Goudie Sandra: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Goudie Sandra: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:660;Page:9436] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 I am delighted to speak on the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill. I applaud my colleague the Hon David Carter the Minister of Agriculture for bringing this bill to the House. It is in support of an initiative of Simon Bridges the excellent member of Parliament for Tauranga. He is an outstanding young man who has a fantastic future ahead of him. 
This bill has been roundly applauded throughout New Zealand. I will mention some of the key people who have supported it. Bob Kerridge said that “It is time to recognise that cruelty to animals is a social sickness that is as heinous as any act of violence inflicted on fellow humans and the two are inextricably linked.” That is what Bob Kerridge said. He is the Auckland RSPCA executive officer he is well known and he represents the views of many people throughout New Zealand. The next person I will mention is David Jones QC. He said that “This [bill] would add to the effectiveness of animal welfare legislation and bring home to the public that animal cruelty is not acceptable.” This bill is by no means an interim measure. The third key person who has made a comment on this bill is Dr Wayne Ricketts from the Veterinary Association. What did he say? He said that he “backs increasing the maximum penalty for the wilful ill-treatment of animals.” He also said that “Light sentences send the wrong message to society about the responsibility of humans for the welfare of animals.” This bill has been roundly endorsed by a number of people but many more people support those very same views. The bill was also applauded by Robyn Kippenberger who is the National Chief Executive of the RSPCA. She said that “the move was long overdue especially as animal cruelty cases were increasing in number and severity.” 
I will outline a couple of these cases. They are very offensive incidents. This is not a very nice story but I will share it with members because if this type of person can do this to a kitten one has to wonder what level of cruelty he might inflict on family and friends around him. Last month in Auckland a man twisted off the head of a kitten in front of his young children. There was also the case of the man who fed live kittens to his pit bull dog and the case of the 33 dogs that were shot in a very inhumane way. There was the incident of the dog that was found drowned in Titahi Bay with a 10 kg weight tied round its neck. These are all heinous crimes against animals. These are serious cases of animal cruelty. By increasing the sentences we are sending a very clear message which should in turn help to deter people from acting in this way. 
Although we have had a lot of support for the introduction of this bill the Greens and Labour have been able to find some reason to be dissatisfied. Those members have said that there was no point in increasing the penalties for animal cruelty if no one would enforce them. 
Well of course the penalties will be enforced but those members say there is no point in increasing the penalties. [ 
Interruption 
] That is what they said. They are aware that extra funding will be put in and that there are people there to enforce the penalties. If those members were aware of what was going on they would know that lawyers are working pro bono to bring animal cruelty cases to court for conviction. I applaud those lawyers. I think it is a fantastic step in the right direction. I understand that other lawyers are looking to take up the challenge of doing pro bono work on animal cruelty cases so that people who commit the kinds of offences I have described—twisting off the head of a kitten in front of children—will be charged taken to court and be convicted. Under this Animal Welfare Amendment Bill those offenders will receive the sentences they rightly deserve which are more stringent than the sentences currently in place. This bill will send a very very strong message. 
The purpose of the bill is to increase the sentences for these horrifying incidents. In relation to wilful ill-treatment it raises the penalties for animal cruelty and neglect offences and it changes the way in which some offences are described. The offence of wilful ill-treatment of animals covers the most serious welfare offences. Under the Act as it stands it must be proved that a person intended to cause harm and the animal must be permanently disabled die or be destroyed to prevent further suffering. This bill expands the threshold for this offence to include cases where an animal is seriously injured or impaired. That will enable more cases of extreme cruelty to be prosecuted under this offence. An animal is seriously injured or impaired if the injury or impairment involves prolonged pain and suffering substantial risk of death loss of a body part or permanent or prolonged loss of a bodily function or requires treatment by or under the supervision of a veterinarian. 
The maximum penalty for wilful ill-treatment of animals will increase to 5 years’ imprisonment. The maximum will be 5 years and if that is not a deterrent to people who inflict cruelty upon animals I do not know what is. There is also a fine and the maximum will double to $100000 for an individual and $500000 for a body corporate. If that does not send a very strong message that good caring solid Kiwi New Zealanders who have animals in their care and look after them properly expect others to do the same then I do not know what will. Animals need to be cared for in a robust way. They need to be housed fed and watered. Dogs need to be taken for walks. We expect all of those sorts of things to occur. Every animal requires a different type of care but we except animals to receive the optimal care available. 
This bill creates a new offence of reckless ill-treatment of animals. This new offence will apply where it can be proved that a person knew or appreciated that serious harm to an animal could occur and unreasonably ran the risk of that happening. It is expected that cases would be prosecuted under this new offence when they otherwise failed to meet the threshold for wilful ill-treatment. Until now there has been no choice but to prosecute these cases under a lesser ill-treatment charge which resulted in inappropriate sentencing and the wrong message being sent to offenders that animal welfare offending is not serious. That is the great thing about this bill; we are sending a very clear message and it has been roundly endorsed throughout New Zealand. The penalties for this offence will be a maximum of 3 years’ imprisonment and fines may be imposed of up to $75000 for an individual or $350000 for a body corporate. 
There are other offences. The court may disqualify a person from having custody of animals and may order the forfeiture of animals. 
Those are some of the key points of this bill. Most New Zealanders expect people to care for the animals in their charge. They want them to be healthy comfortable and properly fed and to have a reasonable standard of care and humane treatment. They expect that they will not suffer unnecessarily. This bill is a great step forward. It is not an interim measure. It will provide outcomes and will act as a strong deterrent to anyone ill-treating animals.