Act on the Protection of Animals Used for Scientific or Educational Purposes - legal regulation review

Abstract

On 15 January 2015 the Act on the Protection of Animals Used for Scientific or Educational Purposes [1] was adopted in Poland. This act implements Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of 22 September 2010 on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes [2]. The Act on the Protection of Animals Used for Scientific or Educational Purposes is not the first legislative act governing the presumption of acceptability of using animals for scientific and educational purposes. The first legislative act in the system of Polish law regulating the above-mentioned issues was the Act of 21 January 2005 on Experiments on Animals [3]. However, it must be emphasized that the Act on the Protection of Animals Used for Scientific and Educational Purposes is not the only one legislative act regulating animal protection issues. Apart from the said Act there is the Act of 21 August 1997 on Animal Protection [4] and the Act of 11 March 2004 on the Protection of Animal Health and Control of Infectious Diseases of Animals [5]. Thus, in the Polish legal system animal protection is a very elaborate issue and is split concurrently between three underlying legislative acts. This article will, on one hand, attempt to evaluate the implementation of directive 2010/63/EU, and on the other, establish how the provisions of this act correspond to other legislative acts related to the protection of animals. [1] Journal of Laws of 2015, item266. [2] OJ L 276 of 20 October 2010, p. 33. [3] Journal of Laws of No 33, item 289 as amended. [4] Journal of Laws of 2013, item856, consolidated text. [5] Journal of Laws of 2014, item 1539, consolidated text.