Submission - Review of QLD Animal Care and Protection Act 2001

The Australian Veterinary Association welcomes the opportunity to input into the review of the Animal Care and Protection Act 2001 (ACPA). The ACPA is essentially an excellent act and the first in Australia to include duty of care provisions as well as cruelty. Continuous improvement is the hallmark of excellence and the AVA welcomes the opportunity to review how it can be improved.

Read the full submission here.

Summary of Recommendations:
The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) makes the following specific recommendations. More general discussion of options is in the text.

• Recommendation 1 That reporting of animal welfare concerns is not mandatory for veterinarians. Where complex social situations exist, it is recommended that the government create positions of “veterinary social workers” who could be separated from the legal arm of the government and who could coordinate services to the person in need. It is acknowledged that inspectors have the option to have an educative approach but the fact that there is an inspector immediately would have a negative effect.
• Recommendation 2 That reporting of animal welfare concerns is not mandatory for veterinary nurses. There is a wide range of training and qualifications of this group and most would not have the full understanding of the range of medical conditions that could present as potentially neglect.
• Recommendation 3 That veterinarians play a facilitatory educational role to address animal welfare concerns. Where the situation is one of ignorance but with good intentions, there would be a greater benefit if the veterinarian were able to educate the client through the process rather than report them. In severe cases, veterinarians already voluntarily report abuse if they believe it to be necessary. If they felt that they would be ineffective in this facilitatory process and there was cruelty involved, it would be referred to inspectors in the great majority of cases.
• Recommendation 4 That the list of prohibited traps be expanded to include opera house traps and steel jawed traps.
• Recommendation 5 That both externally appointed inspectors and government inspectors be subject to an independent body for complaints made against them.
• Recommendation 6 That the government make It legal for veterinarians to euthanase animals where they are injured or sick to the extent where it is cruel to keep them alive and the owners are not known or cannot be contacted.
• Recommendation 7 That the Queensland Government adopts the Model Codes of practice for the humane control of pest animal species to ensure that the control of feral animals is done with the least suffering as possible. A regulation should provide for mandatory provisions in particular the prohibition of 5 inhumane measures). Currently other states have adopted these codes and there are alternatives for these 5 measures. Additionally the use of glue boards or drowning for rodent control should be prohibited.