THIRTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC) 
OF THE PHILIPPINES 
1 
First Regular Session 
) 
Rllt -4 P3:IB 
.. 
RECEIVE13 BY : 
~ -- 
S.B. SENATf 
No. 
Introduced by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
Republic Act No. 8485, also known as, “The Animal Welfare Act of 1998” was enacted to 
protect and promote the welfare of all animals in the Philippines. The law mandates the supervision 
and regulation of the establishment and operations of all facilities utilized for breeding, maintaining, 
keeping, treating, or training of all animals either as objects of trade or a household pets. 
The law, does not, however, provide for clear guidelines to ensure that animals used in local 
or international experimentation programs should be legally obtained from local sources. 
This b ill, therefore, aims t o increase accountability in the use of animals for educational, 
experimentation, or research purposes by institutionalizing the following: 
(a) To define the persons from whom the animals for research can be legally obtained; 
(b) To require the reporting on animal experimentation programs by the Executive Officials 
concerned; and 
(c) To penalize violators of this Act. 


THlRTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC) 
OF THE PHILIPPINES 
1 
First Regular Session 
) 
AUG -4 P3:10 
GT 
S E N  
S.B. No. 
FlfCElVEIb BY ’ -- 
Introduced by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago 
AN ACT 
TO ENSURE IMPROVED ACCOUNTABLTN OF ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION 
PROGRAMS 
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress 
assern bled: 
SECTION 1. Short Title. - This Act shall he known as the “Accountability in Using 
Animals for Research Act.” 
SECTION 2. Scope. - This Act aims to ensure that all animals used by research facilities for 
educational, experimentation, or research purposes are obtained IegaIIy and to require annual 
reporting on animal experimentation programs. 
SECTION 3. Definition of Terms. -For purposes of this Act, the term: 
(1) “Person” means any individual, partnership, firm, joint stock company, corporation, 
association, trust, estate, pound, shelter, or other legal entity; 
(2) “Research Facility” means any public or private entities created primarily for research or 
education purposes; 
(3) “Duly Licensed Dealer” means any person with a legitimate business of buying or 
selling animals; 
(4) “Secretary” means the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture; 
(5) “Director” means the Director of the Bureau of Animal Industry; and 
(6) “Chairman” means the Chairmm of the Committee on Animal Welfare, as created by 
“The Animal Welfare Act of 1998.” 


SECTION 4. Use of Animals. - No research facility, public or private, may use any animal 
for research or educational purposes of the animal was obtained from a person other than a person 
described in Section 5, and without prior authorization from the Committee on Animal Welfare. 
SECTION 5. Permissible Sources. - A person from whom a research facility may obtain 
any animal for research or educational purposes, or a person who may sell or donate any animal to a 
research facility, shall be: 
(1) a duly licensed dealer that has bred and raised the animal; 
(2) a publicly owned and operated pound or shelter; 
(3) a person that is donating the animal and that: 
(a) bred and raised the animal; or 
@) owned the animal fro not less than 1 (one) year immediately receding the 
donation; or 
(4) a research facility registered by the Bureau of Animal Industry; 
SECTION 6. Prohibition on Sale or Donation of Animals. - No person, other than a person 
described in Section, may sell or donate, or offer for sale or donation, any animal to any local or 
international research facility. 
SECTION 7. Annual Reporting, - The Secretary shall submit an annual report to Congress 
which shall provide: 
(1) information on the procedures likely to produce pain or distress in any animal and 
assurances demonstrating that the principal investigator considered alternatives to those procedures; 
(2) assurances satisfactory to the Secretary that such facility is adhering to the standards 
described in this Act and other related statutes on the matter; 
(3) an explanation for any deviation from the prescribed standards; 
(4) information regarding where animals used by such research facility were obtained; 
(5) an accurate count of all animals of all species (including rats, mice, and birds) obtained 
from local sources and used by local research facilities; 


(6) an accurate count of all animals of all species (including rats, mice and birds) obtained 
from local sources and used by international research facilities; and 
(7) information regarding the g eneral purposes o f t he animal experimentation program or 
research facility 
It shall be the duty of the Secretary, with the cooperation of the Director and the Chairman, 
to develop a system for obtaining and consolidating the data, and a system for releasing relevant 
information to the public. 
SECTION 8. Penalty. - Any person who violates any of the provisions of this Act shall, 
upon conviction by final judgment, be punished by imprisonment of not less than six (6) months nor 
more than two (2) years of a fine not less than One Thousand Pesos (P1,OOO.OO) nor more than Five 
Thousand Pesos (P5,OOO) or both at the discretion of the Court. If the violation is committed by a 
juridical person, the officer responsible therefor shall serve the imprisonment when imposed. If the 
violation is committed by an alien, he or she shall be immediately deported after service of sentence 
without any further proceedings 
SECTION 9. No Required Sale or Donation. - Nothing in this section requires a pound or 
shelter to sell or donate, or offer to sell or donate, any animal to a research facility. 
SECTION 10. Separability Clause - If any provision or part hereof is held invalid or 
unconstitutional, the remainder of the law or the provision not otherwise affected shall remain valid 
and subsisting. 
SECTION 1 1. Repealing Clause. - Any law, presidential decree or issnance, executive 
order, letter of instruction, administrative order, rule or regulation contrary to or inconsistent with, 
the provision of this Act is hereby repealed, modified or amended accordingly. 
SECTION 12. Eflececttvity Clause - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its 
publication in at least two (2) newspapers of general circulation. 
Approved, 
I1476 acs