Animal advocacy coalition calls for better animal protection laws in Queensland, May 2021
Farm Animal Rescue (FAR) has joined forces with Queensland’s most prominent animal protection organisations to call on the Queensland Government to ensure stronger animal protection laws in the review of the Animal Care and Protection Act 2001.Farm Animal Rescue (FAR) has joined forces with Queensland’s most prominent animal protection organisations to call on the Queensland Government to ensure stronger animal protection laws in the review of the Animal Care and Protection Act 2001.Farm Animal Rescue (FAR) has joined forces with Queensland’s most prominent animal protection organisations to call on the Queensland Government to ensure stronger animal protection laws in the review of the Animal Care and Protection Act 2001
In addition to FAR, the coalition comprises Animals Australia, Animal Justice Party, Animal Liberation Queensland, Animals Need Shade, Coast to Coast Animal Friends, and World Animal Protection, and represents hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders who recognise that caring for and protecting other animal species is vital to the state’s public good. [hyperlink to the websites for FB pages of each organisation]
The coalition is highlighting that Queensland’s Animal Care and Protection Act 2001 lags behind other jurisdictions like the Australian Capital Territory’s laws, which acknowledge animal sentience and the legal obligation to care and protect animals.
Brad King, Founder and President of FAR, said Queensland’s laws are out of alignment with the community’s expectation that animals are provided adequate consideration, care and protection.
“Queensland’s legislation and its corresponding Codes currently institutionalise animal cruelty and lack the clarity required to support the community’s right to report animal cruelty, or for enforcement agents to act on clear cases of animal abuse,” Brad said.
“Queenslanders expect genuine change to this legislation to better protect the interests of animals. Nine out of ten people are concerned about animal welfare in farming1, and this coalition aims to foster collaboration and dialogue between all key stakeholders to ensure the revised legislation addresses these concerns.”
The coalition is in discussions with other animal charities and non-government organisations on working together to raise the bar on animal protection in Queensland. While each animal protection organisation within the coalition plans to provide its own submission, the coalition will advocate changes to the Act that:
- Recognise the sentience of non-human animals and the community’s obligation to protect the basic requirements of animal welfare – freedom from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury and disease; freedom to express normal behaviours; and freedom from fear and distress.
- Enable the establishment of an Independent Office of Animal Protection to address the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries’ current conflict of interest in regulating and enforcing animal-use industries while fostering those industries’ economic productivity.
- Provide a minimum baseline of animal welfare to ensure that neither that Codes nor Standards can enable animal cruelty that should otherwise be prohibited under the Act.
- Ensure mandatory prohibition orders for repeat or serious offenders to prohibit those individuals from owning or being responsible for any animal for life.
- Mandate the end to calf roping in Queensland as a prohibited event.
Initial public consultation regarding review of the Act closes on 21 May 2021 and FAR will communicate directly with our supporters very soon on how they can join us in urging the Queensland Government to ensure genuine improvements are made to animal care and protection in Queensland as part of this review process.
