Animal Welfare—Government Responsibilities

The ACT government recognises the importance of animal welfare in a modern society. It has a strong commitment to ensure that all animals in the ACT have appropriate standards of animal welfare. Cruelty is never acceptable and is illegal, including any actions taking to control feral or pest animals.

The government provides minimum standards for the care and use of animals.

The government recognises that advances in scientific knowledge increase our knowledge of animal welfare and that community attitudes and expectations about the use of animals changes over time. Animal welfare standards need to be able to change to reflect new knowledge and changing community expectations.

All of the above is achieved through the Animal Welfare Act 1992 (the Act) which is administered by TAMS. TAMS is the government’s lead department for animal welfare in the Territory.

The Act allows the Chief Executive to appoint inspectors for the purposes of enforcing the Act. Officers from within the RSPCA have been appointed inspectors due to their outstanding knowledge of the types of actions or omissions of actions that constitute an offence under the Act.

The Act has a range of enforcement powers to promote and monitor acceptable standards of care, and protect animals from cruelty or welfare offences.

The Act provides the framework for standards of the care and use of animals that achieves a reasonable balance between the welfare of animals and the interests of persons whose livelihood is dependent on animals. It also allows for the effect of advancements in scientific knowledge about animal biology, and changes in community expectations about practices involving animals.

Good legislation is also an important way of achieving high animal welfare standards. In the ACT the Act governs offences relating to animals.

The Act defines acceptable animal welfare standards by the gazettal of Codes of Practice for various types of animal use or various animal species.

Codes of Practice allow the ACT community to identifiy the applicable animal welfare standards.

A Code of Practice sets the minimum standard acceptable for dealing with, or interacting with, an animal. A person can not be prosecuted under an omission from the standards contained within a Code of Practice. However an action taken that is required under a gazetted Code of Practice is a defence against a prosecution under the Act.

• Animal Welfare Standards—Codes of Practice