Legislation & Regulation

As reported previously in these pages (tnt j Stud Anim Prob 3(3):250, 1982), the Australian Standing Council on Agriculture (SCA) recently concocted a draft version of a new animal welfare code, comprised of four sections: 1. The Pig 2. The Domestic Fowl 3. Road Transport of Livestock 4. Rail Transport of Livestock Since the codes are the work of the SCA, a body made up of the state and federal ministers responsible for agriculture, the proposed codes will never officially come under the domain of the Australian federal government. Instead, they must be adopted by each of Australia's separate states. Nor, as Peter Singer noted in the Winter1982 edition of Ag, does there appear to be any mechanism for making a breach of the codes an automatic offense. "At most," Singer observed, "it seems that it [failure to comply with the codes] might be evidence tha_t could be used in a prosecution of cruelty." After perusing the actual content of the codes, Singer concluded that they were woefully inadequate, furnishing only a bare minimum of protection for the physical health of animals, while virtually ignoring their behavioral and other welfare-related needs and, among other things, acknowledging and condoning many of the practices that are now considered integral to maintaining a profitable factory farm operation. Writing for the Australian Federation of Animal Societies, Singer therefore prepared a detailed critique of the codes, suggesting modifications that would help to convert the codes into a practicable tool for ensuring that livestock have a better chance at a guaranteed minimum number of carefully defined rights.