Animal welfare and animals found injured or dead

Provisions on animal welfare are laid down in the Animal Welfare Act and the statutes issued by virtue of it. The purpose of the Animal Welfare Act is to protect animals from distress, pain and suffering in the best possible way and to promote the welfare and good treatment of animals. Those who keep animals must promote their good health and address their physiological and behavioural needs.

Animal welfare is managed in cooperation with Siilinjärvi. Animal welfare | Siilinjärvi municipality (siilinjarvi.fi)

Animal welfare inspections are conducted when violations of animal welfare legislation are suspected. Regular animal welfare inspections are also carried out without a reason to suspect violations on sites that keep pets or hobby animals on a professional or large scale.

If you suspect that animals are being treated in violation of the Animal Welfare Act, you can submit an animal welfare notification.

An electronic form should primarily be used to submit an animal welfare notification. You can also submit the notification directly to the veterinary inspector by e-mailing it to valvontaelainlaakari@siilinjarvi.fi

If you find a wild animal that is sick, injured or otherwise helpless, you should try and help. Under the Animal Welfare Act, every effort must be made to help a wild animal which is sick, injured or otherwise in a helpless state. The Nature Conservation Act also lays down an obligation to help protected animals and the Hunting Act to help game and unprotected animals when found injured.

The suffering of an injured animal must not be prolonged. If the state of the animal is such that keeping it alive would represent obvious cruelty to it, the animal must, under the Animal Welfare Act, be put down.

Read more about the treatment of sick and injured animals on the environmental administration’s website.

If a game animal found dead causes a nuisance, the affected person may bury or destroy the animal at their own expense.

For more information about handling game animals found dead, visit the Finnish Wildlife Agency’s website   and the website of Jätekukko Animal carcases, wild animal found dead – Jätekukko (jatekukko.fi, in Finnish)