Purpose:

The purpose of this legislation is to promote animal welfare by recognising animals as sentient beings with intrinsic value, ensuring their proper and humane care, management, and treatment, and deterring and preventing animal cruelty, abuse, and neglect through enforcement of laws.

Objectives:

• Recognise that animals are sentient beings that are able to subjectively feel and perceive the world around them.
• Recognise that animals have intrinsic value and deserve to be treated with compassion and have a quality of life that reflects their intrinsic value.
• Recognise that people have a duty to care for the physical and mental welfare of animals.
• Promote and protect the welfare of animals.
• Provide for the proper and humane care, management and treatment of animals.
• Deter and prevent animal cruelty and the abuse and neglect of animals.
• Enforce laws about animal welfare, care, management, treatment, cruelty, abuse, and neglect.

Key Provisions:

• Prohibition and penalties for various animal welfare offences, including failure to provide appropriate care, cruelty, unlawful confinement, abandoning animals, administering or laying poison, use of electrical devices, use or possession of prohibited items, inappropriate transport, intensive breeding contraventions, using unfit animals, violent animal activities, rodeos, game parks, and greyhound racing.
• Regulations for medical and surgical procedures performed on animals by veterinary practitioners and other persons.
• Framework for the approval and implementation of codes of practice, including mandatory codes, related to animal welfare, covering areas like care and use of animals for scientific purposes, rural industry, intensive farming, and livestock transport.
• Licensing and regulation requirements for pet businesses, including pet shops and animal boarding facilities.
• Licensing and authorisation framework for using or breeding animals for research or teaching, overseen by the Animal Welfare Authority and animal ethics committees.
• Regulations and permits for circuses with animals and travelling zoos, including prohibitions on specific animal types.
• Control and permitting system for animal trapping, prohibiting steel-jawed and other prescribed traps.
• Provisions for regulatory action against approved persons holding licences or permits, including the imposition of conditions, suspension, or cancellation of approvals.
• Enforcement powers for inspectors and authorised officers, including entry, search, seizure of animals, and issuing directions.
• Provisions for compensation for animal injury or death caused by an officer’s malice or negligence during function exercise.
• Establishment of an Animal Welfare Advisory Committee to advise the Minister and other bodies on animal welfare matters.
• Power to make regulations for various aspects of animal care, husbandry, and use.

Evidence of Compliance Requirements For Agricultural Organisations:

• General Animal Care: A person in charge of an animal must provide appropriate food, water, treatment for illness/disease/injury (including preventative and veterinary treatment if reasonable), shelter/accommodation, a clean and hygienic living environment, grooming and maintenance (to prevent injury, pain, stress or death), appropriate exercise (for dogs, not confined for a continuous 24 hours without 2 hours of exercise, or 1 hour immediately and another hour in the next 24-hour period), and appropriate opportunities to display normal behaviour (Sections 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F).
• Accommodation Standards for Commercial Laying Fowls: Persons keeping laying fowls for commercial egg production must keep them in accommodation that is in accordance with, or an improvement on, the conditions stated in the Eggs (Labelling and Sale) Regulation 2019 for aviary, barn, or free-range eggs (Section 9A).
• Accommodation Standards for Pigs: Persons keeping pigs must provide accommodation that allows the pig to turn around, stand up and lie down without difficulty, have a clean, comfortable, and adequately drained place to lie down, maintain a comfortable temperature, have outdoor access, and if more than one pig, allows each to lie down at the same time and see another pig (unless isolated on veterinary advice or during farrowing: a week before or during) (Section 9B).
• Fowl Beak Trimming Prohibition: A person must not remove or trim the beak of a fowl, unless it is a veterinary practitioner doing so for a therapeutic purpose (Section 9C).
• Assisting Injured Animals: A person who injures an animal must take reasonable steps to assist with the animal’s injury (e.g., contacting a relevant person, seeking veterinary treatment). If a person injures a mammal and is not in charge of it, they must notify a relevant person (person in charge, the Animal Welfare Authority, an inspector, or Access Canberra) within 2 hours of the injury, stating that the animal is injured and its location (Section 10).
• Preventing Animal Escape: A person in charge of an animal kept on premises must take steps to stop the animal escaping the premises (Section 11).
• Intensive Breeding Standards: Persons in charge of female cats or dogs allowed to breed must comply with any breeding standard determined by the Minister (a disallowable instrument that may cover minimum age for first mating, age/number of litters for retirement, maximum litters in periods/lifetime). Written approval from a veterinary surgeon can provide an exception (Section 15B).
• Medical and Surgical Procedures: Persons who are not veterinary practitioners must not carry out medical or surgical procedures on an animal unless it is a prophylactic procedure by a vet’s direction, or an accepted animal husbandry practice related to farming and grazing activities, or the removal of a dog’s dewclaws not later than 4 days after birth, or conducted in accordance with a licence/authorisation (Section 19). Veterinary practitioners must not perform certain procedures (e.g., tail docking, ear cropping, clitoridectomy) for non-therapeutic purposes or carry out any cosmetic procedures (Section 19A).
• Compliance with Mandatory Codes of Practice: Where a mandatory code of practice applies, persons must comply with its requirements (Section 24B). An inspector or authorised officer may issue a written direction to rectify a breach, stating the breached requirement, the conduct constituting the breach, what must be done, who must do it, and a reasonable time within which the person must provide evidence of compliance (Section 24C). Failure to comply with such a direction is an offence (Section 24D). These codes may cover “animal welfare in rural industry,” “transport of livestock,” and “livestock and poultry slaughtering establishments” (Section 21).
• Pet Business Licensing and Record Keeping (if applicable): Businesses that buy or sell animals as pets (pet shops) must keep a record of the full name and contact details of the person who sold the animal, and for animals bought from a breeding licence holder, the breeding licence number (Section 24P). These records must be available for inspection by the Animal Welfare Authority within 7 days of a request (Section 24Q). Operating a pet business (which includes businesses that board animals) requires a pet business licence (Section 24R), and licensed businesses must comply with all licence conditions (Section 24S).
• Licensing and Authorisation for Research/Teaching: A licence is required to use or breed animals for research or teaching (Section 25). Licensees and authorisation holders must notify the Animal Welfare Authority or animal ethics committee in writing of any change of name or address within 14 days after the change (Section 33, Section 45). They must also provide any requested information or documents reasonably needed for the exercise of functions under the Act (Section 31, Section 43). Identity cards for authorisation holders must be shown to an authorised officer upon request and returned to the animal ethics committee within 7 days after the authorisation ends (Section 42).
• Trapping Permits and Prohibitions: Setting a trap generally requires a trapping permit (Section 62). Steel-jawed traps or prohibited traps must not be set or possessed (Section 60). Trapping permit-holders must notify the Animal Welfare Authority in writing of any change of name or address within 14 days after the change (Section 70). Compliance with trapping permit conditions is required (Section 65).
• Regulatory Action Compliance: An approved person (holder of a licence, authorisation, or permit) whose approval is amended, suspended, or cancelled must return the approval to the regulatory body (Animal Welfare Authority or animal ethics committee) as soon as practicable, but no later than 7 days after being given notice of the decision (Section 73G). Compliance with temporary prohibition orders on animal ownership, keeping, caring for, or controlling animals is required (Section 86E).
• Cooperation with Enforcement: Persons must take reasonable steps to comply with requirements from inspectors (e.g., providing assistance) (Section 82). Persons must provide personal details (full name, home address, date of birth) to inspectors or authorised officers upon direction (Sections 82A, 84AA).

Metadata Keywords:

Animal Welfare, Australian Capital Territory, Agriculture, Livestock, Animal Cruelty, Animal Husbandry, Farm Animals, Licensing, Regulatory Compliance, Animal Ethics

Publication Information:

Republication No 34 Effective: 15 May 2025 Republication date: 15 May 2025 Last amendment made by A2024-11

Agricultural Industry Alignment:

Beef & Veal, Chicken, Eggs, Fisheries, Pig, Sheep Meat

Date Added to database:

This document was parsed and added to the database on 25-07-2025

URL:

https://www.legislation.act.gov.au/DownloadFile/a/1992-45/current/PDF/1992-45.PDF →