We will be monitoring actions of one-third of the District Courts, Prosecutor Offices and Regional Police Headquarters in all 16 voivodeships, working on cases pertaining to animal cruelty. This project is a continuation of a monitoring effort first initiated by our organization and our partner, EKOSTRAŻ Association, in 2014-2015. According to the studies from the Centre for Public Opinion Research in 2018, 79% of Poles believes that animals deserve an effective legal protections, while 84% demands harsher penalties for people committing crimes of animal cruelty. However, according to our analysis, many crimes against animals are not prosecuted and punished, while data relating to the phenomena remains insufficient.

We will train at least 16 individuals and assist them in monitoring the court cases. Additional 32 individuals will receive training in online monitoring and will be tasked with following media reports about animal cruelty cases and court verdicts in those cases. Participants will be recruited from among the animal rights organizations, and humanities and law students. We will also conduct a survey among the animal rights organizations and law enforcement agencies and courts on their experiences with these types of cases. We will produce a publicly available report summarizing our project that will contain recommendations for changes to the current law. We will also have a press conference paired with a specialist panel attended by NGOs’ representatives, politicians working in animal rights commission, members from the National Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Justice.

Animal Protection Association EKOSTRAŻ has been our partner since 2013. The association brings knowledge and experience in the field of animal rights law, as well as personnel support: volunteers and lawyers working for the organization.