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 ID: 366361
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Slide1
Animal Protection Laws andAnimals in the Wild
Celeste M Black
Sydney Law School
Human Animal Research Network
2 May 2014Slide2
Animal Protection Laws in Australia
Largely a concern of the States and Territories,
eg
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act
1979
(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)Slide3
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?Slide4
Duty of care provisionsReasonable 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 applySlide5
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
PestSlide6
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
P
est eradication – damage mitigation Slide7
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 exportsSlide8
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
animalSlide9
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 legislationSlide10
Thank You!
c
eleste.black@sydney.edu.au