Have your say: Victoria’s new animal protection laws.

Industry-certified schemes and co-regulation frameworks often prioritise industry interests over the animal’s needs, despite claims of upholding the ‘highest standards.’ Investigations have revealed instances where industry-certified schemes have led to some of the worst suffering for animals on record.

The method of gas-stunning pigs originated from an industry-certified accreditation scheme. Pigs are herded into metal cages and exposed to carbon dioxide which causes excruciating burning sensations in their lungs, eyes, and throats, until they ultimately suffocate. This industry method was not devised to reduce the suffering of pigs before slaughter, but rather to slaughter as many pigs as possible, at once.

Industry schemes often lack effective monitoring by responsible authorities, leaving countless animals vulnerable to suffering behind misleading industry-owned certification labels.

To safeguard animals from cruel practices permitted by industry certification and co-regulation, it is imperative to eliminate blanket exception for ‘approved industry arrangements’ from this Bill.
Instead, the focus should be on establishing legally binding regulations that prioritise animal’s needs over industry interests.

Sow stalls, also known as ‘gestation crates,’ confine pregnant mother pigs, severely restricting their movement to a mere step forward or back. These stalls deprive mother pigs of basic freedoms, causing painful injuries, stress, and social isolation.

Farrowing crates confine mother pigs to a space barely larger than a bathtub during birthing and nursing. Like sow stalls, these crates offer minimal room for movement, preventing mother pigs from interacting with their piglets and inhibiting natural maternal behaviours. The prolonged use of these confinement methods not only cause painful sores and injury but also takes a toll on the mental well-being of both the mother pig and her piglets, leading to distress, depression and illness.

To improve the welfare of these intelligent, empathic and social animals, this Act must phase out the use of sow stalls and farrowing crates for mother pigs.

Young lambs often have the skin around their buttocks and the base of their tail cut off with a pair of metal shears (to reduce soiling and the risk of flystrike). This is a very painful procedure that often does more harm, than good.  The large, open wound created by mulesing can take many weeks to heal and during this time, lambs suffer pain and are at added risk of infection and flystrike.

While Victoria is the only state to regulate pain relief for mulesing, it is a painful procedure that causes suffering long, after the pain relief has worn off and must be prohibited.

The Act prohibits tail docking of horses and dogs, but regulations still permit cutting the tails off factory farmed piglets, as well as sheep and cattle to have their tails cut off, without any pain relief.

• Tail docking is an unjustifiable and painful mutilation that should never be performed on any animal.
• Piglets have a lot of feeling in their tail – studies show that even after the tail has been cut, the piglet can still feel acute, and long-lasting pain in their tail stump. “We know that the pain associated with these procedures lasts longer than just the time when they are performed” (Sandercock et al 2019).
• Piglets also have their teeth ‘clipped’ or cut incase they bite too hard and injure each other. Trapped in a farrowing crate, a mother pig is unable to bond or intervene as she normally would with her piglets. Without her natural guidance, some piglets may develop unusual aggression towards another, leading to fights and severe injuries. Rather than address the root cause, that is the terrible confines of factory farms, the industries answer is to clip the teeth of piglets – a painful procedure where they are not provided any pain relief.

All of these procedures cause pain and suffering and must be prohibited.

Chick shredding or maceration, is a practice that sees millions of male chicks dropped into a metal machine and ground up alive on their first day of life. If they are not shredded, chicks are sent to be gassed at one day old. These standard practices happen in all commercial egg production systems – whether they come from RSPCA approved, free range, cage or barn laying systems.

To this day, millions of hens raised to produce eggs are crammed into tiny ‘battery’ cages, forced to live in a space the size of an iPad for their entire egg-laying lives. At around 18 months they are considered ‘spent’ and sent to slaughter. Deprived of a life worth living and unable to express their natural behaviours, hens can become frustrated and depressed, and can peck each others feathers. Rather than stop the intense confinement of hens in cages, hens and turkey have their sensitive tips of their beaks cut or trimmed, without being given any pain relief.

Beak cutting, day-old chick maceration and gassing, and cramming sensitive, gentle hens into cages must be prohibited.

Piglets raised in factory farms who are sick or injured are killed by having their heads smashed onto a concrete floor. This is a violent act often done in full view of the mother pig and the piglets’ siblings, as well as other factory farm workers.

This is an unacceptable practice that must not be allowed by the regulations and must be considered an act of prosecutable cruelty.

• If you want to include more about pigs in your submission, you can use the information provided here.

The forced swim test is a distressing and unnecessary practice. Mice and rats are placed into a cylinder of water too deep for them to stand in, making escape impossible. The test aims to see how long the mouse or rat will swim before they can just keep their head above water or gives up and floats to the surface. It relies on placing these small but intelligent and sensitive animals in inescapable danger and uncontrollable stress as they literally swim for their lives.

The forced inhalation tests squeezes mice and rats into narrow plastic tubes, forcing them to inhale toxic substances and chemicals for days and sometimes months on end. The test leads to pain, nausea, convulsions, inflammation, and in some cases, an agonising death.

• Both tests are considered unnecessary and unjustified by the National Health and Medial Research Council and must be prohibited.
• Conducting tests on animals for scientific research where there are non-animal alternatives tests available, must be expressly prohibited.

On 14 March 2024, New South Wales became the first jurisdiction in the world to ban the forced swim and inhalation tests. This historic historic win will see these two inhumane testing methods used on rats and mice banned in NSW. These new laws provide Victoria with an opportunity to follow NSW’s lead, and ensure both tests are banned and prohibited under the new laws.

Electric shock devices

• Electric shock devices like prods and collars, are used on various animals, including dogs, cats, and cows. The electric shock causes cause pain, discomfort, leading to fear, anxiety, and mental distress. Studies show that reward-based methods are far more effective than electric shock collars. Electronic prods should never be used on horses and cows used in rodeo events.
• Electric prods are used to move animals like pigs around paddocks and during transport, and used during rodeos on horse and cows stationary in the chute, to make them feel fear, pain and buck in distress.

Snares and traps

• These cruel devices are used to catch wildlife like dingoes or introduced animals like rabbits. Some animals caught in a killing snare could become unconscious and die within a few minutes, but many live for several hours or days after being caught, trapped by their body or limbs. They often suffer a prolonged, terrifying and painful death. All snares and traps must be prohibited because they cause frightening, painful and prolonged deaths and their use cannot be justified under any circumstances. 

Painful procedures, without pain relief 

• Cattle can currently have their sensitive horns cut off without pain relief
• Calves can currently be castrated under 8 months old without pain relief or a vet.
• Cattle and horses are currently allowed to be branded by burning, freezing or applying a caustic chemical, all without pain relief, causing unacceptable pain and suffering. These archaic methods should be replaced with newer, less painful identification technologies. When alternatives are not available or possible, the use of analgesics must be considered for branding.

No-one would ever accept that a cat or dog should endure burns, cuts or surgeries without any pain relief or veterinary support, and the same consideration must be made for other sentient animals. The regulations must mandate pain relief for any invasive procedure.

Flank Straps and other methods to make animals buck

Flank straps, electric prods, and any other methods used to make horses and cows buck for rodeo is unacceptable. It forces each animal into a state of fear, panic and pain. No animal should be forced into this state for any reason, and especially not for ‘entertainment’ or ‘sport’. This practice does not align with the cattle industries own best practice recommendations and must be prohibited.

The Department of Agriculture – the department charged with promoting animal agriculture (and facilitating its profitability), is the same department responsible for ensuring the welfare of farmed animals.

This is a gross conflict of interest that ultimately sees industry interests put ahead of the wellbeing of animals – resulting in codes and regulations that permit cruel acts when they heighten the production of the industry.

The establishment of an Independent Victorian Animal Welfare Authority will remove this glaring conflict of interest and be solely responsible for animal care and protection issues, making decisions that are first and foremost in the interests of all animals.