Kedgley Sue: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — Procedure In Committee 
Kedgley Sue: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — Procedure In Committee 
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SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 I will perhaps make one last intervention. I probably should not try to respond to the previous speaker David Garrett but I will make a number of comments. The point that I and others have tried to make is that if the member looks at the facts he would see that only 10 people in the history of New Zealand have ever been jailed for animal cruelty. Furthermore for the past 10 years we have had 3-year jail sentences to give to people who have been prosecuted for animal cruelty but barely anyone has gone to jail and certainly nobody has gone to jail for the full 3 years. If we look at the facts we see that simply adding yet more sentences will not result in greater prosecutions. 
I have already pointed out that the best thing that the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill does and why we are very pleased to support it is that it makes it easier to prosecute. It introduces a new category that makes it easier to prosecute for which reason we are extremely pleased to support this bill. Furthermore we are pleased that the Government has seen fit to increase the number of inspectors. The simple fact is that it does not matter how many years we say we will put people into jail for if there are only five inspectors in New Zealand able to bring about prosecutions virtually nobody will ever be prosecuted. That has been the reality. 
It is good that at last we are addressing the issue seriously. We are doubling the number of inspectors who will be able to bring about prosecutions and we are giving some greater support to the SPCA which does valiant work. It takes 90 percent of the prosecutions even though 60 percent of its workers are volunteers and at least 50 percent of them work only part-time. Against all the odds the SPCA has to scratch around and have cake stalls to raise funds. It is the only enforcement agency in New Zealand that is a charitable organisation and has to run around baking cakes etc. to try to pay for itself. We hope that the SPCA will be better supported in its valiant work as a result of the new Budget initiative made by the Minister of Agriculture. 
The real issue we should be addressing and which I have talked about is the fact that there is a double standard in New Zealand. This bill reinforces that double standard. It addresses individual acts of cruelty and completely ignores and turns a blind eye to the serious animal cruelty that takes place through institutional cruelty to animals. 
I will mention one further matter in this debate. One submitter argued that veterinarians should be obliged to report suspected cases of animal abuse. He said that this would be an incredibly effective way of monitoring animal abuse and that it would make the legislation much more effective. I thought that it was a very interesting proposal. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry rejected the submitter’s proposal. It said that under the code of conduct vets were already supposed to do this. But then it pointed out that the problem is that even though veterinarians are supposed to intervene when they become aware of animals suffering and are supposed to report the case to the ministry the fact is that they are not legally protected from the potential consequences of making an animal welfare complaint about a client. 
I think that we ought to look at that issue. The reality is that if veterinarians did what their code suggests which is to take action if they see animals suffering unreasonably then veterinarians would be leading the campaign to get rid of sow crates and battery hen cages in New Zealand. Instead of being completely silent and complicit in this issue veterinarians would be leading the charge. The problem is I guess that if a veterinarian pointed out some of the reality of what happens to sows locked up in cages he or she would have no legal protection as the ministry points out. I presume that client capture is the reason why so many veterinarians are silent about these practices. 
Clauses 1 to 10 agreed to. 
Bill reported without amendment. 
Report adopted.