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Dr. Michel Bachelet
President of Chile


Dear Mrs. Bachelet;

Last week the Chilean Congress approved an animal welfare law that leaves animals completely helpless. The new law does not condemn animal mistreatment neither cruelty.
Under this new legislation animals are considered objects that can be abuse by their owners with total impunity. The law lacks of any sanction against animal abusers, animal hoarders and animal traffickers. It does not typify bestiality as a felony nor it prohibits proved animal abusers of keeping animals.
It facilitates the permanence and entrance to national territory of circuses with animals. It does not regulate the possession of wildlife in a clear violation against all international treaties that protect wildlife. Dogfights are not banned neither cockfights.
The new legislation creates inequalities among animals leaving horses in a more woeful situation than the others. According to the new animal law horses can be used in rodeos and races without any regulation. They can be exploit as  loading animals without any consideration. They can be kill in slaughterhouses and eaten.

In a shameful legal mistake the Congress gave the capacity to local polices of removing dogs and cats from streets and destroy them in a clear violation of a federal law.

Chilean legislators approved a law where animal welfare organizations cannot bring any private prosecution in favor of animals leaving the voiceless completely defenseless.

We the undersigned urge you to veto this law. Your government has been one of the most progressive in South America during the last decades. You have been a defender of human and women rights and we hope that you can incorporate  the defense of the non-human persons.