Criminalization of Animal Cruelty in Context: An Albanian Perspective

The Albanian legislature has been slow to comprehensively regulate and suitably penalize cruelty towards animals. During the second decade of building a democratic legal system, adopted legislation mandated administrative penalties for only a small number of acts of commission or omission that constituted cruelty to animals. A petition from 37,527 electors obliged the Committee of Laws at the Albanian Parliament to deliberate on the criminalization of animal cruelty for the first time in November of 2017. Two years later, on 18 July 2019, the Albanian Criminal Code was amended with six provisions criminalizing animal cruelty. How has context and other factors shaped the law in Albania with regards to animal cruelty? Authors aim to respond to this question through a functional method with a problem-solving contextual approach, engaging in an in-depth legal evaluation of the Albanian legislation and comparative analysis on the topic. This work draws on deliberations from eight meetings of the Committee of Laws and consultation with nineteen Members of the Parliament, civil servants in responsible institutions, and representatives from civil society, to clarify how society’s effort shaped the criminalization of cruelty towards animals in Albania. The discussion proceeds with a comparative legal analysis between proposed legislation and adopted changes in the Criminal Code with legislation in certain EU Member States and EU acquis. Concerns linger about whether criminalizing a behavior such as animal cruelty is the appropriate way to reduce the occurrence of this offence.