DEATHROWPETS.net

From Caroline Le Couteur, ACT Greens MLA "Hi everyone. I’ve been following the discussions on the forum about the Animal Welfare Legislation Amendment Bill 2010, which I’ve put out as an exposure draft for community comment. I’d like to just offer a couple of brief comments in response to some of the concerns raised here, which I hope will be helpful. Firstly, I’m very open to hearing feedback and suggestions on the bill. It’s certainly not true that the draft was timed to avoid receiving feedback. I asked for feedback by 22 February 2011 which gave 10 weeks for comments – but if you need more time please just let me know. The reason it is an exposure draft is so that we can hear suggestions before we decide how we might proceed with the bill. We’ve tried to reach as many people as possible to provide them with a copy of the bill. I urge anyone interested to put in a submission. They will certainly be read and considered. We’re making a genuine effort to improve things in a tricky area and want to work with everyone who is involved in the issues. Secondly, I want to emphasise that the intent of this legislation is not to make life difficult for good breeders, or to stop the breeding of animals, or to stop people owning pets. We’re trying to address the problem of bad breeders who don’t comply with decent standards, as well as ongoing problems with abandonment, mistreatment and euthanizing of animals etc. So, as well as breeder registration, the bill covers a whole range of areas – desexing, microchipping, advertising, selling, cruelty provisions etc. The provisions are supposed to work together, hopefully to address the problems at the various levels (eg if someone still breeds without getting a license, they are still restricted in being able to advertise, because they wouldn’t have a permit number to display with the ad). I would hope that the majority of breeders – who are good, legitimate breeders - see advantages in the proposals in the legislation. We’re trying to set up a system where it is only the good breeders who can do things like breed, advertise, and sell. And hopefully the minority of bad breeders - the ‘puppy farmers’ - can no longer be part of the industry. Lastly, on the issue of desexing, which has had some discussion in this thread, I would point out that the draft bill proposes desexing of cats and dogs only if they are of desexing age under ACT laws (6 months for dogs). So, no desexing of animals earlier than is already legally permitted (and we understand that the appropriate desexing age remains an area of contention). If they’re younger than the legal age, the animals must be sold with a ‘desexing voucher’. Certainly there are some tricky issues with this and we’re looking at how exemptions might work - for example where the dogs/cats are sold to someone outside the ACT, or are for breeding/showing. These are the kinds of things we’re working through, and submissions will be helpful. I’d ask that you please have a close look at the proposals and, if you think some changes should be made to meet the goals I’ve outlined, let me know your suggestions. For those who have not seen the bill or the accompanying material, the bill can be found here: http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/ed/db_40359/current/pdf/db_40359.pdf And the consultation material on the bill can be found here: http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/es/db_40363/current/pdf/db_40363.pdf Best regards, Caroline Le Couteur, ACT Greens MLA"