[ Act No. 55, December 05, 1900 ]

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR WHOLESOME FOOD SUPPLIES AND TO PREVENT CRUELTY TO ANIMALS IN TRANSPORTATION.

By authority of the President of the United States, be it enacted by the United States Philippine Commission, that:SECTION 1. The owners or masters of steam, sailing, or other vessels, carrying or transporting cattle, sheep, swine, or other animals, from one port in the Philippine Islands to another, or from any foreign port to any port within the Philippine Islands, shall carry with them, upon the vessels carrying such animals, sufficient forage and fresh water to provide for the suitable sustenance of such animals during the ordinary period occupied by the vessel in passage from the port of shipment to the port of debarkation, and shall cause such animals to be provided with adequate forage and fresh water at least once in every twenty-four hours from the time that the animals are embarked to the time of their final debarkation.SEC. 2. The owners or masters of vessels providing forage and water as prescribed in section one, shall have a lien upon the animals so provided, for the cost of forage and water furnished under the provisions of this Act.SEC. 3. Any owner or master of a vessel, or custodian of such animals, who knowingly and willfully fails to comply with the provisions of section one, shall, for every such failure, be liable to pay a penalty of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, United States money, for each offense. Prosecutions under this Act may be instituted in any Court of First Instance or any provost court organized in the province or port in which such animals are disembarked.SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the collector of customs of the port from which any such animals are shipped, to refuse clearance to any vessel carrying any of the animals aforesaid, which are not provided with sufficient forage and fresh water for compliance with the requirements of section one; and it shall be the duty of the collector of the port at which such animals are disembarked to ascertain whether the provisions of this Act have been complied with, and if they have not, to cause prosecutions at once to be instituted by the promoter fiscal for the enforcement of the penalties herein provided. In ports in which there is no collector of customs, the duties above provided shall be performed by the inspector of customs for such port.SEC. 5. This Act shall take effect on January first, nineteen hundred and one.Enacted, December 5, 1900.

Source: Supreme Court E-Library