Is your Rottweiler illegal in Goa today? No. As of 30 August 2026 the State has not notified a single breed as a ferocious animal, so the ban in section 4 bites nobody yet. The part of the same law that does work right now is section 7, and it covers any animal, not just the breeds in the headlines.
Two clocks, and only one of them is running. The Goa Animal Breeding and Domestication (Regulation and Compensation) Act, 2025, Goa Act No. 21 of 2025, came into force at once under section 1(3). But the breed ban only starts when the Government publishes a notification under section 3(1). No such notification could be traced on 30 August 2026.
| Provision | What it does | Status on 30 August 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Section 7 compensation claim | Injured person, or the family of a person who died, claims money from the animal's owner | Live. Applies to any animal, no notification needed |
| Section 1(3) commencement | Brings the whole Act into force | Done. In force at once |
| Section 3(1) ferocious-breed notification | Names a breed or class as ferocious | Not traced. No breed notified |
| Section 4 ban on keeping or breeding | Makes it an offence to keep, breed or bring in a notified breed | Dormant. Needs a section 3 notification first |
| Section 5 owner duties, 30 and 60 days | Report the animal, then sterilise it | Dormant. Clock starts on the notification date |
The Act was passed by the Goa Legislative Assembly on 23 July 2025, assented to by the Governor on 11 September 2025, and published in the Official Gazette, Series I No. 24, Extraordinary No. 04, dated 16 September 2025 under notification 7/18/2025-LA/135.
This is the provision most coverage misses. Read section 7(1) closely. It opens with a non obstante clause and then says any person who is injured, and in case of death the legal representative of the deceased, may file a claim for compensation against the owner of any animal which has caused such injury or death.
Nothing in section 7 limits it to notified ferocious breeds. A cow, a buffalo, an ordinary pet dog, a horse. If it has an owner and it injured you in Goa, section 7 is open.
Section 7(6) is your safety net. The compensation remedy is expressly not in derogation of any civil or criminal remedy available to you. Filing under section 7 does not stop you filing a police complaint or a civil suit. It is an extra door, not a replacement one.
The Act does not fix a compensation figure or a schedule of amounts. Section 7 leaves the sum to the Competent Authority. Do not believe any page that quotes a fixed Goa dog-bite payout, because the statute does not contain one.
Section 3 sets a fixed sequence, and the Government cannot skip a step.
| Step | Section | Time allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Public notice inviting objections to the proposed breed | 3(2) | Before any notification |
| Public sends objections or suggestions to the Director | 3(3) | 15 days from the notice |
| Government considers them and issues the notification | 3(4) | After the 15 days expire |
| Owner informs the Director in writing that they hold the animal | 5(2) | 30 days from the notification |
| Owner sterilises the animal and gets a certificate from the Director | 5(3) | 60 days from the notification |
The Director here means the Director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, Government of Goa, under section 2(d). Section 8 requires that Director to maintain a register of all ferocious animals and their owners.
Section 5(1) is blunt about liability once a breed is notified. The owner of a notified ferocious animal is solely responsible for its actions and is liable if it injures any other human or animal.
| Offence | Section | Punishment |
|---|---|---|
| Keeping, breeding or causing to breed a notified breed | 6(1) | Simple imprisonment of at least 15 days and up to 3 months, plus a fine of ₹50,000, plus community service |
| Any other contravention with no separate penalty | 6(2) | Simple imprisonment up to 1 month, a fine of ₹50,000, and community service |
Two details are worth knowing. Section 6(1) carries a minimum of fifteen days, so it is not a pure fine offence. And the proviso to section 6(2) lets the court order community service in place of imprisonment, having regard to the nature of the offence, the background of the accused and the circumstances of the case. Section 2(b) defines community service as work the court orders a convict to perform for the community's benefit, for which he gets no remuneration.
Worked example, for illustration only. This is not a decided case.
A visitor is bitten by a neighbour's dog in Mapusa on 5 March 2026. The breed is not notified, so section 4 does not apply and no offence under section 6 arises.
Section 7 still does. Her six-month window under section 7(2) closes on 5 September 2026. She files before the Deputy Collector for the region with her casualty paper, three anti-rabies vaccination receipts and a salary slip for eleven days of lost work. Section 7(3) requires a decision within three months of filing. If the order disappoints her, section 7(4) gives her sixty days to appeal to the Administrative Tribunal of Goa.
Had she waited until October 2026 to complain, the section 7 door would have shut, and only her ordinary civil and criminal remedies under section 7(6) would remain.
The single most useful fact, whether any breed has been notified, is an RTI question. Send it to the Public Information Officer, Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, Government of Goa.
To, The Public Information Officer, Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, Government of Goa. Subject: Information under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 regarding the Goa Animal Breeding and Domestication (Regulation and Compensation) Act, 2025. Sir/Madam, Under Section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, please provide: 1. A copy of every notification issued under Section 3(1) of the Goa Animal Breeding and Domestication (Regulation and Compensation) Act, 2025 declaring any breed or class of animals to be a ferocious animal, with its Official Gazette number and date. If no such notification has been issued, please state so in writing. 2. A copy of every public notice issued under Section 3(2) of the said Act, with its date of publication, and the number of objections and suggestions received under Section 3(3). 3. The current status of the file processing the said public notice. 4. The number of owners who have informed the Director under Section 5(2), and the number of sterilisation certificates issued under Section 5(3). 5. A copy of the notification authorising officers as Competent Authority under Section 2(c) of the said Act, region-wise. 6. Whether any rules have been framed under Section 9 of the said Act, and if so, a copy. I enclose the prescribed application fee of ₹10. If any part of this information is held by another public authority, please transfer that part under Section 6(3) within five days. Please supply the information within the period fixed by Section 7(1). Yours faithfully, [Name] [Full postal address] [Date]
Point 1 is the one that matters. A written no is proof you can rely on. A written yes gives you the Gazette number, and from that date your 30-day and 60-day duties under section 5 begin.
Our AI RTI Drafter will build this for you, and the Timeline Tracker counts the thirty days so you know the exact date the reply falls due.
Not under this Act, on the evidence available. The prohibition in section 4 applies only to a breed or class specified in a notification issued under section 3(1). On 30 August 2026 no such notification could be traced in the Official Gazette or on the Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services website, whose notices page carried only tenders. Verify it yourself with the RTI above before acting.
Yes. Section 7(1) speaks of the owner of any animal which caused the injury or death. It is not limited to notified breeds, and it opens with a clause that overrides anything else in the Act or in any other law in force.
Six months from the date of the incident to file, under section 7(2). The Competent Authority must then decide within three months of the claim being made, under section 7(3), after a summary inquiry on the lines of Order XXXVII of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
Section 2© defines it as an officer not below the rank of Deputy Collector, authorised by the Government by notification in the Official Gazette to perform the functions of Competent Authority. You file before the one holding jurisdiction over the region where the incident took place. Ask for the region-wise list by RTI, as in point 5 above.
Section 7(4) gives you sixty days from the decision to appeal to the Administrative Tribunal of Goa, with delay condonable for sufficient cause up to one year. Section 7(5) makes the Tribunal's order final and bars an injunction. But section 7(6) preserves your separate civil and criminal remedies.
No. Section 7(6) keeps the two tracks separate. If a breed is notified and an owner breaches section 4, the section 6(1) punishment stands on its own, and it carries a minimum of fifteen days of simple imprisonment along with a ₹50,000 fine and community service.
The Act does not carve out local bodies, and section 2(j) defines owner to include an organisation or association in possession or custody of an animal. Where the animal is a stray with no owner, section 7 has nobody to name, and the route is the Animal Birth Control machinery instead. See our guide on the stray dog RTI to the Municipal Veterinary Officer.
Reviewed by Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak. Last verified against the Goa Act No. 21 of 2025 gazette text on 30 August 2026.