CANBERRA has become Australia’s first state or territory to pass a bill that recognises the feelings of an animal.
The “Animal Welfare Legislation Amendment Bill 2019”, which was passed in the ACT Legislative Assembly today (September 26), also means animal owners can face new on-the-spot fines for not taking proper care of their animals.
“These new laws will reflect a zero tolerance approach to animal cruelty,” says City Services Minister Chris Steel.
“For the first time under law we are recognising the science, that animals are sentient, and they feel emotion and pain.
“Modern animal welfare is about considering how an animal is coping both mentally and physically with the conditions in which it lives.
Under the new laws, if serious animal welfare abuses are committed, Mr Steel says the Animal Welfare Authority can impose an interim ownership ban of up to six months.
The Authority can also seize, retain, sell or re-home an animal where appropriate, he says. The maximum penalties for serious cruelty offences have also been increased with up to three years jail time for aggravated cruelty.
In addition, Mr Steel says the bill sets out an accreditation framework for assistance animals for the first time in the ACT, dealing with the recognition and right of access of assistance or service animals to public places and premises. This includes assistance animals in training.
Pet businesses will also be required to be licenced for the first time in the ACT, including pet shops and boarding kennels, to provide increased protections for animals in their care.
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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