Bali banned the dog meat trade in 2023, with offenders facing up to three months in prison or up to about S$4,100 in fines if found guilty. - Photo Illustration: Unsplash
JAKARTA: Public order officers in Bali have seized hundreds of dog skewers and dozens of kilogrammes of raw dog meat on the Indonesian resort island where the trade is illegal, officials said on Thursday (July 25).
The tourist hot spot banned the dog meat trade in 2023, with offenders facing up to three months in prison or up to 50 million rupiah (S$4,100) in fines if found guilty, but the trade still exists in other parts of the country.
During inspections this week, the authorities found three dog meat sellers who were still carrying out their activities in violation of local regulations, Bali public order agency head Dewa Nyoman Rai Dharmadi told AFP.
They seized 500 dog meat skewers from a seller in the Jembrana district and 56kg of raw dog meat from another seller in the same district.
The dog meat satay seller received only a warning because he had not been caught trading before, while the other two sellers were deemed repeat offenders and had minor criminal offences filed against them at a local court.
The authorities were only pursuing only minor criminal cases for repeat offenders because they wanted to give dog meat sellers a chance to overhaul their businesses, Dewa said.
“We won’t suddenly take legal action, but we are giving them the chance to know the ban and why it was banned,” said Dewa. “But we will process recurrent (sellers) for deterrent effect. We’re not playing around.”
The two sellers will stand trial in August.
Indonesia is one of a handful of countries that still permit the sale of dog and cat meat, but a campaign against the practice has been gaining ground, with some cities including Semarang in Java imposing local bans on the trade in recent years. - AFP
