NSW Parliament has finally passed laws to outlaw unregulated dog breeding!
In the second reading debate on the bill, Abigail said:
As The Greens spokesperson for animal welfare, I contribute to debate in support of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Amendment (Puppy Farming) Bill 2024. Thirteen years ago, Oscar was rescued from a life of cruel neglect, disease, malnourishment and extreme psychological trauma, having known nothing other than the life he had endured in a puppy factory. Four years ago, Strawberry was not even one year old when she died a slow and painful death after enduring a horrific birthing process that caused days of immense pain after her pups died and began rotting inside her until she literally rotted to death, all while her breeders refused to give her veterinary care, even in her dying days and hours. Those are the stories of just two publicly known dogs from among the countless numbers who have endured unimaginable pain and suffering, been exploited and discarded, their lives and worth reduced to nothing more than breeding machines for profit.
We would not be here today, finally taking steps to crack down on the unethical breeding practices and sale of dogs in New South Wales, without the decades of tireless, dedicated and passionate advocacy of countless animal welfare advocates, rescuers, organisations and activist groups fighting to end puppy farms across Australia. I thank the passionate and dedicated team at Oscar's Law for leading the fight for a compassionate future for animals. It is their work that laid the foundation upon which we stand today—that has made it possible for us to finally see these laws introduced in New South Wales. However, these laws are far from perfect. There is always more work to do. I look forward to continuing to work together for the better welfare of dogs and puppies in years to come.
I also thank the countless animal advocacy organisations and their expert volunteers and workers who every day dedicate their lives to making the world a better place for animals, and who have fought, and will no doubt continue to fight, long and hard to end puppy farming in every Australian jurisdiction. To name just a few, I thank Animals Australia, Animal Liberation, Four Paws Australia, Humane Society International, Sentient, Animal Defenders Office, and all of the incredible animal rescue and rehoming groups across our communities. I thank every single person who over the years has signed petitions, written to politicians, raised awareness in their communities and participated in inquiries. Their voices have been heard. Together, we will not stop fighting for animals.
Of course, while we pass this bill into law and celebrate a historic win that will reduce suffering for dogs by keeping them out of unregulated industrial-scale breeding facilities, we cannot overlook what it has taken to get here and how incredibly far we still have to go. In 2021 I participated in the Select Committee on Puppy Farming in New South Wales, alongside the Hon. Emma Hurst. We heard from a wide range of community members, scientific experts, industry participants and advocates about the state of dog breeding in our State. It was a crucial step forward in highlighting just how unregulated puppy farming is in New South Wales. We produced a final report with a strong set of recommendations, many of which are still to be completed, even once this bill passes Parliament.
Puppy farming has already been outlawed in Victoria, Western Australia and more recently in South Australia. Mandatory breeding registration has been in place for several years in the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia. Unfortunately, across each of those jurisdictions there are murky and muddled differences in breeding caps, caps on how many dogs a breeder can have on their premises, whether or not they apply to both cats and dogs, lifetime birthing limits, staffing ratios and welfare standards. All of that leaves gaps and loopholes for breeders to exploit. As a result, dogs continue suffering varying degrees of exploitation and cruelty depending on where they are.
When Victoria first passed legislation to stamp out puppy farming, we saw breeders pick up their business and move across the border to New South Wales, where under our weak and outdated laws they were permitted to continue profiting from exploitation and selling puppies to unsuspecting buyers. The 2021 select committee heard alarming evidence about that. New South Wales has increasingly become a magnet for dodgy breeders to seek haven in, because of our inadequate regulatory framework. We need to ensure that this is no longer possible anywhere in Australia, which can only be done by ensuring strong and consistent regulatory frameworks across all jurisdictions.
When compared with other jurisdictions, as well as the best practice understood by experts and advocates, the bill in its current form has several concerning shortfalls. Unlike the laws in Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, the bill does not include kitten breeders. Kitten farming is not only as cruel, unregulated and out of control as puppy farming, but it is a core driver of the unsustainable and damaging number of cats in our pounds and on our streets. The focus should be on encouraging the adoption of as many cats already needing a home as possible. Continuing to allow unrestrained kitten farming is a shockingly irresponsible oversight. Unfortunately the Government has expressed no ambition to fix that as this stage. I note that there will thankfully be an inquiry looking into the issue of cats as companion animals and more broadly.
I also note that this bill pales in comparison with the bill introduced earlier this year by the Hon. Emma Hurst, which drew heavily from her bill that passed this House in 2022 with the support of The Greens and the New South Wales Labor Party, which was then in opposition. The bill closely followed the Victorian legislation to propose a robust framework for outlawing puppy and kitten farming, regulating breeding practices and improving welfare standards for cats and dogs. Had the Labor Government supported that robust piece of legislation this year, there would be no need for the lukewarm bill we are debating today.
The bill has no categorisation or consideration of the nuances between the different types of dog breeders, like microbreeders and recreational breeders, and the different levels of scrutiny needed for each, which is recognised in Victoria. The bill also has a concerningly high maximum number of 20 fertile female dogs that can be kept on a premises. Compare that with the maximum of 10 in Victoria, unless the person applies for a commercial exemption which has several additional scrutiny measures, including thorough inspections and audits.
One of The Greens' key concerns is the 10-year grandfathering exemption for existing breeders to continue operating with up to 50 female dogs until 1 December 2035. The application of that exemption will be overseen and approved by a delegate of the Office of Local Government, with very little scrutiny apart from an annual report to be provided to the Office of Local Government. There is no consideration of how approved exemption holders will be tracked or measured to ensure they are making any effort to reduce the number of female dogs to 20 by the end of the 10 years. The Greens will be moving amendments in the Committee stage in an attempt to rein that in slightly and limit the exemption to cover only initial dogs on the premises, rather than allowing those with an exemption to sell and buy additional dogs in excess of the 20-dog limitation without bothering to try to reduce overall numbers.
The bill introduces a lifetime breeding cap of a maximum of five births per female dog and three caesarean deliveries, which I note is slightly higher than in the Australian Capital Territory, where there is a maximum of four litters and two caesarean deliveries. I also note that the bill does not prohibit breeding where heritable defects are detected, nor does it include any requirements for genetic testing guidelines, which are currently in place in Victoria. The Greens support the provision in the bill to mandate compliance with the Animal Welfare Code of Practice: Breeding Dogs and Cats. However, it is concerning that this will not commence until 1 December 2029.
The Minister has indicated that the department is in the process of reviewing and updating the current code, which is incredibly outdated and lacks a robust framework for requiring dog and cat breeders to comply with modern animal welfare practices that align with scientific evidence and community expectations. This bill could very well have included a provision to require the code to be updated within a specific time frame, such as within two or three years. Unfortunately, without such a requirement, there is no guarantee that this review will occur in a timely manner. I urge the Government to expedite this process with the urgency it requires.
Another significant omission from the bill is any restriction on where pet shops source their animals. We have seen notable improvement in Victoria since it prohibited pet shops from selling cats and dogs that are not from a registered pound or shelter, and prohibited breeders from operating pet shops. However, we also know that many of those breeders have brought their business to New South Wales. In the absence of regulation in New South Wales, puppy farmers across the country will continue to use our pet shops to sell animals. The Greens also have serious concerns about the exemption of racing greyhounds, dogs bred by an animal research authority, dogs bred for the purpose of being assistance animals, and the exemption of working dogs from obtaining a breeder identification number.
While these laws are critical, their passage will result in an increased workload for the approved charitable organisations [ACOs], the RSPCA and the Animal Welfare League, which are already overburdened and underfunded. The mere fact that we require charities to enforce our animal cruelty laws and oversee animal welfare and protection, while simultaneously providing them with incredibly low and unsustainable scraps of funding, is quite frankly absurd. For years we have relied on these organisations to carry out vital frontline work that comes with tremendous difficulties and requires dedicated expertise. When they struggle to do so or when positive animal welfare outcomes are not being achieved, the blame is placed entirely on those organisations and their inspectors.
Just weeks ago, the New South Wales Labor Government finally announced that it will be continuing to categorically underfund our ACOs, providing the RSPCA with a mere $12.5 million enforcement funding package and the Animal Welfare League NSW with a mere $1.2 million. That comes after leaving those organisations in the dark for months about whether or not they will be able to meet the costs required to carry out the bare minimum enforcement work of their inspectorate. If we are to continue relying on those charities to carry out such critical work, including the significant work that the passage of this bill will undoubtedly require in the coming years, we must properly resource them to do so.
Puppy farms are just one symptom of the profit-hungry, commodified society that we live in, which is built upon the commercialisation of exploitation and suffering, and prescribes a certain value to animal and human lives. One of the strengths at the core of the global animal justice movement that links us with other social movements is the shared understanding that animals under capitalism will, just like us humans, always be considered as products and not as the unique, sentient beings that we all are. That understanding fuels our fight for animals every day as we work towards a better world by unpicking the structural conditions that permit and perpetuate animal cruelty, neglect and exploitation in the pursuit of profit. Whether it be fighting to end puppy and kitten farming, shutting down greyhound racing and horseracing, taking down intensive animal agriculture, or ending the needless slaughter of animals to use their body parts for fashion, each day we are fighting to dismantle the systems that rely on injustice and thrive on suffering.
I thank the Minister, her office and the department for working collaboratively and transparently with my office throughout this process, which I hope will continue as these laws commence in their various stages. The Greens will be closely scrutinising the implementation of these laws, especially in relation to the 10-year exemption, and we will not hesitate to hold the Government to account for the outcomes it produces. This is by no means the end of the fight to end puppy farming, nor does it come close to introducing the changes that we desperately need to overhaul our animal welfare framework, but it signals a key step forward in working towards nationwide consistency, where puppy farming is truly outlawed and no jurisdiction leaves regulatory black holes for breeders to continue operating.
In bringing forward this long-awaited reform that The Greens have championed for decades, Labor has the opportunity to deliver bold and transformational change for animals. But, as we have seen several times through this term of Parliament, it is clear that animals are not a high priority for this Government. I urge the Labor Government to use this as an opportunity to take far bolder action for the countless animals whose lives depend on it. The Greens will not stop fighting for all animals, to comprehensively end all forms of cruel and unethical animal breeding and to build a world where animals are valued for their inherent value and not as products.