Animal Welfare in Australia: Politics and Policy, Published by Sydney University Press

This document is an extract from Animal Welfare in Australia: Politics and Policy, published by Sydney University Press. ISBN: 9781743324738 (paperback) 9781743324745 (ebook: epub) 9781743325025 (ebook: PDF) All requests for reproduction or communication should be made to Sydney University Press at the address below: Sydney University Press Fisher Library F03 University of Sydney NSW 2006 AUSTRALIA [email protected] sydney.edu.au/sup Parts of this work are available on the University of Sydney eScholarship Repository at hdl.handle.net/2123/15349. Please cite the full work as: Chen, Peter John (2016). Animal Welfare in Australia: Politics and Policy. Sydney: Sydney University Press. The book may be purchased from Sydney University Press at the following link: http://purl.library.usyd.edu.au/sup/animalwelfareinaus. Animal welfare in Australia ANIMAL PUBLICS Melissa Boyde & Fiona Probyn-Rapsey, Series Editors Other titles in the series: Animal death Ed. Jay Johnston & Fiona Probyn-Rapsey Animals in the Anthropocene: critical perspectives on non-human futures Ed. The Human Animal Research Network Editorial Collective Cane toads: a tale of sugar, politics and flawed science Nigel Turvey Engaging with animals: interpretations of a shared existence Ed. Georgette Leah Burns & Mandy Paterson Fighting nature: travelling menageries, animal acts and war shows Peta Tait Animal welfare in Australia Policy and politics Peter John Chen First published by Sydney University Press © Peter John Chen 2016 © Sydney University Press 2016 Reproduction and Communication for other purposes Except as permitted under the Act, no part of this edition may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or communicated in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All requests for reproduction or communication should be made to Sydney University Press at the address below: Sydney University Press Fisher Library F03 The University of Sydney NSW 2006 AUSTRALIA Email: [email protected] sydney.edu.au/sup National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Creator: Chen, Peter J. (Peter John), 1972– author. Title: Animal welfare in Australia : politics and policy / Peter John Chen. ISBN: 9781743324738 (paperback) 9781743324745 (ebook: epub) 9781743324752 (ebook: Kindle) 9781743325025 (ebook: PDF) Series Animal Publics. Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Subjects: Animal welfare—Government policy—Australia. Animal welfare—Political aspects—Australia. Animal welfare—Moral and ethical aspects—Australia. Human–animal relationships—Australia. Australia—Politics and government. Dewey Number: 636.0832 Cover image: Hand feeding sheep in feedlot at Connemara Station, Tarcutta, New South Wales. Photographer: Carl Davies. CSIRO Science Image, http://scienceimage.csiro.au. Used under CC Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0). Cover design by Miguel Yamin Contents Acknowledgements xi List of figures ix List of acronyms xiii Nomenclature xv Introduction xvii Part 1 1 1 History 3 2 Ethics 21 Part 2 37 3 Attitudes to animals 39 4 In the media 85 5 Mapping the policy domain 123 Part 3 149 6 Animal protectionism 151 vii Animal welfare in Australia 7 Animal-using industry 223 8 Political and administrative policy elites 275 Conclusion 319 Appendices Appendix A: Research methods 323 Appendix B: Major ethical positions regarding animals 326 Appendix C: Australian animal protection organisations – a 330 sample Appendix D: Animal-using industry in Australia – 334 representative bodies and their relationships with policy-makers Appendix E: Timeline of animal welfare policy in Australia 338 Appendix F: Significant legal instruments 350 Appendix G: Top Google queries relating to the 10 most 360 frequently searched-for animals Reference list 365 Index 401 viii List of figures Figure 1.1. Frequency of ‘vegetarian’ in English-language books. 15 Figure 3.1. Australian annual per capita meat consumption, 1962–2010. 41 Figure 3.2. Recreational activities employing animals. 43 Figure 3.3. Animal used in research and teaching in Australia, by type. 45 Figure 3.4. Victorians’ perceptions of the importance of animal welfare. 52 Figure 3.5. Importance of animal wellbeing, by type. 53 Figure 3.6. Comparative egg sales as ethical consumption. 61 Figure 3.7. Awareness of issues affecting animal wellbeing. 62 Figure 3.8. Perceived adequacy of welfare laws in Australia. 67 Figure 3.9. Australian stockpersons’ perceptions of animals’ capacity to experience pain ‘like humans’. 73 Figure 4.1. Number of issues mentioned in newspapers, 2005–2014. 88 Figure 4.2. Number of events mentioned in newspapers, 2005–2014. 89 Figure 4.3. Regional variations in event reporting from the national average (percent), 2005–14. 101 Figure 4.4. Animals on Australian free-to-air television. 107 Figure 4.5. Representations of animals on Australian supermarket shelves. 113 Figure 4.6. Representations of farmers and farming on Australian supermarket shelves. 115 Figure 6.1. Animals processed by Australian RSPCAs, 2004/5–2013/4. 196 Figure 6.2. Public support for different activist tactics. 205 Figure 7.1. McInerney’s ‘conflicts between animal welfare and productivity’ model. 237 ix Acknowledgements I must thank Professor Marian Sawer for her encouragement and advice in the development of the manuscript at its inception, and Professor Fiona Probyn-Rapsey for the opportunity to add this volume to the Animal Studies series. Agata Mrva-Montoya and Denise O’Dea from Sydney University Press have been essential to the realisation of this project and have my gratitude for their attention and focus. During the development of the research project I received generous assistance with access to documents and databases from a variety of organisations and individuals. Thanks go to the Animal Health Alliance, Anne Clarke of the RSPCA ACT, Gordon Phillips of the Queensland Office of Fair Trading, and Lynda Stoner of Animal Liberation New South Wales. I am indebted to Karo Tak for her introduction to, and insight on, the Sydney veg*n community; as well as to Malcolm France, for input into my research design for a survey of animal welfare officers. Final drafting was completed under the auspices of the Special Studies Program of the School of Social and Political Studies of the Uni- versity of Sydney. The program provides time for the contemplation of larger writing projects. I’m also very grateful to the School of Politics and International Relations of the Australian National University, at which I was a visitor in 2014–2015. The book was written exclusively on the land of the Gadigal people. With love: JF. xi Frequently used acronyms AA Animals Australia AAS Animal Attitude Scale AAWS Australian Animal Welfare Strategy ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics ACCC Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ACT Australian Capital Territory AIO Animal-using Industry Organisation AL Animal Liberation ALF Animal Liberation Front ALP Australian Labor Party APO Animal Protection Organisation AWL Animal Welfare League AWO Animal Welfare Officers COAG Council of Australian Governments LNP Liberal National Party (Queensland) LSRA Liberation, Strong-Rights, Abolition MLA Member of the Legislative Assembly MLC Member of the Legislative Council MP Member of Parliament n.d. Not dated NFF National Farmers’ Federation xiii Animal welfare in Australia NSM New social movement NSW New South Wales PETA (Aus) People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Australia) PETA (US) People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (USA) QFF Queensland Farmers’ Federation RSPCA Royal Society for the Protection of Animals s.d. Standard deviation SFO State Farming Organisation SFP Shooters and Fishers Party SMO Social movement organisation xiv Nomenclature Throughout, the term ‘animal’ is used to describe non-human animals, as defined in Chapter 1. Preference tends to be given to the term ‘companion animal’ over ‘pet’; the former term is favoured by many animal protection organisations and the Australian Companion Animal Council. Following Guither (1998, 9) and others, I tend to employ the phrase ‘animal protection’ to cover the full spectrum of attitudes of animal advocates and welfare providers, including (but not limited to) welfare and abolitionist perspectives. Guither defines ‘animal welfare’ as ‘all efforts to prevent cruelty, improve humane treatment, reduce stress and strain, and monitor research with animals’. While this clashes with the tendency of some abolitionist authors to use the term ‘welfarist’ and ‘protectionist’ interchangeably, it appears to be the most useful con- vention. ‘Animal welfare’, therefore, is used to describe the dominant policy paradigm in the Australian context: a focus on debates about how animals should be treated, but within an overarching norm that sees them legally and ethically subordinate to humans. In this way, animal welfare is different to its human counterpart (Haynes 2008). In discussing vegetarians and vegans I have sometimes used the word ‘veg*ns’, an umbrella term for both groups (I discuss the distinction between the two, as well as other abstainer communities, in Chapter 3). In general, organisations in this book are named using their current organisational name; this is extended to acronyms. Biblical verses are sourced from the King James Version. Quranic verses are sourced from the Pickthall translation. xv .

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