Animal Cruelty Laws in Australia - Criminal Defence Lawyers Australia

Share This Article

Animal mistreatment naturally provokes public outrage. New South Wales protects animals by prohibiting animal cruelty through more than one type of legislation. It is a crime that attracts criminal penalties including imprisonment and fines to unlawfully harm animals.

The key laws that criminalise animal cruelty are:

The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979 (NSW), and
The Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)

Both of the above laws prescribe maximum penalties but also provide for defences that could arise if a person is charged with an animal cruelty offence in New South Wales.

Table Of Contents

Which Animals Are Covered by NSW Animal Cruelty Laws?
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979
Serious Offences of Animal Cruelty Under The Crimes Act 1900
Who Can Prosecute Animal Cruelty Offences?
Report Animal Cruelty NSW

Which Animals Are Covered by NSW Animal Cruelty Laws?

Not all living creatures are covered by NSW animal cruelty laws, with legislation largely focusing on vertebrate species, which have a spine or backbone. This includes amphibians, birds, fish, mammals (including dogs, cats and rodents) as well as reptiles.

Invertebrates, such as insects, jellyfish and sponges are largely not covered by NSW animal cruelty laws. However, crustaceans, such as crabs and lobsters, may be covered if prepared for sale in restaurants or wet markets.

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979

Section 5 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979 (NSW) makes it an offence for a person in charge of an animal to commit an act of cruelty.

The offence of committing an act of cruelty to an animal you are in charge of carries a maximum penalty of a fine of $44,000 or imprisonment for 1 year or both for an individual, or a fine of $220,000 for a corporation.

A person is in charge of an animal if:

They are the owner of the animal; or
If the animal is in the person’s possession or custody, or under the person’s care, control or supervision; or
The animal is a stock animal confined to a sale yard and the person is the owner of the sale yard or the lessee of the sale yard.

The Act notes that a person in charge of an animal should:

exercise reasonable care, control or supervision of an animal to prevent the commission of an act of cruelty upon the animal,
where pain is being inflicted upon the animal, take such reasonable steps as are necessary to alleviate the pain, or
where it is necessary for the animal to be provided with veterinary treatment, whether or not over a period of time, to provide it with that treatment.

What is Animal Cruelty?

Animal cruelty is animal abuse cruelty which is broadly defined and includes a range of actions that cause unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering. Here is more on the consequences of committing animal cruelty in NSW.

Animal abuse is against the law. Specific acts that constitute cruelty include physical abuse, neglect, exposure to harmful conditions and mental abuse including such as terrifying or tormenting the animal. An offence will be made for ‘neglect’ if a person fails to meet the basic needs of an animal, such as providing food and shelter or reporting injuries.

Section 4(2) defines “Cruelty” as an act where an animal is unreasonably, unnecessarily, or unjustifiably:

Beaten, kicked, killed, wounded, pinioned, mutilated, maimed, abused, tormented, tortured, terrified or infuriated,
Over-loaded, over-worked, over-driven, over-ridden or over-used,
Exposed to excessive heat or excessive cold, or
Inflicted with pain.

An aggravated animal cruelty offence, outlined under section 6 of the Act, is when cruelty results in the death, serious deformity or disablement of the animal, or the animal being so severely injured, so diseased or in such physical condition that it is cruel to keep it alive. The offence carries a maximum penalty of a fine of $110,000 or imprisonment for 2 years or both for an individual, or a fine of $550,000 for a corporation.

Further specific offences under the Act include when a person in charge of an animal:

Fails to exercise a confined animal (under section 9 of the Act).
Fails to tether an animal at risk of harm (under section 10 of the Act).
Abandons an animal without proper care or supervision (under section 11 of the Act).
Performs prohibited procedures including tail docking, ear cropping, de-barking dogs, de-clawing cats, or branding the face of an animal, unless performed by a veterinarian for medical reasons (under section 12 of the Act).
Deliberately poisons a domestic animal (under section 15 of the Act).
Sells or otherwise trades animals that are severely injured or suffering from serious illness (under section 22 of the Act).

The maximum penalty for the offences above is a fine of $5,500 or imprisonment for 6 months or both for an individual, or a fine of $27,500 for a corporation.

Defence to animal cruelty for charges under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act include one or more of the following:

Ear marking, ear -tagging or branding the animal- if the animal is a stock animal and it does not involve firing or hot iron branding the animal’s face,
Castrating the animal- if the animal is a pig of less than 2 months old or a stock animal of less than 6 months old belonging to a class of animals comprising sheep, goat or cattle.
Dehorning the animal- if the animal is a goat of less than 1 month old or a stock animal of less than 1 year old belonging to a class of animals comprising cattle.
Tailing the animal- if the animal is a sheep of less than 6 months old.
Performing the mule’s operation on the animal- if the animal is a sheep of less than 1 year old.
Where you were authorised to hunt, shoot snare, trap, catch or capture the animal, or destroy or prepare the animal for the purposes of producing food for human consumption.
Destroying or preparing the animal for destruction in compliance with a religion prescribed for this, or in compliance with any duty imposed under the law.
Where you were authorised to carry out animal research or to supply animals for the use of animal research in compliance with the Animal Research Act 1985.
Where you release a live prey for a predatory animal where the diet of the predatory animal included animals of the kind you released. This applies if you believed on reasonable grounds that feeding live prey to the predatory animal was necessary for the predatory animal to survive because it would not eat a dead animal or meat from a dead animal.

Serious Offences of Animal Cruelty Under The Crimes Act 1900

There are two criminal offences under section 530 of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) dealing with serious animal cruelty in New South Wales.

Under section 530(1) of the Act, it is an offence for a person to intentionally inflict severe pain on an animal through methods such as torture, beating, or other serious acts of cruelty which result in the animal being killed, seriously injured or subject to prolonged suffering. This offence carries a maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment.

Under section 530(1A) of the Act, it is s further offence for a person to recklessly inflict severe pain on an animal through methods such as torture, beating, or other serious acts of cruelty, which result in the animal being killed, seriously injured or subject to prolonged suffering. This offence carries a maximum penalty of 3 years imprisonment.

Defences to Animal Cruelty Charges

A number of possible defences are available to animal cruelty offences in NSW, much of which deal with lawful activities which may cause pain or distress to animals.

Acts of cruelty or harm to an animal which occur as part of routine husbandry practices, hunting as well as food preparation are generally lawful if done in order to not inflict unnecessary pain. This can include religious specific forms of animal preparation such as slaughter methods for halal or kosher meat.

Approved animal research is an exemption to animal cruelty laws, as long as research complies with requirements under the Animal Research Act 1985 (NSW).

Finally, the suffering of a prey animal fed to a lawfully kept predatory animal will generally not give rise to animal cruelty offences if necessary to preserve the life of the predatory animal and dead prey is not an option.

Who Can Prosecute Animal Cruelty Offences?

Depending on the type of behaviour inflicted on the animal, offences for animal cruelty in NSW can be charged either under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979 or the Crimes Act 1900.

Commonly, such offending behaviour can be prosecuted by Police, or private prosecutions brought by bodies such as the RSPCA or Animal Welfare League (AWL).

The type of penalties a Judge or Magistrate can impose on offenders guilty of animal cruelty offences in NSW range from Full Time Imprisonment to section 10 dismissal.

See our page on the sentencing options in for an outline of all the penalty options in NSW that a Judge or Magistrate can impose for these offences.

For more on animal cruelty laws contact our office for legal advice from our criminal lawyers Sydney team.

Report Animal Cruelty NSW

You can report animal cruelty to the NSW Police force, or the RSPCA animal cruelty hotline on 1300 CRUELTY (1300 278 3589). It is important to, if you see this type of abuse, report animal cruelty to stop or prevent it from continuing to defenceless animals.

By Jarryd Bartle and Jimmy Singh.

Published on 16/09/2024