Page 1377 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2011
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need to take steps to curb the commodification of animals and to regulate their welfare.
The Greens have always had strong animal welfare policies and we are determined to put these policies into action. The bill I am introducing today puts animal welfare first. It proposes a number of sensible measures that will operate in harmony to address the problems I have discussed.
The bill sets out a scheme for the mandatory licensing of breeders of cats and dogs to ensure that only licensed breeders may breed cats and dogs for sale. The new licence requirements will ensure that breeders in the ACT meet appropriate standards of animal welfare, do not exploit or over-breed animals and that the public, regulatory authorities and animal rescue organisations have a reliable guide to determine which animals are being bred in good conditions.
I believe this will be a first for Australia, making the ACT a national leader. However, the scheme in fact will be similar to a trial scheme which has been running successfully on the Gold Coast. A key to this scheme will be the requirement that a breeder is inspected before being awarded a licence. It must meet strict ethical breeding criteria. These basically ensure that the breeder is prioritised in the welfare of the animal and include specific requirements such as adequate opportunities for exercise and socialisation for physical and mental wellbeing, appropriate space and cleanliness et cetera, as well as consideration of whether the breeder is likely to be able to find homes for all the animals they are breeding. These requirements will weed out any breeders who compromise the welfare of animals, from puppy mill breeders, who intensively breed animals for profit, to backyard breeders, who are not properly set up to accommodate animals or to re-home animals through legitimate channels.
A second major initiative of the bill is that it specifically bans the sale of cats and dogs from stores and from markets. However, it does allow limited exceptions for animals being sold on behalf of animal welfare organisations and shelters. This scheme will allow pet stores to establish relationships with animal welfare organisations and to facilitate the re-homing of abandoned animals. Some pet stores have deliberately moved away from selling other cats and dogs on principle, and they already use this model.
As well as having a number of welfare benefits on its own, such as limited opportunities for impulse buying of animals, preventing the selling of cats and dogs in pet stores and markets, it is an important corollary to the new breeder licensing regime. If selling was allowed to continue unrestricted, pet stores or markets could continue to sell animals that had been bred in other states where breeding remains unregulated.
The proposal is in line with other international jurisdictions that have banned the sale of companion animals from pet stores, including various European countries and cities across the USA and Canada. As an example, Albuquerque in the USA banned the commercial sale of companion animals in 2006. City vets say that this has markedly improved the situation for companion animals, with a 35 per cent decrease in the euthanasia of animals in shelters and a 23 per cent rise in animal adoption. Pet stores are also uncommon across Europe, and cat and dog euthanasia rates in Europe remain significantly lower than Australia’s.
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