Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697632790621.pdf (Australia)
Submission – Criminal Code Amendment ( Agricultural Protection ) Bill 2019 I am writing this submission as a 60 year old woman who has empathy for others and I am becoming increasingly concerned about systemic animal cruelty in animal agriculture in Australia.

The suffering to individual animals, and on such a grand scale in intensive factory farms in the name of profit is beyond barbaric.
It is 2019 and to accept that any animal can live their entire existence confined in a cage and deprived of the ability to perform natural bodily functions such as turning around and call it legal is morally wrong .Just because something is legal does not mean it is morally right or that it has a social licence.

To treat compassionate caring people who want to expose these wrongs and bring them to the light of day as criminals is plain wrong.
But this bill wants to take the law to another level and not only make the actions of these kind-hearted people somehow even more criminal but also I believe inhibit free speech.

5 years jail time for inciting an activity is more than some people have served for murder.

I urge you not to pass this bill.


Hens in battery cages who live their entire miserable lives in a space the size of an A4 piece of paper; who can never stretch their wings; who never even have the ability to touch solid ground, ( as they perpetually stand/lay on wire); who never breathe fresh air or feel the warmth of the sun; their bodies sexual organs abused until they are spent; then so often roughly handled as they are transported to their gruesome death.
There has been footage of hens from this industry being brutally treated and taken by caring people concerned about mistreatment of animals.

And day old male chicks who are considered waste as they cannot lay eggs are minced up alive or suffocated to death and this is considered not only legal but humane.

When profits are involved animal welfare always takes a back seat.

Even allowing acceptable levels of dead and dying animals leaves these tragic lives as just merely a figure to be reported.
Their life had absolutely no value whatsoever other than profit.

But their lives matter to them and their lives matter to me.

The Australian Pork industry itself said they were phasing out sow stalls by 2017 but they have not.

Pigs can spend up to 115 days in a sow stall (a cage so confining that it is the same length and width as the average female pig.)

These poor animals cannot even turn around.


Please give that some thought for a moment - being trapped in a metal device so that you cannot even turn your body for almost 4 months.

And you are lying on cold often wet concrete and getting pressure sores into the bargain.

Then the pigs go from the sow stall to the farrowing crate where again they can't even turn around and are denied access and the ability to nurture their young.
Their next stop is to a mating stall where they are confined again so that they can have their sexual organs manipulated to start the whole viscious circle all over again.

This is not a life but misery for every single one of these poor female pigs.

Then there are Boar stalls where the boars also live a miserable life of confinement, only to be let out when his sexual organs are needed.

Their lives have absolutely no value other than profit.

But their lives matter to them and their lives matter to me.
Ducks in intensive duck farming facilities are denied access to water so that they can clean themselves.

Have you heard the saying " like a duck to water" only they are denied this very basic need.

They can’t groom or clean themselves something that I would have thought in itself would cause a biosecurity risk.
If you are concerned about biosecurity then you should be concerned about keeping animals in these Criminal Code Amendment (Agricultural Protection) Bill 2019 [Provisions]Submission 39 living conditions where the stench of faeces and ammonia is high.

You should also be concerned about workers having to work in these conditions.

Ducks are born to fly and wade on water, but they are denied both these instinctive and basic requirements.

Their lives have absolutely no value other than profit.
But their lives matter to them and their lives matter to me.

Most people think that dairy cows live an idyllic life on a farm with rolling green hills.

As with all advertising in the animal agriculture sector where happy farm animals are depicted romping around the fields this could not be further from the truth.

Look a little closer and you will see that these farms too are nothing more than intensive animal agriculture where profit comes before the basic needs of the cows.
The females spend their lives being exploited for the milk meant for their babies, their tender breasts pumped twice daily.

I drive past a dairy regularly and the condition of some of these poor cows with ribs and hips protruding and their heads down in despondency is heartbreaking to see.

And even more heartbreaking is seeing the baby calves being born only to be roughly torn away from their mother on the same day.
For nine long months she has waited for her calf and she doesn’t even get to spend one day with them.

The male calves are carted off within their first week of life and killed merely because they are considered a waste product.

Many female calves who will not join a herd are also killed.
And if you are a female calf to survive thus far you get to go through the same cycle of abuse and deprivation year in and year out as your ailing mother whose bodies are spent at the age of approximately 5 years, rather than a normal lifespan of 25 years.

Their lives mattered not to the farmers but their lives matter to them and their lives matter to me.

I could go on and on about the standard, routine, legal, yet cruel, barbaric and morally wrong treatment of animals in animal agriculture.
Then there are the breaches of the archaic laws that are supposed to protect these poor animals.

And the fact that from a young age we are bombarded with the propaganda and spin of an industry in denial.
An industry that is also in denial about the effects of animal agriculture on climate change; being the primary cause of land clearing and deforestastion on the east coast of Australia; about it’s contribution to droughts and the lack of rain, its contribution to dead zones and to polluting the waters of the Great Barrier Reef; its unsustainable use of resources such as water, using grain to feed animals that could feed the starving, decimating our natural ecosystems and wildlife causing species extinction and pollution from all the waste and excrement.
Why should this industry be treated any differently from any other.

If this industry was accountable for their own actions, not propped up by taxpayer funds, and transparent about how they go about their business then there would simply be no need for members of the community to be concerned.

There would be no need for animal activists.


Instead of giving up their valuable free time to right wrongs, they could simply get on with enjoying their lives as is all they want for other species of animals, to have a quality of life and not just be considered a unit of stock with monetary value but a living feeling being.

Is this so hard to understand?


I do not know of any activity by animal activists where any person has been harmed or any property has been damaged or any biosecurity incidents have occurred.
In all the photos I have seen depicted in the media of animal activists at rural properties Criminal Code Amendment (Agricultural Protection) Bill 2019 [Provisions]Submission 39 they are wearing biohazard suits and appear to be taking extreme care not to cause any biosecurity breaches as the animals are their main concern.

Whereas with farmers the main concern is their profit.

There is no transparency in these industries.


How can consumers make informed decisions when animal agriculture industries operate under a veil of secrecy and deception.

When these industries produce false and misleading advertising campaigns displaying happy animals prancing off to their death with glee and joyfully jumping into a nugget to be consumed in one gulp.
When these industries change names to make it more palatable to the public, like pork/bacon instead of pig flesh, or drumsticks instead of the delicate leg of a dead sentient chicken, or the word process instead of slaughter.
To each and every one of you on this committee I implore you for a moment to just think if you were one of these individual animals, ( and don't forget we too are animals) confined for your entire life in a cage or crowded shed, living a miserable life without being able to stretch or exercise, without fresh air to breath and without the warmth of the sun on your skin, dead and dying bodies amongst the living, having your body parts removed without painkillers, having your body denied basic necessities and natural behaviours, let alone any enjoyment in life, would you not want someone, somewhere to be looking out for you?
Would you not want someone on a carriage service enlightening others about your plight.

Would you not want someone speaking on your behalf and seeking change to a better and kinder way of living.

That is exactly what compassionate animal activists are doing, they are concerned about this socially unacceptable treatment of animals that is happening on a massive scale.

And it is happening behind closed doors and without scrutiny.

Cruelty to any animal is not acceptable and our laws need to catch up.
Just because something is legal does not make it morally right.

If caring citizens who are concerned about animal welfare don't expose these horrors that are happening in intensive farming facilities, in feedlots and in abbottoirs across Australia then who is going to expose them.
If the agriculture industry was transparent, had CCTV footage in facilities which was publicly available; if laws were just; and if animals were not being harmed in the most horrific ways there would simply be no need for animal activists to trespass and to expose these injustices.

They are doing so because authorities are doing nothing.
Farmers are a vital part of the community but they also need to be sustainable and Government should be helping them to transition to more sustainable methods of farming and to methods that don’t involve cruelty to animals or destruction to our environment.
We also have our iconic koalas already classified as vulnerable and heading towards extinction and I have seen first hand how there is absolutely no legal protection of their habitat on private land and have had koalas fleeing onto my property from a logging operation.

I have seen Forestry Corp not checking for koalas on public land and their forest homes being destroyed by logging all encouraged by government.
Criminal Code Amendment (Agricultural Protection) Bill 2019 [Provisions]Submission 39 This Government is leaving it to kind and caring community members to make a stance because they are not protecting the environment or our diminishing wildlife.

These actions are taking place because of the inaction by authorities.
Like with inaction on Climate Change; the Great Barrier Reef and Adani; CSG operations and drilling for oil in sensitive areas; water mining and allocations; overfishing; pollution caused by factory farming; whaling in our waters; you cannot stop members of the community, who also include farmers and who are also tax payers from speaking up, peacefully protesting and having their say in a supposed democratic society.
And also acting as whilstleblowers when they see an injustice; when they see environmental destruction; when they see species extinction; when they see unchecked cruelty; when they see a culture of abuse; when they see unthinkable pain and suffering.

If it were not for whistleblowers the live-baiting in the Greyhound Racing Industry would not have come to light.
If it were not for whistleblowers the shocking conditions on live export ships and the barbaric treatment these poor animals are subjected to in foreign countries would not have come to light.

I have praise for anyone who reveals abuse on farms, or destruction to the environment.

We already have trespass laws that allow for prosecution of people that break the law.
We already have laws for theft of property and damage to property so why is there any need for special treatment for animal activists, whistleblowers and caring members of the community who only want to make a difference and see a kinder more compassionate world.

It costs nothing to be kind.

Susie Hearder Criminal Code Amendment (Agricultural Protection) Bill 2019 [Provisions]Submission 39