1. Animal Protection Laws and Animals 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, 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)

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