GRENADA – As Spicemas events heat up in Grenada, performers have been told to refrain from using animals such as snakes, chickens and dogs as part of their performances during the island’s annual Carnival Celebrations. The warning comes from the Veterinary and Livestock Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Forestry and Marine Resources. It states such acts are also offensive to local, regional, and international veterinary communities.

The Division says a police officer has power to apprehend without a warrant any person who he or she has reason to believe is guilty of an offence under the Cruelty to Animals Act which is punishable by imprisonment without the option of a fine, whether upon his or her own view thereof or upon the complaint and information of any other person who shall declare his or her name and place of abode to such police officer.

It was further noted that where a person having charge of a vehicle or animal is apprehended by a police officer for an offence under this Act, it shall be lawful for that or any other police officer to take charge of the vehicle or animal, and to deposit the same in some place of safe custody, until the termination of the proceedings or until the court shall direct such vehicle or animal to be delivered to the person charged or the owner. 

The reasonable costs of such detention, including the reasonable costs of veterinary treatment where such treatment is required, shall, in the event of a conviction in respect of the animal, be recoverable from the owner summarily as a civil debt or, where the owner himself or herself is convicted, shall be part of the costs of the case. (Loopnews.caribbean)…[+]