BEIRUT: Lebanon requires considerable efforts to bring it in line with international standards on animal protection, according to Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud.

The minister was speaking Thursday evening at the annual dinner held by animal rights group Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Abboud, who was joined by the ambassadors of the United States and France at the event, said he insisted on delivering his remarks in Arabic, “to affirm that those who speak Arabic are also concerned with animals.”

He cited the American radio humorist Paul Harvey, who said that government is not very concerned with the suffering of animals because they “don’t vote,” and noted that Lebanon continued to be listed by Interpol as a country in which the illegal trafficking in animals is still taking place.