Page 1596 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 12 August 1992
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Someone has an elephant in their custody and forgets to lock the gate of the cage, for example, or has a killer cobra and leaves the glass case open and it gets out of the case. We are talking about one year's imprisonment.
Mr Connolly: For skinning alive an animal for pleasure; that sort of weird behaviour?
MR HUMPHRIES: No, Mr Connolly, you have not been listening. You do not understand. We are not talking about clause 7; we are talking about subclause 11(2), which says:
A person shall not, without reasonable excuse, fail to take adequate precautions to prevent the release of an animal from custody or control.
This is not about skinning animals alive.
Mr Connolly: Letting out the tiger that eats the child.
MR HUMPHRIES: No; again you have got it wrong. Madam Speaker, again the Attorney-General has got it wrong. He still does not understand. Subclause 11(1) is about releasing the tiger from the cage. It says:
A person shall not, without reasonable excuse, release, or cause the release of, an animal ...
That is releasing the tiger from the cage. Subclause 11(2) is about forgetting to lock the cage door. That is what subclause 11(2) is about.
Mr Connolly: Which allows the tiger to get out.
MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed. Okay; I am the keeper of a tiger in a cage. I forget to put the lock on. I go to my dinner and I come back and the animal has got out and killed somebody. You put me in gaol for a year, basically because of an act of carelessness. If I go out and kill a person I am going to get six months for manslaughter. That is probably what I would get. Madam Speaker, this is ridiculous. We are going way too far. Consider the worst case scenario. If you consider the worst case scenario, you cannot make a reasonable case for a year's imprisonment. You just cannot.
Let us look at some of the other things. Subclause 10(2) says:
A person who injures an animal ... shall not, without reasonable cause, fail to -
(a) take reasonable steps to inform the person in charge of the animal accordingly within 24 hours after the injury ...
I withdraw that because that is only a $1,000 penalty. That is reasonable. Subclause 17(1) is a good example.
Mr Lamont: Madam Speaker, I raise a point of order. One would hope that Mr Humphries is not attempting to filibuster on this matter. I would suggest that there is a question of the relevance of his comment to clause 7. As I am raising the point of order, I would seek you to rule that Mr Humphries's comments in relation to where he is going now are irrelevant to the argument and the amendment before the house.
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