Malaysia legislation

Section 74A

of ANIMALS (AMENDMENT) ACT 2013

Section 74A

(2)

The Director General or State Director shall issue a public notice specifying the date, locality, types of offence and carcass, semen, fodder, litter, dung, or any product of animals or birds or any article or substance seized in subsection (1) and requiring any person who has any claim of it to appear before a veterinary authority and establish his claim within one hundred and eighty days from the date of such public notification.

(3)

The public notice mentioned in subsection (2) shall be published by posting it in a conspicuous place at the office of any veterinary centre in the district in which such carcass, semen, fodder, litter, dung, or any product of animals or birds or any article or substance was seized or in any local newspaper as the Director

General or State Director may feel necessary.

(4)

The public notice mentioned in subsection (2) shall be published in the Gazette if it involves a conveyance or the value of each item of the carcass, semen, fodder, litter, dung or any product of animals or birds or any other article or substance amounts to fifty ringgit or more.

(5)

A veterinary authority may require the owner or person entitled to the carcass, semen, fodder, litter, dung, or any product of animals or birds or any article or substance, conveyances, receptacles, packages or document who had laid a claim within one hundred and eighty days from the date of the publication of public notice under this section, to show proof of such entitlement before deciding to return the carcass, semen, fodder, litter, dung, or any product of animals or birds or any article or substance, conveyances, receptacles, packages or document.

(6)

If a veterinary authority is doubtful of the claim of ownership of such carcass, semen, fodder, litter, dung, or any product of animals

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or birds or any article or substance, he may refer the claimant to a

Magistrate to determine the rightful ownership of such carcass, semen, fodder, litter, dung or any product of animals or birds or any article or substance, conveyances, receptacles, packages or document;

and the burden shall be on the claimant to prove that he is the rightful owner and such carcass, semen, fodder, litter, dung, or any product of animals or birds or any article or substance, conveyances, receptacles, packages or document were not a subject matter of the offence or used in the commission of such offence.

(7)

If at the expiration of the period of one hundred and eighty days from the date of the publication of public notice under this section, no person has made any claim of such carcass, semen, fodder, litter, dung, or any product of animals or birds or any article or substance, conveyances, receptacles, packages or document, any veterinary authority may apply for an order to destroy or dispose of the carcass, semen, fodder, litter, dung, or any product of animals or birds or any article or substance, conveyances, receptacles, packages or document as the Magistrate may think fit and the proceeds of sale, if any, shall be credited to the Government revenue.

Presumptions