While animal cruelty claims via social media reach a wide audience, its use has made little contribution to reporting of animal cruelty claims.
According to Minister for Agriculture, Jaala Pulford, while the social media attracted a lot of attention, it had little impact on reporting levels.
“For three to four years before I took this area of government, and continuing today, there has been an increasing willingness by the industry to report alleged cruelty,” Ms Pulford said.
“There has been an increase in reporting to authorities, but that does not mean there has been an increase in actual occurrences of cruelty,” she said.
Ms Pulford said the Department was working to provide appropriate tools to all agencies involved in the management and enforcement of animal welfare.
She said the Animal Welfare Action Plan would modernise animal welfare legislation.
“This has been underway for some time and will continue for some time still,” she said.
The existing animal welfare laws had been around for nearly 35 years and the framework had become dated and needed a new look. Current animal welfare legislation made it difficult to trial some new technology.
The draft Animal Welfare Action Plan received more than 600 submissions from industry, she said.
The government was steadfast in recognising animal sentience in legislation, Ms Pulford said, with the previous lack of that recognition making it difficult to bring cases to court.
