Carter David: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Carter David: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:660;Page:9073] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (Minister of Agriculture) 
: 
 I move  
That the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I intend to move that the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill be considered by the Primary Production Committee that the select committee present its final report on or before 30 April 2010 and that the committee have authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting except during oral questions and during any evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House despite Standing Orders 187 and 190(1)(b) and (c). Two weeks ago I announced that the Government would adopt and prioritise a member’s bill being advanced by the member of Parliament for Tauranga Simon Bridges. This bill seeks to raise the penalties for animal cruelty offences and redefine the way some offences are described. It sends a clear message that serious offending against animals is unacceptable in our society. I would like to thank the member for Tauranga for bringing this important issue to the attention of the House. 
This Government considers it vitally important that New Zealand’s animal welfare standards promote better welfare outcomes for animals. Most New Zealanders expect the animals in people’s care to be healthy comfortable and properly fed. We expect animals to receive a reasonable standard of humane treatment and not to suffer unnecessarily. These expectations have been steadily increasing over recent years. Despite this there has been a disturbing increase in the number and seriousness of animal-cruelty incidents. New Zealanders have been shocked by recent cases such as the drunk man who twisted the head off the family kitten in front of his family and the vicious attack on a herd of cattle where the hindquarters of one cow were hacked off and another cow received serious slash wounds. People who are capable of such cruelty to animals are also capable of violence to their families and others. 
Curbing animal cruelty is a priority for this Government and this Animal Welfare Amendment Bill sits alongside a range of initiatives I have under way to improve compliance with animal welfare laws. Under the Act as it stands “wilful ill-treatment” covers the most serious welfare offences. For this offence to apply it must be proved that a person intended to cause harm. The ill-treatment has to be extremely serious resulting in permanent disability death or destruction of the animal in order to prevent further suffering. The bill will expand the threshold for this offence to include cases where an animal is “seriously injured or impaired”. This will allow prosecutors to handle cases more appropriately where suffering is extreme but the existing criteria for a section 28 wilful ill-treatment offence cannot be met on technical grounds. 
The bill also adds a new offence of “reckless ill-treatment” to the Act. This new offence will sit between the existing “wilful ill-treatment” and lesser “ill-treatment” offences. It 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. I expect cases will be prosecuted under this new offence when they would otherwise fail to meet the threshold for wilful ill-treatment. Until now there has been no choice but to prosecute these cases on a lesser ill-treatment charge resulting in inappropriate sentencing and the wrong message being sent to offenders that animal welfare offending is not serious. 
I would now like to focus on the main part of the bill—the penalties for animal welfare offences. The existing maximum term of imprisonment for wilful ill-treatment of an animal is 3 years. The bill increases this term to 5 years. This amendment will give a stronger message to potential offenders that animal welfare offending is not acceptable. The fines for wilful ill-treatment will also increase. The maximum fine will double from $50000 to $100000 for an individual and from $250000 to $500000 for a body corporate. The penalty for reckless ill-treatment of an animal will be a maximum of 3 years’ imprisonment. In addition an individual may face fines of up to $75000 and a body corporate may face fines of up to $350000 for this type of offending. 
There are a range of other neglect and ill-treatment offences in the Act and the penalties for these offences will also be increased. Penalties for offences such as failure to meet the physical health and behavioural needs of an animal; ill-treatment of an animal; and aiding or assisting in animal fighting ventures will be increased in line with the revised penalties for the more serious offences of wilful and reckless ill-treatment. The penalties on conviction of these offences will double—up to 12 months’ imprisonment and/or a fine not exceeding $50000 for an individual and a fine not exceeding $250000 for a body corporate. 
This is not a long bill but I would like to outline some further measures it contains. Under the Act as it stands persons who are disqualified from owning an animal may apply to the courts to own animals again. They may do so a mere 12 months after the date that they lost the right to own an animal. This is a particular problem in the companion animal area where disqualified persons regularly reapply to own animals. The bill proposes to enable the court to set a minimum review period of its own choosing. During this period the disqualified person may not apply for the right to own an animal. If the court does not set a minimum review period the default period will be 2 years. The bill also proposes to enable the court to order the forfeiture of any or all animals owned by someone convicted of a serious animal-welfare offence where it considers this necessary to protect the welfare of animals owned by an offender. 
This bill emphasises that New Zealand society does not tolerate animal-welfare crimes. The Animal Welfare Act is renowned as being progressive and comprehensive legislation. We can be proud that we are judged favourably by our trading partners and the international community. This bill will help to ensure that New Zealand maintains this well-deserved reputation. I commend the bill to the House.