Page 3953 - Week 11 - Thursday, 26 September 2019
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The majority of amendments proposed in this bill clarify and strengthen the existing laws ensuring that they are clear and enforceable and carry appropriate penalties while other amendments proposed are new, bringing the act into line with contemporary values and best-practice. I take this opportunity to outline the major changes.
Firstly, a new offence category is established for minor duty-of-care cruelty offences. This will ensure that less serious animal welfare abuses can be addressed through warnings and fines. This will allow for deterrence and early intervention before minor animal welfare abuses escalate to more serious levels. Under the current act it is difficult to prosecute minor duty-of-care offences, for example, where a person responsible for an animal fails to provide it with food and water, hits or kicks the animal or if a person confines a dog in a cage over days on end with no room for it to move.
I clarify that this does not regulate how often a person must walk their dog; in no way does this bill require a person to walk their dog every day or not keep a dog in an apartment. The bill is explicit about that.
The new category for minor offences will enable animal welfare officers to effectively enforce the existing legislation and ensure that animal welfare abuses at all levels can be addressed appropriately and proportionately, as any reasonable person would expect. Reasonableness is central to the application of animal welfare laws, and this bill establishes appropriate and clear provisions around ensuring sensible enforcement and circumstantial considerations that can be taken into account. But let me be clear: serious abuse of animals is not tolerated in our city.
This bill brings the ACT into line with contemporary expectations for animal welfare by increasing a range of maximum court-imposed penalties for animal cruelty and aggravated cruelty offences and updating the objects of the act to reflect the value our community places on animals and their welfare.
Specific provisions around dog fighting and other violent animal activities are proposed under the bill to prevent the use of animals to kill or injure other animals. Importantly, this does not apply to dog sporting events. It does, however, send a clear message to people that fighting animals, and particularly dogs, is not acceptable and action will be taken with the potential for up to three years’ imprisonment in serious cases.
The bill significantly improves the enforceability of legislation as infringement notices can be issued by our animal welfare inspectors, including RSPCA inspectors, without the resource intensive process of a prosecution. That is why the strict liability offences contained within the existing Animal Welfare Act and this bill are so critically important to establishing an effective enforcement regime. Having the power to issue on-the-spot fines for such abuses was a common expectation identified through community consultation and one this bill delivers to a high standard.
This bill also deals with the serious consequences of leaving animals in hot cars. Despite increased awareness of the dangers, particularly for dogs, this remains an
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