Animal Care Bill 2007

Dog owners and dog breeders in Victoria may be well aware that this hideous Animal Legislation passed in the Lower House on Thursday 1st November 2007. It now awaits debate in the Upper House where it is highly likely to pass given that each State now has Labor Government and our Federal Government is also Labor.

Labor has a long history of NOT listening to the real stakeholders and doing EVERYTHING the RSPCA ask.
Call it the RSPCA Carte Blanche but back to this horrid Animal Care Bill 2007.

For purebred dog breeders and owners, two clauses are of particular concern as they stand right now though some alterations have been secured by Dogs Victoria which I will publish in a new entry on Verbiage Spillage.

Clause 82 has an insertion of new section 11A

(1) The Owner or person in charge of an animal must not allow a prohibited procedure to be carried out on the animal.

Penalty: 120 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months, in the case of a natural person.
600 penalty units, in the case of a body corporate.

(2) The owner or person in charge of an animal on which a prohibited procedure has been carried out must not -

(a) show or exhibit the animal; or

(b) allow another person to show or exhibit the animal - unless the prohibited procedure was carried out -

(c) before the commencement of section 80 of the Animal Legislation Amendment (Animal Care) Act 2007; or

(d) in a jurisdiction other than Victoria, in accordance with the law of that jurisdiction, and the animal was not, at any time on or before the procedure was carried out, resident in Victoria.

Penalty: 20 penalty units.

(3) In the section - exhibit, in relation to an animal, means the general or public
display of the animal (whether or not for sale purposes); show, in relation to an animal, means causing the animal to participate in any competition, performance or entertainment.


Clause 89 has an insertion 15C Breeding of animals with heritable defects

(1) A person must not, intentionally or recklessly, allow an animal with a
heritable defect to breed.

Penalty: 60 penalty units, in the case of a natural person.
300 penalty units, in the case of a body corporate.

(2) A person must not sell or dispose of an animal with heritable defect, if the person knows or is reckless as to whether the animal has a heritable defect, unless the person who sells or disposes of the animal advises the person to whom the animal is sold or disposed of (before sale or disposal) that the animal has a heritable defect.

Penalty: 60 penalty units, in the case of a natural person.
300 penalty units, in the case of a body corporate.

(3) In this section -

heritable defect, in relation to a species of animal set out in Column 1 of the Table in the Schedule, means a heritable defect that is known to cause the disease set out opposite the species of animal in Column 2 of the Table in the Schedule.