08 March 2015

Committee Secretary Senate Standing Committees on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600

Dear Committee Members,

I wish to make a submission in support of the Criminal Code Amendment (Animal Protection) Bill 2015.

In previous generations every family had a country cousin and would go visit during the holidays. At the very least, families had a few backyard chickens, and maybe a goat. People learned about farms, where their food came from, how it was produced and they knew the importance of a varied and secure food supply. As the population has grown and cities have expanded, many families no longer have a country cousin and a disconnect has developed. Australian farmers go about their busy lives producing food for the masses. Just as our people in urban areas go about their busy lives, manufacturing products and providing important services to the community. An information and awareness divide has formed over the years which sadly neither the farmer nor the average urban person has had time to bridge. This divide has enabled misinformation and suspicion to spread. People asking perfectly reasonable questions about their food supply, unsure of who to ask, are turning to what appears to be an accurate source, and are instead are being provided information by fanatics. Through no fault of our own, society has provided a foot hold for the extremists to attack animal agriculture.

In recent years in Australia, we have seen increasingly violent and offensively conspicuous attacks on animal agricultural enterprises. These attacks have included break-ins on farms where video footage has been taken, farmers publicly denigrated and physically attacked, and animals ‘rescued’. The perpetrators, who claim they do what they do for the animals, seem to have motives other than ; they repeatedly flout biosecurity measures, endangering the health of the animals; use their activities to promote food choices; raise money to fund further advertising campaigns, farm break-ins; and encourage wannabe’s and zealots to break into farms, saleyards and abattoirs to collect photographs and video. Ironically, in many cases the money raised is being used to fund little hobby farms called sanctuary’s populated with ‘rescued’ animals. Obtaining Evidence

Activists obtain photographs and video by trespass; they break into farms, install hidden cameras, and break in again to retrieve the cameras. Many farms have stringent biosecurity measures designed to protect the farms, the environment, the economy and people’s health from pests and diseases. It includes trying to prevent new pests and diseases from arriving, and helping to control outbreaks when they occur. In 2014, on Brian Ahmeds Poultry farm at Werribee , two women climbed a 10 foot fence security fence to gain access to his poultry. They put the lives of 25,000 chickens at risk. http://www.stockandland.com.au/news/agriculture/livestock/general-news/calls-for-stronger- laws/2703908.aspx?storypage=0

In 2013 activists illegally entered Ean Pollards piggery near Young in NSW and put the health of 12,000 pigs at risk. With the increase of illegal farm break-ins, there is no way of knowing if the activists who had entered Ean Pollards farm and been on other farms in the area before they entered Mr Pollards farm or if they had been exposed to any easily transferrable animal diseases. http://www.farmweekly.com.au/news/agriculture/livestock/general-news/activists-target-second- piggery/2659733.aspx?storypage=0

In 2003, in a feedlot near Portland, Victoria, an animal activist put shredded ham in the yards and paddocks that held sheep destined for live export to the Middle East. , hailed the subsequent quarantine of the sheep by AQIS a victory. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/20/1069027236239.html

If animal activists were really concerned about the health and welfare of farm animals, would they really flout biosecurity measures?

Handing Over Evidence

Once activists obtain photographs and retrieve video footage it is edited, unedited videos’ are rarely released. Music and text is added to evoke an emotional response and then the images are published online. In the many cases images and videos of alleged cruelty is not handed to authorities. Activists claim there is no reason to because; the relevant authorities are not doing their job, the current animal welfare legislation is not being enforced; and, the offenders are not prosecuted. Activists have even gone so far as accusing authorities such as the RSPCA of corruption http://www.aussiepigs.com/news/69-chris-delforce-wants-answers-from-rspca. Therefore, instead of handing footage over to authorities for investigation, they take the vigilante approach and take matters into their own hands, publishing photos and video’s online.

Often videos and photographs are not published until the time period during which activists can be charged for trespass has expired. However, once released, a social media campaign begins with activists and supporters sharing the photographs and footage on social media sites. Sometimes footage is released Television channels for airing as ‘exclusives’.

If activists are refusing to hand over evidence to authorities, and deliberately endangering the health of the animals by flouting biosecurity measures it does bring into question the validity of their claims that they care about the welfare of the animals. The Demonization of Animal Agriculture

Often photographs and video footage obtained on farms is released by activists in time to coincide with a specific event which has a culturally significant food or animal such as Christmas, Australia Day, Chinese New Year and Easter.

This Facebook post by Animal Liberation Victoria was part of a campaign launched in time for Australia Day and in opposition to the sheep industry’s promotion of lamb. This post was viewed by 19,077 people, shared by 1,522 people, liked by 593 people, and received 320 comments. The footage was not handed over to authorities for investigation or prosecution. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153851293022195&set=vb.263328217194&type=2&theater

Comments on the post include:

No such thing as humane animal farming

As it happens i have studied animal behaviour at University. Aside from that...mammals have in common amongst many other things a central nervous system and all have evolved to survive by responding to a pain or fear stimulus through the various senses...sight, smell, touch etc. The automatic response to perceived threat or pain is to vocalise, as a newborn to motivate parental protection and later to warn clan or herd members of danger. When horns, tails, teeth are removed from animals on factory farms without anaesthetic or flesh is burnt in branding, when animals smell the blood, hear the cries of their herd members in a slaughter house they understand those cries and want to escape, to stay alive like all living things, like you and I , they shake with terror and they scream. Do you seriously dispute the science of this? I wonder why you are so defensive and angry? Could it be that you are either making an income from the exploitation and therefore the suffering of animals or that you are a meat eater and searching for a defence for supporting this cruelty.

Brave people in many of the animal welfare groups right here in Australia have filmed and photographed sometimes secretly, sometimes by getting employment in factory farms and abattoirs. there are many videos and photos that have been shown commercially and on Facebook. have shown videos on Television. If you go to their site some may be available from there. Hardly any of our Animal Welfare laws in Australia apply to farmed animals.Tail docking of dogs for example is illegal but is a routine procedure on piglets without anaesthetic. "Correct ways" or legal handling animals on factory farms include many forms of torture such as dehorning, branding, tail docking, mulesing,tooth clipping. beak removal all without even painkillers. force feeding, force impregnating confining animals for their whole lives to minute living spaces such as caged chickens, cow stalls, veal boxes and thousands of animals die in ships on export boats in confined, ammonia filled dark quarters where they otherwise live for weeks on end. And then there is the terror of the transporting and final horror of the where the so called humane stunning only actually works part of the time.Most farm animals live only a small fraction of their normal life expectancy. Please look at some of the earlier posts on this thread. I am surprised you are unaware of them.

Once the photographs or video is released, the farmers, workers and the businesses are demonised and referred to as abusers on websites such as Aussie Pigs http://aussiepigs.com/abusers even though no evidence has been handed over and no charges have been brought.

Even when evidence has been handed to authorities in a timely manner, the allegations of abuse investigated and no charges have been made, or charges have long been dropped by the authorities, these groups continue to vilify these farmers. It appears that the presumption of innocence does not apply. In some cases photographs of the farmers, personal details and contact details are provided on the Aussie Pigs website http://aussiepigs.com/piggeries/golden-grove http://aussiepigs.com/piggeries/wally. Similar images and public vilification of animal agriculture can be found on the following websites run by Aussie Farms: http://www.aussiefarms.org.au/, http://www.aussieabattoirs.com/, http://www.aussieturkeys.com.au/, http://www.aussiechickens.com.au/, http://www.aussieeggs.com/, http://www.aussieducks.com.au/.

The vilification of farming is not restricted to groups such as Aussie Farms, some of the more influential activist groups within Australia which also participate include:

Animal Liberation http://www.animal-lib.org.au/campaigns/animals-for-food http://www.al-act.org http://www.animalliberation.org.au http://www.animal-liberation.org.au/, Animals Australia http://www.animalsaustralia.org/issues/dairy.php, Compassion in World Farming http://www.ciwf.com/ Winsome Constance Kindness Trust http://www.kindnesstrust.com , and Voiceless http://www.voiceless.org.au/the-issues.

These groups have a wide reach on social media and through this have become powerful lobby groups and household names. Animals Australia has approximately 785,000 followers on Facebook, it’s Make it Possible pages has 55,000, Animal Liberation Victoria 140,000, Voiceless 22,000 and Aussie Farms 4,000.

Is it Really About the Animals?

On the face of it, animal rights groups claim to be about protecting the animals and putting an end to animal suffering and the much feared “factory farming.” Claims such as these can be found on almost all web sites run by animal activist groups:

Factory farming is the number one cause of animal cruelty in the world today.

Factory farming exists because it has been deliberately hidden from the eyes of the community. http://www.makeitpossible.com/facts/frequently-asked-questions.php#faq1

Today, very few animals roam freely on traditional farms. Most animals produced for food in Australia suffer behind the closed doors of large industrial facilities known as factory farms. https://www.voiceless.org.au/the-issues/factory-farming

Animals are purpose-bred, raised and slaughtered in horrific conditions to satisfy humans’ ever- growing lust for animal products.(http://www.animal-lib.org.au/campaigns/animals-for-food

However, considering these groups deliberately ignore biosecurity measures and refuse to hand over any alleged evidence of cruelty, it brings into question if protecting the animals is really the end game. Information provided by these organisations on their web pages reveals some of the following statements which bring into question the underlying intentions:

Animal agriculture is the leading cause of just about every major environmental issue including global warming, and is directly responsible for the brutal deaths of literally billions of thinking, feeling individuals every year. https://www.aussiefarms.org.au/repository/ Animal Liberation intends to fight for all non-human animals until they are able to live lives of their choosing, free from intervention, use and abuse by humans. http://www.animal- lib.org.au/about

Animals are purpose-bred, raised and slaughtered in horrific conditions to satisfy humans’ ever- growing lust for animal products. Not only is eating meat and animal products terrible for the animals, it is bad for human health and disastrous for the environment. http://www.animal- lib.org.au/campaigns/animals-for-food

While many cattle on the vast stations in the north of Australia are destined for live export, their troubles begin well before they ever set foot on a ship. Painful procedures, infrequent monitoring and care, and the stresses of mustering make this far from an idyllic life for animals. http://www.animalsaustralia.org/issues/cattle-stations.php

The pig industry has been clever at keeping it's secrets, knowing that many Australians would refuse to buy pork products if they were informed of the cruelty in factory farms and during the slaughter process. http://www.animalliberation.org.au/pigs/

Underneath this vilification of animal agriculture there appears to be a push through alarmist information such as suggested clear links to global warming, claims of alleged systematic and horrific farm animal abuse, as well as visually and emotionally disturbing images, to encourage dietary changes to and .

On Animals Australia’s Dairy campaign page you can find a link to go dairy free http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/dairy-free-shopping-list.php. The Animals Australia Make it Possible campaign pages provide links to pages to help you go meat free if the graphic images and videos shown have turned you off meat http://www.makeitpossible.com/guides/tips-for- going-meat-free.php along with the following quote:

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." - Albert Einstein

Aussie Farms http://www.aussiefarms.org.au/ also provides prominent links promoting a move to a diet where animals don’t ‘suffer unnecessarily’, veganism – http://www.veganeasy.org.

Animal Liberation organises and promotes events aimed at eliminating animal agriculture such as:

 March to Close All http://www.animal-lib.org.au/events/116-march-to- close-all-slaughterhouses-2015,  The Sydney Vegan Festival http://www.animal-lib.org.au/events/115-sydney-vegan- festival-2015, and  The Truth About Turkey Farming - Xmas Campaign http://www.animal- lib.org.au/events/113-the-truth-about-turkey-farming-xmas-campaign  Vegan Leafletting at The People's Climate March https://www.facebook.com/events/692361227519220/  Vegan Easy November Challenge https://www.facebook.com/events/699434766815205/

So while trying to change people’s eating habits by misinformation is underhanded, it appears to be only one aspect of the drive to demonise animal agriculture. Activism as an Industry

Activism itself is becoming an industry, a desirable way to fund your activities, earn an income, and become a household name. Under Australian law some activist organisations can register as charities, gain a tax free status and ask for donations. Animal Liberation Victoria is currently lobbying the government to grant supporters a tax deductibility status on donations http://www.alv.org.au/donate-to-alv.php. And if you haven’t heard of Chris Delforce from Aussie Farms, you’ve probably been living in some isolated area, possibly a farm.

Gaining photographs and filming footage to deliver an exclusive expose appears to be the secret to obtaining donations. In 2013/14 Animals Australia received $4.6 M in donations and bequests, 73.8% of their total income and an increase of 31.7% on the previous year. https://cattleproducer.wordpress.com/author/jobloomfield/

To gain these photographs and video footage groups such as Animal Liberation have world first, Animal Rescue or Teams which specialise in farm invasions, and claim to:

routinely save the lives of unattended and neglected animals who are left sick and dying in factory farms. Rescue team members also document (with video footage and photographs) the conditions for animals in factory farms, feedlots, live export and abattoirs. http://www.alv.org.au/rescueteam.php.

It is rare that this footage makes it to authorities for animal cruelty charges and more often than not it finds its way to a campaign website or a social media page with a “Click here to watch” tag attached to it http://www.alv.org.au/campaigns.php.

Following each campaign is an opportunity to become a member, or donate to “help fund the fight”.

 Animal Liberation http://www.animal-lib.org.au/donate, http://www.animal-lib.org.au/donate  Aussie Farms https://www.aussiefarms.org.au/repository/  Voiceless https://www.voiceless.org.au/donate  Animals Australia https://secure.animalsaustralia.org/donate

Just like any other industry, animal activism offers opportunities to improve your skills, make your campaign more hard hitting, run a successful rescue groups, and be more social media savvy. Each year Australian activists can attend the Animal Activists Forum, where they can learn to be a more effective activist http://www.animal-lib.org.au/events/99-animal-activists-forum-2015.

In 2014 it was possible to attend the following sessions:

 The importance of storytelling in animal rights activism  Being a more effective activist  Legal Aspects of Animal Activism  Running a successful rescue group  The point of lobbying MPs when Parliament fails to act on animal cruelty  IT Skills for Animal Activists: Websites, email lists and other IT skills for beginners  Silencing the voices for the voiceless? Ag Gags laws and the threats to animal activism  How to make your cause front page news  Selfies in the Henhouse: Digital privacy, metadata and the Activist  101 ways to get into a school: Bringing Veganism into the classroom  The Lucrative Activist Paid By Google - Social Media Tips with Durianrider  Meat Free Mondays: How to market your food choices to others Additionally sessions were presented by big names in animal activism such as:

 Chris Delforce (Aussie Farms),  Senator Lee Rhiannon ( Senator for NSW),  Anne Greenaway (Lawyers for Companion Animals),  , and Phillip Hall (Animal Liberation NSW),  Mark Pearson (), and  representatives from PETA and Animals Australia.

And if you are a budding activist with a plan, Voiceless offers grants and prizes to fund your initiative. Each year Voiceless have successfully funded a number of the anti-farming campaigns such as:

 $100,000 for the Advertising Campaign run by an alliance formed by Animals Australia and Voiceless called Pigs to Paddocks to fund an advertising campaign designed to educate and create changing attitudes to intensive pig farming in Australia.  $20,000 for the Human Campaign run by the Vegetarian/Vegan Society of which uses art to illustrate the animal welfare implications of battery cages. Oversize battery cages containing human occupants placed in public spaces around Australia, in order to illustrate the cramped and inhumane conditions that battery hens endure, and to encourage members of the public to take action against this cruelty.  $20,000 for If you knew, an Action for Animals TV advertising campaign that promoted more compassionate eating among consumers. Inspired by a highly effective series of ads made by US organisation, Compassion Over Killing, Action for Animals produced and broadcast a powerful 30 second TV commercial exposing the cruelty endured by farmed animals in Australia. The commercial directs viewers to a website containing information about making the transition to a cruelty-free diet, including easy recipes, nutritional information, a shopping guide and a directory of vegetarian restaurants.  $15,000 for Moving Connections: a public awareness campaign, which will splash an animal protection message across Canberra's public transport system, through a series of panel ads to be placed on buses. The ads will connect viewers with individual animal residents of Little Oak Sanctuary, spreading awareness about cruelty and encouraging the adoption of an animal-friendly lifestyle.  $15,000 for Unsustainable Cruelty, an issue of Australian PhotoJournalist which features 272 full colour pages accompanied by the words of 19 authors addressing and animal rights.  $15,000 for Caged Eggs: Can You Taste The Cruelty? an Animal Liberation NSW where two creative and engaging TV commercials were produced to inform consumers about battery hens. The powerful ads were shown on prime time morning television around Christmas and again during peak rating periods.  $10,000 for Live Export Myths which is a People Against Cruelty in Animal Transport's (PACAT) 'Stop Live Exports' campaign. A 2005 Voiceless grant, achieved great success in raising awareness about live export. PACAT received a $10,000 grant to further fund the production of billboards carrying the Baa Baa Barbaric' slogan, which were featured at four train stations around Perth. The billboards directed people back to the Stop Live Exports website, which provided information about the live export industry in an updated format. PACAT also produced 11,000 campaign post cards, which were widely distributed at festivals and through letterbox drops.  $8,000 for A Voice for Australia's Forgotten Farm Animal - the continuation of a 2011 grant awarded to Animal Liberation NSW, to produce an investigative report about duck welfare. This stage of the project will build awareness by specifically targeting advertisements towards the Chinese community, the largest population of duck meat consumers in Australia, in an effort to change purchasing behaviours and influence production methods. https://www.voiceless.org.au/our-approach/grants-and-prizes/2014.

Not one of these donations, bequests or grants, go towards actually improving animal welfare on the ground. They are all art, and advertising campaigns. In fact very few animal rights organisations do anything, what so ever, to improve animal welfare on the ground. This brings into question the validity of the activists stated intentions. Are they really about stopping animal cruelty? As a concerned community member with evidence of animal cruelty wouldn’t handing over the footage quickly and without hesitation to authorities be in the animals best interests? Shouldn’t you be using your funding to improve animal welfare on the ground by running educational courses or investing in improved welfare practices? But of course, being an activist organisation means you can ask for donations, and donations can be used for other things.

My Own Little Hobby Farm

Many of the activist organisations are associated with animal sanctuaries however there are also stand-alone animal sanctuaries. Essentially, these sanctuaries are hobby farms, often in idyllic locations, where ‘rescued’, or stolen animals can live out the rest of their lives in their forever home, never having to have their babies weaned, never having to know the horrors of on farm practices. And importantly, a place where their new owners can live a cruelty free lifestyle in their own little tree change. Some of these sanctuaries are:

 Brightside http://brightside.org.au/  Edgars Mission http://www.edgarsmission.org.au/  Lefty’s Place http://www.tamarakenneallyphotography.com/category/leftys-place/  Farm Animal Rescue http://www.farmanimalrescue.org.au/  Gunyah Animal Healing Sanctuary http://www.gunyah.org/  Big Ears Animal Sanctuary http://www.bigearsanimalsanctuary.com/  Greener Pastures Sanctuary https://greenerpasturessanctuary.org.au/  Little Oak Sanctuary http://www.littleoaksanctuary.org/  Manning River Farm Animal Sanctuary https://www.facebook.com/ManningRiverFAS  Free Hearts Animal Sanctuary https://www.facebook.com/FreeHeartsAnimalSanctuary11  Happy Hooves Farm Sanctuary http://animalactionist.com/our-farm-sanctuary/  A Poultry Place https://www.facebook.com/apoultryplace/timeline  Willowite Animal Sanctuary https://www.facebook.com/willowite2006  Hart Acres Animal Haven https://www.facebook.com/HartAcresAnimalHaven  Where Pigs Fly Farm Sanctuary https://www.facebook.com/wherepigsflyfarmsanctuary  Sunny Corner Farm Sanctuary https://www.facebook.com/SunnyCornerFarmSanctuary

Farm sanctuary’s regularly ask for donations; cash for food, vet bills, or general running costs; in-kind donations for shelters, fencing; or ask for volunteers to do help with the work required to run the farm. These farm sanctuaries frequently take in, or at the very least, claim to take in ‘rescued’ animals. Often denigrating the farmers in a plea to the compassionate readers to donate to help save the life of this poor tortured soul who has been given a once in a lifetime opportunity to live out it’s life free at last and safe from the torturous hands of the farmer http://www.tamarakenneallyphotography.com/wrinkles/.

Some sanctuaries even have open days where members of the public can come, and for a fee, spend a day with the animals http://www.farmanimalrescue.org.au/alerts/easter-2015/. Or if you can’t spend the day you could virtually adopt an animal and pay for it’s living expenses on someone else’s farm http://brightside.org.au/animals/overview. Or you could donate to help create the perfect piggy paradise for the pigs of Edgars Mission https://www.chuffed.org/project/piggy-paradise. The most tragic thing of all is that people are actually gullible enough to support these kinds of enterprising hobby farms.

If only real farmers could get donations of cash, equipment and time to help them run their farms.

To quote some aspiring teens:

Later when I buy huge acreage I would love to accommodate more rescue animals, what are some piggery and cattle farms that I could buy off, or take off their hands, where do they hold calves to sell, downed animals, etc. How much could the animals go for? I just want to make some lives better, and when I get to the massive acreage I want to start up a farm sanctuary.”

Farmers/companys dont just give away livestock ( unless its a very rare ocassion ) if they can still make money off the final product eg. carcass. It is very rare ocassions that you find farm animals wondering around - and regardless when you get a animal off a farm you still have to pay for it and that money goes straight back to the farmer. Yes i know the money from animals at auctions goes back to the farmers but if you see the state the animals are in at auctions they are in dying need of rescuing ( literally )

Please suggest how to rescue farm animals with out purchasing them off the farmer/owner/company?

http://www.unleashed.org.au/community/forum/topic.php?t=6765

Please Remember

So when activist are lobbying and saying that they care about the animals and that the Criminal Code Amendment (Animal Protection) Bill 2015:

targets investigators and whistleblowers by forcing them to handover undercover footage immediately, introducing harsh penalties for individuals and significantly reducing their capacity to gather evidence of systemic animal abuse.’,

unfairly targets investigators, rather than focusing on the perpetrators of animal cruelty.’ and that

Without undercover investigations, systemic animal cruelty in factory farms will escape detection. please remember that they are only telling you a part of the story.

Failing to pass this bill is not in the best interests of animals, it is in the best interests of these activists. If there was a legal requirement to hand over footage, how would they fund their campaigns? How would they fund their hobby farms? What would aspiring activists do in their spare time? Essentially an entire industry dedicated to destroying animal agriculture would be out of business.

The monitoring and enforcement of existing animal protection laws is a priority to stamp out animal cruelty. However without the requirement to hand over any evidence of cruelty the authorities have no proof of it occurring and no incentive to stamp it out. Currently even when the footage is handed over for evidence, it is thrown out of court because it was illegally obtained. This new regulation would ensure that the footage, if genuine, could be used as evidence in prosecutions for animal cruelty.

So in the interests of animal welfare, farming, and food security, this bill must be passed.

Yours sincerely