Commentary on Sections Prosecutions Section 31: Time limits for prosecutions
133.Under the existing law, which requires that a prosecution be commenced within 6 months of the date of the offence being committed, it has sometimes proved difficult to prosecute for cruelty to animals when evidence of the offence has not been discovered until some considerable time after the offence was committed. For example, if a recording of an animal fight was discovered and the enforcer wished to bring a prosecution under section 8(1).
134.Subsection (1) authorises prosecutions to be commenced within three years of the date the offence was allegedly committed, in the rare circumstance where evidence of the alleged offence has not come to light within the usual six month time limit, provided the proceedings are brought within six months of the date when sufficient evidence to mount a prosecution comes to the prosecutor’s knowledge.
135.Subsection (2) provides that if a prosecutor certifies the date on which he learnt of the relevant evidence, that date shall be the starting point for calculating the period within which proceedings must be commenced.