Full Statute Name:  Ley Organica de Sanidad Agropecuaria de Ecuador

This law creates the Regulatory Agency for Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary Control. This agency is responsible for regulating and controlling animal health and welfare, plant health, and food to maintain and improve the adequate conditions of agricultural production. Among other duties, this agency is responsible for issuing animal welfare regulations and establishing the health requirements and standards of animal welfare in slaughterhouses, animal and meat transportation, and disposable offal. This agency is the regulating and enforcing authority of compliance with good agricultural health practices, animal welfare, and the safety of farm products in their primary phase. It inspects and controls compliance with animal health and welfare regulations throughout the entire supply chain. In addition, this agency oversees the regulation of the use of animals for scientific, educational, entertainment, and cultural purposes.

The Code of Agricultural Health also creates the Public Information on Agricultural Health subsystem within the National System of Public Agricultural Information. This system will provide information on the certification of farms that apply good agricultural and livestock sanitary practices and animal welfare standards.

The welfare standards of farm animals during transportation and slaughter are contained in regulations issued by the Regulatory Agency for Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary Control in the form of recommendations. However, there are no specific standards for the welfare of farm animals during the rearing phase. Therefore, the treatment of animals before they leave the farm would be subjected to Chapter IV, article 48 of this law.

Chapter IV is a chapter concerning animal welfare. Article 48 establishes that dispositions regarding animal welfare are based on existing national and international standards. The animal welfare standards in this law are based on the five freedoms: that is, freedom from hunger and thirst, physical discomfort, pain, injury, and disease, and freedom to express normal and natural behavior.

Under this law, welfare conditions are mandatory in the handling and transporting of animals, regardless of whether transportation is by land, air, or sea. Slaughterhouses must be authorized to operate by the Agency for Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary Control. The control and inspection before and postmortem of the animals will be carried out by an authorized veterinarian or a veterinarian belonging to the Agency. They will have a permanent audiovisual record of the procedures, slaughter tasks, and animal welfare standards. The authorized veterinarian will rule the urgent slaughter of animals in the cases indicated by the Regulations of this law. Determination by prior inspection that the slaughterhouse does not have adequate sanitary conditions or does not observe good animal welfare practices will result in the temporary closure of the establishment until the situation that originated the infraction is remedied. Repetition of the violation will result in definitive closure.

Finally, violations of this code carry out administrative infractions that will result in fines, temporary suspension of the certificate; definitive cancellation of the certificate; confiscation of plants or animals; destruction and incineration of plant products that represent phytosanitary risks, and sacrifice of sick animals that represent zoosanitary or human health risks; temporary or definitive revocation of the authorization to export, import and commercialize agricultural products; and temporary or permanent closure of the establishment, as the case may be.