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Animal Protection Laws and Animals in the Wild

Animal Protection Laws and Animals in the Wild. Celeste M Black Sydney Law School Human Animal Research Network 2 May 2014. Animal Protection Laws in Australia. Largely a concern of the States and Territories, eg Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979 (NSW)

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Animal Protection Laws and Animals in the Wild

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  1. Animal Protection Laws andAnimals in the Wild Celeste M Black Sydney Law School Human Animal Research Network 2 May 2014

  2. Animal Protection Laws in Australia • Largely a concern of the States and Territories, egPrevention of Cruelty to Animals Act1979 (NSW) • The concern is the individual animal • Basic Offences • Committing an act of cruelty against an animal (s 5 of POCTAA) • Failing to meet your duty of care in relation to an animal (eg s 8 of POCTAA)

  3. What is an act of cruelty? • “any act or omission as a consequence of which the animal is unreasonably, unnecessarily or unjustifiably: • (a) beaten, kicked, killed, wounded, pinioned, mutilated, maimed, abused, tormented, tortured, terrified or infuriated, • (b) over-loaded, over-worked, over-driven, over-ridden or over-used, • (c) exposed to excessive heat or excessive cold, or • (d) inflicted with pain.” (POCTAA s 4) How does one determine if a harmful act is necessary or justifiable?

  4. Duty of care provisions • Reasonable care to alleviate pain • Proper and sufficient food, drink and shelter • Providing adequate exercise • These requirements only apply to a “person in charge of an animal” being the owner or a person having the care, control or supervision of the animal • Animals in the wild are not owned or in custody/control so these duties cannot apply

  5. What do we mean by “wild animals”? • Wild by nature or in the wild? Or both? • Constructed categories: • Native and endangered • Native and common • Introduced • Game • Feral • Invasive • Pest

  6. Types of human interaction with animals in/from the wild • In some cases, no use or interference is allowed • Food: hunting, commercial “harvesting” • Leather/fur • Entertainment: hunting, zoos, circuses • Farming • Pest eradication – damage mitigation

  7. Regulation of Human Interaction with Wild Animals • Animal welfare laws • Nature conservation legislation • Preservation of endangered native wildlife • Controlled use of common native wildlife • Hunting legislation • Controlled use of introduced wild animals • Federal involvement: Commonwealth lands, national interest, imports and exports

  8. Limited protection under POCTAA - hunting • Use of poisons prohibited (s 15) but only applies to a “domestic animal” • Hunting related prohibitions: trap shooting (s 19), game parks (s 19A), animal catching (s 20), certain traps not to be used (s 23) • Section 24(1)(b)(i): it is a defence if it can be shown that the act was done in the course of hunting, shooting, snaring, trapping, catching or capturing the animal in a manner that inflicted no unnecessary pain upon the animal

  9. Further limits in other States • exemptions for animal control activities: • WA: defence if ”attempting to kill pests in a manner generally accepted as usual and reasonable” • Qld: exemption for acts to control feral or pest animals provided the act causes as little pain as is reasonable • limited application (Qld) or exclusion (Vic) for things done under nature conservation legislation

  10. Thank You! celeste.black@sydney.edu.au

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