Too often, as Minister for City Services, I hear stories of animal cruelty, of neglect and harm caused to pets in our community. Animals can unfortunately be treated as emotionless objects and left to suffer without any respect to their welfare. I have heard stories of animals being starved, living in squalor with untreated wounds. One case saw a dog with a chain actually embedded in its throat, tethered to a tree with no shelter or access to water.
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This sort of treatment is out of step with community values and does not reflect the intrinsic value of animals.
Importantly, the above cases are already unlawful under our animal welfare laws. It is already unlawful to keep animals caged up without giving them an opportunity to exercise, to injure a native animal and not report it, to transport an animal in a way that causes it pain or injury and it is already unlawful to use a shock collar.
The Bill I introduced to the Assembly on May 16 makes it easier to enforce animal welfare laws by establishing a new system of escalating offences that will allow on-the-spot offences to be issued to those who fail to take appropriate care for an animal. These practical improvements were based mainly on feedback from the RSCPA who work alongside the ACT government to enforce animal welfare laws.
We want to enable officers to respond swiftly and effectively with the ability to issue an infringement notice (like kicking a dog or not providing a dog access to water during the day), while also significantly increasing the maximum penalties for the most serious animal cruelty. This goes hand in hand with the government's new enforcement team with six more staff to help enforce our legislation.
Unfortunately there has been a lot of hyperbole and misinformation thrown around about the implication of our proposed legislation. It is wrong to suggest pet owners will be turned into criminals or that members of our community with mobility issues will become criminals because they don't take their dog out for a walk every day.
The intention of the legislation is not to penalise dog owners that keep them in an apartment or backyard. Those dogs have freedom of movement in those spaces.
The legislation targets people who keep a dog in confinement, such as caging them or chaining them to a pole for days on end without allowing them some time to move freely. It is entirely reasonable that those dogs should have a period of exercise, where they can move freely for at least once a day.
The government has done extensive community consultation process in developing this legislation. An exposure draft of the legislation was released in late 2018 and comments on the legislation welcomed.
We have been working with the community through the consultation and this has led to changes in the legislation that I introduced last week. We have not decided to restrict the number of dogs Canberrans can walk at once, and instead we will focus on making sure that pet owners have "effective control" of an animal at all times. We have also clarified the intention of the Bill to ensure equestrian events aren't unintentionally outlawed and that that sporting activities, such as gun dog trials, will not become unlawful.
One of the most strongly supported parts of the legislation in the consultation was the ACT government's proposal to recognise animal sentience in law. The science has accepted for a long time that animals feel and perceive things. Recognising this fact in law is an important step forward for animal welfare and recognises that we have duty to care for an animal's mental wellbeing as well as their physical wellbeing.
Most people in the community love their pets and do the right thing. We walk them, give them a warm place to sleep, plenty of food and water (sometimes too much) and treat them as a member of the family. I'm sure most people who spend time with animals, including farmers and pet owners, also recognise that they feel emotion and pain, and that they can perceive the world around them.
I'm proud of the legislation. It will result in a regulatory framework with stronger penalties and enforcement, regulate pet businesses for the first time and better recognise and accredit assistance animals.
I hope that the community and the Legislative Assembly can get behind these very sensible laws that protect animal welfare.
- Chris Steel is ACT Minister for City Services.