ANIMAL welfare is critically important but, after reading the Plan for Victoria’s new animal care and protection laws, I am terrified that this is a complete power grab – being pushed through quickly and quietly, before anyone has a chance to stop it. Rarely, in my opinion, have I ever seen such a blatant and over-riding plan put forward to control animal farming.
“It would be an offence for a person who owns or is in charge of an animal to not ensure the care requirements are provided. Unreasonable harm, pain or distress of the animals would not need to occur before authorities could intervene.” – page 34, Plan for Victoria’s new animal care and protection laws (pdf version) or page 22 (Word document).
The Victorian State Government has just released the Plan for Victoria’s new animal care and protection laws, which outlines changes to the current Protection of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986, which is considered outdated.
Under the ‘Purposes’ section of the new laws it would recognise that animals have the capacity to feel, perceive their environment, and to have positive and negative experiences like pleasure and pain – that is, that animals are sentient. The proposals would also recognise that animals in Victoria can be owned and used for lawful purposes. This includes for activities such as farming, recreational activities and hunting. The ‘Purposes’ are intended to help the community understand the purpose of an Act and to assist the courts with interpreting an Act.
This recognition underpins the approach to the new laws. This includes setting basic care requirements for animals and the regulation of legal activities with a risk of causing animals harm, pain and distress. Recognition of animal sentience also underpins the decision‐making principles for the new Act, and the provisions for managing seized animals.
A free trade agreement signed by Australia and the United Kingdom in December 2021 states that both parties recognise that animals are sentient. A free trade agreement between Australia and the European Union is under negotiation, and mutual recognition of animal sentience will be considered.
The new Act would be high‐level and principles‐based, in contrast to the current Protection of Cruelty to Animals Act, which is prescriptive and detailed. The new Act would set out high‐level offences for all species defined as animals by the Act. The Act would provide for the making of supporting regulations which would set out more detail on how to achieve the requirements of the Act.
Livestock/production animals – covering the care and protection of species in primary production settings or which require ‘paddock’ housing such as horses (even when kept as companion animals), as well as related activities such as transport or slaughter of production animals.
These options would set out ways to provide minimum standards of care for specific animal species or activities, covering matters such as nutrition, physical environment and behavioural interactions. There would be no penalty for non‐compliance with these, but an offence in the legislation may apply, unless it can be shown that standards of care have been met in another way.
This type of requirement is important to provide assurance for people interacting with animals, but also allows for different methods of care, including those that achieve standards of care higher than required by the law.
“Specific care and cruelty requirements would be included in the regulations. These would be mandatory and must be met to avoid penalties of up to 20 penalty units ($3634 at 30 June 2022) as specified in the regulations, or infringements of up to 5 penalty units ($908 at 30 June 2022), where specified in the regulations. Examples might include requirements around fruit netting on trees, or the use of prong collars on dogs.”
“The new laws would create offences relating to specified classes of conduct, covering activities such as the transport of animals, or exhibiting an animal. For these categories, regulations may prohibit or prescribe additional activities and mandatory requirements. These requirements must be met to avoid a penalty up to 60 penalty units for a person (around $10,904 at 30 June 2022) and 300 penalty units for a body corporate ($54,522 at 30 June 2022). If there were no prescribed requirements for a particular activity, then it may be carried out in any lawful manner that does not cause a care or cruelty offence.”
Under the current POCTA Act, the Code of Practice for the Private Keeping of Dogs sets minimum standards of care in relation to the housing of dogs, but there are no offences attached and so the standards are not enforceable.
The new laws would allow regulations to be made that set care requirements for dogs, which an Authorised Officer could use to prevent a dog from suffering (early intervention) or to stop suffering from continuing. Setting the care requirements in the regulations with offences attached to them would make them enforceable.
“This would mean an Authorised Officer could take action in response to an alert in the morning of a hot day that a dog was fenced in with no shelter, before the dog suffered during the heat.” – Page 19.
Under the current POCTA Act, the Code of Accepted Farming Practice for the Welfare of Cattle sets minimum standards of care in relation to the husbandry and treatment of cattle, but there are no offences attached and so the standards are not enforceable.
“The new laws would allow regulations to be made that set care requirements for cattle, which an Authorised Officer could use to prevent cattle from suffering or to stop their suffering from continuing. Setting the care requirements in the regulations with offences attached to them would make them enforceable. This would mean an Authorised Officer could take action in response to an alert that a herd of cattle were confined to a low‐lying paddock during prolonged wet weather. If the wet weather posed a risk of flooding, the Authorised Officer could pre‐emptively take action to prevent the cattle being subjected to flooding, rather than responding to their welfare issues during or after the flooding.” – page 22.
“A person must perform that activity exactly as permitted. For example, if a regulation allows a procedure but only if pain relief is provided, and a person performs that procedure without pain relief, the exception would not apply, and that person could be prosecuted for cruelty.”
The Livestock and Rural Transporters of Victoria (LRTAV) were contacted for comment on the proposed new law plan.
A spokesperson for the LRTAV said: “We understand low stress livestock management is the best practice option when handling livestock for the animal welfare perspective to reduce anxiety and to yield well, from an operator perspective to avoid injury and an owner’s perspective to obtain high productivity.
“We as an association are proactive in promoting animal welfare and supporting our industry in achieving these outcomes.
“In the development of the new Animal Welfare Action Plan we want to see the developers listen and learn from the livestock industry as we are already governed by industry standards that are regularly reviewed and updated.
“The Land Transport of Livestock standards and guidelines provide a basis for developing and implementing consistent legislation and enforcement across Australia and provide guidance for all people responsible for livestock during transport. They are based on current scientific knowledge, recommended industry practice and community expectations.
“The livestock industry already has measures in place for compliance. A simple upgrade to the information on the existing National vendor declaration could assist with this. This might include adding animal curfew times,” the spokesperson said.
“Our members will be encapsulated in the cruelty penalty under the new law due to misconceptions of what is deemed appropriate livestock handling,” he said, and there was concern that the Victorian laws will not be consistent with existing National Land Transport laws and guidelines for animal health and welfare.
“An impact of the new laws is that members will be too concerned to intervene and help fellow members as they don’t want to be deemed liable if they are seen assisting with a situation that could be deemed cruel by an uninformed outsider therefore the welfare of the animal is more at risk with delayed added assistance.”
There could be the unintended consequence of driving people out of the livestock industry as best practice on and off farm husbandry practices may be seen to be cruel to the outside world.
The LRTAV spokesperson said there were also gaps in the new proposed law, including the descriptions of industry specifics, while their respective penalties are too broad and vague for a complex industry like livestock transport and livestock handling. There are too many variables in the day to day dealings of livestock animals that require a vast understanding of animal welfare and livestock management to just complete the task in a safe manner for both operator and animal.
“We are proactive in education of industry members in low stress animal handling and are always open to new and innovative ways to best transport livestock. Education more than penalties are key for better animal welfare handling.”
My question, as author of this piece, is: Where will it end?
Will I have to get a veterinarian to mark my stock? Will I have to qualify or get a licence to farm my animals?
There is no end to the mention of licences and regulation in this document. It states that if the bill is passed through both houses of parliament, then they with make the regulations after – meaning they will have the authority to introduce regulation as they see fit, and we farmers can do nothing about it!
Please get your hands and eyes on ‘Victoria’s New Animal Care and Protection Law Plan’.
I have requested more copies from legislationreform@agriculture.vic.gov.au – let’s see if I can get some.
If you would like to receive this publication, please telephone the DJPR Customer Service Centre on 136 186, or email customer.service@djpr.vic.gov.au
It can also be downloaded in either the pdf or Word document from https://engage.vic.gov.au/new-animal-welfare-act-victoria
