, we have held over 60 meetings with various organizations and parties. This process included four working groups and, providing the heard remarks, we reconciled on the version of the Draft, which is already submitted to the Parliament. Our Committee was always open for the hearings to share all the positions directed to further improvement of the Draft”.

As M. Bitadze noted, the Committee cooperated with NDI, which held the sociological studies to reveal that every second citizen in the country (56% countrywide) has a dog. As NDI estimated, this statistical data evidences the fact that most of the dog owners are not informed about the responsibility they shall assume, which, ultimately entails the failure of most of the pet owners to maintain their pets and banish them to the streets.

“I underline that we still have a buffer of a couple of months prior to the final ratification of the Draft. We are committed to hearing your remarks and positions for the correction of the Draft. As you know, it is a vast and complex document, imposing a variety of responsibilities on the central authority and municipalities. The solution to this problem requires the allocation of a high amount of funds; it also takes extreme patience to mitigate the problem of stray dogs and subject all the offenders, banishing their pets or illegally reproducing them, to strict penalties”, - she stated.

The presentation was followed by a discussion.