New Animal Protection Law for Victoria – Joint approach for Australia’s peak hunting organisations
Agriculture Victoria recently released a directions paper for a new Animal Welfare Act for Victoria to replace the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, which was written in 1986. This is the first formal consultation step in what will be a long process of development.
The replacement of the existing legislation provides a platform for a radical change to the way in which we live with animals. The current law is based around animal welfare. The proposed law will be based on the idea of animal rights.
Animal rights activists say that animal welfare and animal rights are the same thing. They are not. There is a gulf a mile wide between the two.
The progress of the animal rights’ movement has not occurred overnight. It is a good example of the observation made by a famous economist, John Maynard Keynes, in the 1930s
“I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas”
The foundation of animal rights is the proposition that human beings are not unique, that we are just another animal. To believe that humans are unique is 'speciesism' or 'discrimination' against species which do not belong to our species.
It’s a contention that animals are able to perceive or feel things and, therefore, that they have rights. Ultimately the same rights as humans.
The publicly acceptable version of these ‘rights’ have been summarised as the five freedoms:
- Freedom from hunger and thirst.
- Freedom from discomfort.
- Freedom from pain, injury and disease.
- Freedom to express normal behaviours.
- Freedom from fear and distress.