What is the Animals Bill?
Australia has the highest rate of pet ownership in the world and pets play an important role in our society, however over 60,000 dogs and cats are killed each year in NSW alone.
There is a proven and strong link between pet shops and the large numbers of pets being dumped, with pets often being abandoned because they are bought on impulse as cute puppies and kittens displayed in pet shops, but have unanticipated costs, responsibilities and behaviours, or are unwanted gifts.
Impulse buying creates a demand that is often met by unscrupulous breeding practices, including backyard breeders and “pet mills” where cats and dogs are kept in appalling conditions and continuously bred.
With the support of animal groups including the RSPCA, Clover introduced the Animals (Regulation of Sale) Bill, which would ban the sale of cats and dogs from shops and markets and regulate advertising sales.
People will still be able to purchase pets from recognised breeders, vet clinics and animal shelters, and pet shops will continue to sell pet food and accessories and act as agents for animal shelters.
The Bill is supported by: the RSPCA; Say No To Animals In Pet Shops, the NSW Young Lawyers Animal Rights Committee; Animal Liberation; Voiceless; the Humane Society International; the Cat Protection Society; Doggie Rescue; CatRescue; Pet Rescue; Operation Toby; the American Staffordshire Club of NSW; and numerous private rescuers and rescue groups across NSW and Australia.
Why We Need the Animals (Regulation of Sale) Bill
The simple fact that 60 000 cats and dogs are euthanased in council pounds each year in NSW is indicative of a failed system.
The Animals (Regulation of Sale) Bill strives to dramatically reduce this tragic statistic by improving the way in which animals are sold and what occurs post adoption. Given that every animal euthanased in a pound either belonged to someone, or was the progeny of someone’s pet, it only makes sense to regulate the way in which people acquire animals.
Basically, if you rehome animals responsibly then you will reduce the number of animals being abandoned.
The Bill does not seek to limit people’s freedoms, but instead strives to empower consumers by making them more aware of the responsibilities and costs involved in the ongoing care of an animal before the sale, not after. Remember too that for each animal euthanased in a pound, someone was not willing or able to live up to their commitment made at the time of purchase.
The consequences of having the pet industry remain unregulated is immeasurable. Below are the different groups left to wear the burden of the financial, physical and emotional cost of their profit.
The Animals
The next time you see an animal in a pet shop, market or auction ask yourself ‘where did that animal come from?’. The answer will shock and disturb you. They were sourced from a ‘backyard’ or ‘commercial’ breeder who indiscriminately churns out animals in appalling conditions. There is no consideration for the animals’ basic needs, health or well being – they are there purely to generate profit. As soon as they stop making money (if they become sick or stop producing litters) they are discarded as they are useless to the breeder.
The breeding ‘stock’ are housed in abhorrent conditions. They will never be walked, cuddled or played with, and they will never know the comforts of a home. The females are kept pregnant on almost a continual basis at great detriment to their physical condition. The backyard or commercial breeder has no understanding of or concern about breed standards, genetics, socialising, or animal health. The progeny are usually suffering as a result, perpetuating the cycle of abuse and neglect.
The animals are then sold to pet shops, or market holders, and they often find their way to animal auctions where they are sold quickly and cheaply. Life then goes from bad to worse for the individual animal – often only 6 weeks of age, barely old enough to eat, but definitely old enough to suffer the stress of loosing their mother.
Once in the pet shop the animals become little more than ‘live stock’. Pet shops are after all businesses, and their main purpose is to make a profit for the owner. Sadly the profit making exercises usually conflicts with the needs of the animal. Employees are taught to prey on impulse buyers, and their lack of experience and information. They very rarely have the necessary training to properly advice people on their purchases, and information such as ‘expected on going costs, life expectancy, and daily care of the animal’ is viewed as a possible deterrent for the consumer who has ‘fallen in love’ with the cute and helpless puppy.
And yes, there are Codes of Practices created by the Department of Primary Industries for the keeping of pets in pet shops. But these are not enforced nor are they mandatory – they are merely recommendations for an industry, who again, is primarily concerned with profit.
The animals are then taken home by people who may or may not know how to provide them with the appropriate care. The puppy or kitten has had a questionable history and may or may not adjust to its new life. Even if the owners know how to ‘feed and walk’ a dog, they are probably not prepared for the needs of the specific breed – that puppy may grow into a large size dog.
The trend is usually that the person will continue to look after their pet until things get out of hand, or the impulsive nature of their purchase becomes inconvenient and impractical. This may be work related, due to rental situations, an allergic family member, problems with pre-existing pets, under-estimated costs associated with their care, or behavioural problems. Or the kitten or puppy has grown into a juvenile and has gone ‘on heat’ or at worst, fallen pregnant.
Pet shops (like all businesses) want to increase their profit margins. So desexing the animal prior to sale is an unnecessary expense. They may even tell the customer that they will buy back any off-spring. But characteristic of each breeding season, pet shops are full like any other ‘facility’.
So not only are 60 000 plus animals being killed each year in NSW pounds, but a self-regulated industry primarily concerned with making profits, are selling un-desexed animals to an unaware and often impulsive consumer. Think back to the shelter worker whose job it is to kill the unwanted pets, and then see how just utterly repulsive this scenario is.
The Consumers
The people who buy animals from pet shops, markets or auctions are almost always doing so with good intentions. They have seen an animal who they have fallen in love with, or as is often the case, they have seen an animal who they ‘feel sorry for’ and want to provide it with a safe and loving home.
But these people are at the mercy of a business who has cut corners at every possible point. The animal has been sourced unscrupulously, they may have undetected health problems as a result, and very little information about the animal has been imparted to them.
Don’t be fooled – your emotional response to seeing the animals in cages, the scraps and type of information that is given to you, is all a part of a marketing plan. The consumer is just another victim, like the animals, who unwittingly play into the hands of the business.
The Animals (Regulation of Sale) Bill will empower the consumer. It will give them the ability to make informed and ethical decisions, and should be embraced by bodies such as Office of Fair Trading who have a duty to protect your rights as a consumer.
There have been innumerable accounts from people – families – who have bought animals that were sick, that did not survive or ended up incurring large vet bills. The pet industry does not only properly care for the animals it sells, but it does not respect the rights of its customers.
The Tax Payer
These are pet owners and non – pet owners alike who are then shouldered the burden of cleaning up the mess left behind by the pet industry. Millions of dollars are spent annually in NSW to manage, and dispose of unwanted animals.
A great deal of resources are invested in managing unwanted cats and dogs, seizing, impounding and in more cases than not – euthanasing them. In addition to this councils investigate noise and environmental pollution, plus neighbourhood disputes which result from irresponsible or uninformed pet owners.
Each animal impounded by a council costs the tax payer on average $100.00 to keep them in the facility for the mandatory 7 – 14 days and to then euthanase them. Now there is an absolute bare minimum (to date 1/3 of councils have not yet submitted their pound activity data for 06-07) of 60 000 being euthanased – thousands more collected by rescue groups, and the hundreds lucky enough to find new homes. The $100.00 does not include the cost of employing the rangers to trap, catch or otherwise seize the animal and invest the time in transporting them to the pound.
So, while you are paying to ‘clean up’ these suffering animals – remember that the pet industry enjoys an annual profit of billions of dollars.
The Environment
People who adopt companion animals from responsible and / or registered breeders, rescue organisations, shelters and vet clinics are usually supported in their purchase. They can ring for qualified advice if they experience problems and if they can no longer keep the animals they can almost always return them to where they were sold.
People who purchase animals from pet shops, markets or auctions do not have this safety net. This lack of support is very dangerous for the animal, as some people then choose to callously abandon them to the streets, in parks, schools or shopping areas etc. Their pet (who trusts and loves them) is now homeless, without food, shelter, appropriate care, and someone to protect them. Many of these animals are hit by cars, starve to death or die from illness. The ones who do survive this hard existence, are few simply ‘lucky’. Many (especially cats) will breed and form colonies which are extremely difficult to care for and manage.
Undesexed abandoned cats readily feed into populations of stray cats, and the ensuing generations can become feral. Stray and feral cats can impact wildlife through predation. They can also cause a great deal of distress to land owners who do not have the willingness or resources to provide them with care.
People will often abandon their pet mice, rat or rabbit believing that they will survive in a ‘natural’ environment. This is not the case. Domesticated animals, regardless of the species, are domestic and have been bred to be dependent on humans for their survival. Their deaths usually result from malnourishment, injuries sustained through territory disputes (especially so with rats) or diseases carried by indigenous populations of that species which they do not have a resistance for.
Sadly, the occasional survival of these animals carries with it great problems for our environment. Rabbits, non-native rats and mice cause a wealth of damage and harm to human and natural ecosystems. Furthermore, steps to eradicate so called ‘pest’ animals are often inhumane and involve adding poisons to an already wounded environment.
The Pound Worker
Not many people think of human casualties of the pet industry. These are the pound staff employed to euthanase our unwanted pets. Can you imagine what it means to kill cage after cage of often healthy, affectionate and playful animals? Can you imagine what this feels and looks like? We know that at least 60 000 cats and dogs are killed this way in NSW each year.
When speaking to an employee of one Sydney pound, in between sobs she said to me ‘we are euthanasing kittens while they play with us’. The same person was responsible for euthanasing 32 cats and kittens in one day just after Christmas (one of the peak periods of sale for pet shops). I heard one shelter manager say that ‘the worst thing for her is to see her staff having to ‘choose’ whether they kill the mother first or her babies’.
One pound worker from Sydney makes sure that the animals have ‘one last nice meal’ before they are sent to their deaths, one last small pleasure before their lives are taken from them.
The RSPCA has begun to implement strategies to cope with what they now refer to as compassion fatigue, a term that refers to a gradual lessening of compassion over time. This in itself is a crime – to take from someone their ability to feel.
To read a first hand account of a shelter manager, please click here.
Conclusion
Our society has a duty of care towards these animals. There are many things which need to be addressed, but the first and most important issue is the way in which the animals are being sold.
Currently the need to make a profit by the businesses who sell animals, conflicts with the welfare of the animals being sold. Put simply, it is in the best interest of the business to sell the animal regardless of whether the customer is capable of responsibly caring for it after they bring it home.
By regulating the sale of animals we will be empowering the consumer. We will be making sure that they are educated and made fully aware of the level of responsibility needed before they bring home a pet, and we will be guaranteeing them that the animal was sourced ethically.
The passing of the Bill will save the lives of animals and assist in protecting them from cruelty, neglect or abandonment. This alone is worth fighting for.
