Legal Framework and Animal Welfare Concerns in the Live Export Industry in Australia

This project report discusses the legal framework governing the live export industry in Australia and the adequacy of the law in addressing animal welfare concerns. It also provides recommendations for reform to better protect the interests of animals and explores the advantages and disadvantages of strategies used for animal welfare.

Animal Law

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Legal framework in live export industry in Australia..................................................................1
Adequacy of the law in animal welfare concerns........................................................................2
Recommendations for reform to better protect the interest of animals.......................................2
Feasible changes to achieve reforms............................................................................................3
Advantages and disadvantages of strategies used for animal welfare.........................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Laws are the system of rules through which a particular country or community recognizes
the actions of members for imposing various penalties. Animal welfare and regulations in
Australia are implied at state and territory level. The Australian Animal Welfare Strategy
developed a framework for adaptation of a single animal welfare regulation model to be adopted
by each state and territory so that animal welfare can be maintained in the country. In Australia
animals are protected by implementing international standards (Chen, 2016). In this project
report legal framework which governs live export industry in Australian is mentioned. Adequacy
of the law in relation to welfare concern and methods to protect animal interest is elaborated in
the project report. Feasible changes that needs to be made to achieve reform in the animal
protection and advantages and disadvantages of the strategies is described in the law.
MAIN BODY
Legal framework in live export industry in Australia
The Export Control Act provides a legislation and legal framework through which export
of Animals is governed in Australia. This act is responsible for approving individual
consignments of animals. Laws and order in Australia followed for controlling export of live
animals is done through Export Control Order 1982. AS exporting livestock for slaughtering
leads to introduction of unavoidable risk to animal welfare. The risk of animal welfare was their
in the trade that involves live stock. Animals are send to other countries for unfamiliar feed and
that leads to extreme climatic condition changes. Government of Australia to control this
massive trade conditions introduced a legal framework that governs trade of live stock in
Australia (Coleman, 2018). A mix of Australian Meat and Livestock Act 1997 and the Export
Control Act 1982 is used for this purpose. Together with this Commonwealth Navigation Act
1912 and state based animal welfare legislation plays important role in regulation trade
conditions in Australia. Australian Meat and Livestock Act 1997 governs licensing to exporters
and no one can export livestock without appropriate licensing. In the process of exporting live
following requirements needs to be meat-
 Planning of the consignment to be exported
 Sourcing of animals
 Land transportation
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 Preparation of Vessel for loading
EC Act in Australia is responsible for making an approval in relation to individual
consignment. To control live stock laws in the country export control orders are made. The
Export supply chain assurance system is introduced so that animals that are exported for
slaughtering purpose can be tracked (Finn and Stephens, 2017). Rules and regulations that are
implemented in relation to live stock management in the country leads to bring certain amount
security for animal welfare. Breach in laws for animal welfare may include criminal sanctions
such as fines and imprisonments and administrative sanctions.
Adequacy of the law in animal welfare concerns
Animal act was introduced in Australia so that cruelty and unnecessary harm can be
minimised. Number of laws in relation to export of live stock is introduced and together with this
complementary systems were introduced so that these laws can be implemented in the most
effective manner. Through these laws animals are provided with rights so that legislation for
animal welfare can be made at their best. When adequacy of animal laws is considered then it is
realised that legally sanctioned acts of cruelty to animals happens every day in Australia. As
animals that are raised for food in Australia are excluded for application of the animal law. This
system leads to suffering of few animals form the pain of cruelty and slaughtering in the country.
Around 500 million animals raised every year in the factory farms for the purpose of food. The
reason behind excluding farming of animals is to make animal industry profitable as much as
possible (Ockenden, De Groef and Marston, 2014). In Australia million of meat chickens die
every year because they are bred to grow faster and that results in giving up of their heart form
survival. Maximisation of profits for cruel industry is the motivation of the industry operators
and government of the country. The animal law and principals and Frontiers are not adequate to
minimise animal cruelty.
Recommendations for reform to better protect the interest of animals
Animal welfare laws in Australia are governed at the state and territory level. Australian
legal system is comprised of eight separate welfare statutes that leads to prohibits animal cruelty
and promote animal welfare in the jurisdictional area. In Australia there is proper animal welfare
legislation is introduced so that animal protection and welfare can be prioritise. In the that leads
to better animal protection and balance this with human interest following recommendations
needs to be made-
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 Animals should be recognised as important part of the ecosystem and cruelty against
them will hinder the establishment of well defined system in the country.
 Government of Australia has implemented number of laws and systems that leads to
animal welfare but certain form of animal cruelty is still in existence and that needs to be
minimised (Phillips, 2016).
 Animal welfare to be promoted to national level by imposing positive duties so that prime
consideration can be provided for animal welfare.
 When animal welfare is avoided then in that case a educational and punishable step needs
to be taken for welfare offence.
 Effective procedures must be implemented to promote the efficiency and effective
enforcement of the legislation.
 Government of Australia must promote the legitimacy of the regulatory framework
particularly in relation to the values of procedural fairness, accountability and compliance
with legislative madness.
Together with this to improve animal interest with human interest consideration of the
opinion of various individuals involved in animal welfare must be analysed. At the same time
government of Australia must review rules and regulations of the animal welfare act. Through
this system changes can be made in the laws and government of the country will help in
introducing a system which takes care all the points in consideration to maximise animal welfare
at state and territory level (Portas, 2013).
Feasible changes to achieve reforms
Feasible changes that are required to achieve the reforms requires involvement of
Animal law institute as this organisation is committed to a progressive law reform agenda that
aims to stop animal cruelty. Certain changes that needs to be implemented are as follows-
 As per the current regulatory criminal law framework provides adequate protection for
individuals and businesses. Changes in this law enforcement agency will provide with
sufficient resources to effectively police animal welfare laws.
 A changes is introduced through order in the year 2018 where laws on export of animals
were implemented on sheep's has been shifted to cattle.
 Animals like elephants and rhinoceros were also included in the animal protection act. As
in Australia trade of elephant ivory and rhinoceros horn become one of the primary
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source of earning for large number of animal traders. Changes are made by parliamentary
amended, this leads to prohibit the domestic trade of ivory and rhinoceros horn. Together
with this Commonwealth Government also initiated a national model in which domestic
sale of animal will be banned (Windsor and Lomax, 2013).
 This reforms also brings changes as animal protection bill provides authority to officers
to make changes that required to deal with issue with offense and penalties including in
the bill.
 In view of the public consultation the Australian welfare standards and guidelines to
acknowledge the public welfare use of battery cages for layer hens was discontinued in
Australia.
 Together with these changes a proposal was made to ban on animal testing for all
chemicals used as cosmetic ingredients. This proposal leads to a change through which
Australian Code for the care and use of animals for scientific research purpose be
amended to ban testing on animals.
 A change has been made in the code of conducting for allotment of land capacity used as
an appropriate area for intensive agriculture, intensive animal husbandry practices is
made as per the code of practice permitted as per industry practice.
Advantages and disadvantages of strategies used for animal welfare
In the present time each individual is considering importance of animal welfare in
Australia and each possible strategies are applied at individual and national level by government
and citizens to manage animal welfare. These strategies servers with number of advantages and
disadvantage and some of them are as follows-
Advantage:
 Through implementing animal welfare strategies number of animals can be protected
from slaughtering and unfair treatment with them.
 Ecosystem is hindered when animals are not provided important and no steps are taken
for their welfare. Animal welfare strategies helps in managing ecosystem and implement
all the possible to save animals.
 Strategies for animal welfare will improve animal health, less disease, lower mortality
and improve growth rate so that in long run economic efficiency can be enhanced.
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 The animal welfare and management strategy will lead to prompting and continuous
improvement of the animal life in Australia (Animal Welfare, 2017).
Disadvantage:
 When as per animal welfare strategies animals are set free form cage then in will give
threat of many diseases.
 When animals are kept with farmers then proper care is provided to them when they are
in critical condition and due to animal welfare strategy animals will be set free and care
will be done by themselves.
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that live export industry has faced
may issues in the recent time and certain steps must be taken so that some activities can be
prohibited. For this legal framework in Australia governing the live export industry is practices
for implementing strategies for animal welfare. A well established legal framework is including
applicable laws are introduced in the legal system. This will help in addressing the animal
welfare concern in appropriate manner. Changes in the Australian legal system is made on
continuous basis so that reforms can be achieved for animal welfare.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chen, P. J., 2016. Animal welfare in Australia: Politics and policy. Sydney University Press.
Coleman, G., 2018. Public animal welfare discussions and outlooks in Australia. Animal
Frontiers. 8(1). pp.14-19.
Finn, H. C. and Stephens, N. S., 2017. The invisible harm: land clearing is an issue of animal
welfare. Wildlife Research. 44(5). pp.377-391.
Ockenden, E. M., De Groef, B. and Marston, L., 2014. Animal hoarding in Victoria, Australia:
an exploratory study. Anthrozoös. 27(1). pp.33-47.
Phillips, C., 2016. The welfare risks and impacts of heat stress on sheep shipped from Australia
to the Middle East. The Veterinary Journal. 218. pp.78-85.
Portas, T., 2013. Achieving positive animal welfare outcomes in zoos and aquariums.
In Proceedings of the 2013 RSPCA Australia Scientific Seminar. When coping is not
enough: promoting positive welfare states in animals, Canberra, ACT, Australia, 26
February 2013 (pp. 46-50). RSPCA Australia.
Windsor, P. A. and Lomax, S., 2013. Addressing welfare concerns in control of ovine cutaneous
myiosis in sheep in Australia. Small Ruminant Research. 110(2-3). pp.165-169.
Online
Animal Welfare. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://findourcommonground.com/food-facts/animal-welfare/>
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