In a legislative first, the ACT House of Assembly last night banned battery hens, debeaking and sow stalls. The ACT has no factory farms, but the enactment provides a national legislative precedent and a moral beacon for other parliaments to follow. Tasmania’s government flagged in 2012 that it would phase out such practices but failed to…
In a judgment handed down this morning, Rush J of the Supreme Court of Victoria ordered, amongst other things, that the appeal be allowed; the VCAT order be set aside; the matter be remitted to the Tribunal, differently constituted, to be heard and decided afresh; and that the City of Brimbank pay Mylo’s owner’s costs.…
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has filed separate proceedings in the Federal Court against egg producers in WA and NSW alleging that each of the producer’s use of “free range” was misleading. The ACCC alleges that Snowdale Holdings Pty Ltd (Snowdale) in WA and Pirovic Enterprises Pty Ltd (Pirovic) in NSW, through the use…
Senior Member I. Proctor of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal today set aside the declaration by the City of Greater Geelong that Zeus is a restricted breed dog. VCAT’s decision today hopefully concludes a long battle by the Panel to rescue two dogs, Knuckles and Zeus, wrongly declared by the City of Greater Geelong…
Thousands of Australian sheep have reportedly died due to exposure to extreme heat while being transported to the Middle East. Read more here.
ALL Coles brand fresh chicken will be RSPCA approved from today, in a move the supermarket giant says is a win for consumers and animal welfare. Read the full story at The Land, 3 January 2014.
Panel counsel appeared for Zeus’ owner at VCAT on 17 and 18 December 2013 in an application challenging the declaration by the City of Greater Geelong that Zeus is a restricted breed dog. Judgment has been reserved, and may be handed down before Christmas. See previous posts about The Fight for Knuckles and Zeus: the declaration…
In debate in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, shadow minister for agriculture John Lenders moved a motion yesterday calling for a parliamentary review of breed specific legislation and whether there are more cost effective means of preventing and reducing dog attacks. In this last respect, Mr Lenders mentioned the Calgary model a number of times. This…
A seven-minute video released by Animals Australia shows Australian cattle being abused in Gaza. The graphic footage from October this year shows a man armed with a rifle knee-capping an Australian bull. Other bulls are seen being stabbed in the eye or having their throats cut open on the streets of Gaza. Livestock Shipping Services…
The Panel is delighted to announce that former High Court of Australia justice, Michael Kirby AC CMG, has been appointed as the Panel’s Patron. His advocacy on behalf of animals is well-known, and illustrates the gathering weight and momentum of the animal cause. A separate page on our website has been created for him as…
‘Consumer watchdog the ACCC has launched court proceedings against two of Australia’s biggest egg producers, claiming they falsely labelled product as “free range”. Read the article by Jared Lynch at The Age website.
BREAKING NEWS… Croucher J of the Supreme Court of Victoria has allowed the appeal by Kerser’s owner. A re-hearing before a differently constituted VCAT has been directed. Panel counsel will appear for Kerser’s owner at the VCAT re-hearing. The Panel gratefully acknowledges the advocacy and work in particular of Noel Magee QC and extends its grateful thanks in addition to Anthony…
Knuckles: by orders made today with the consent of the parties the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ordered that the restricted breed dog declaration of the City of Greater Geelong dated 7 November 2012, be set aside. Originally, as Knuckles owner could not be found to challenge the restricted breed declaration, the Council believed it…
The Nonhuman Rights Project has filed the first lawsuit in the US to establish the legal personhood of chimpanzees. The animal rights group has asked a New York state court to declare Tommy, a 26 year old chimp, “a cognitively complex autonomous legal person with the fundamental legal right not to be imprisoned”. President of…
Game Farm has been fined $20,400 for claiming its birds were range reared, when in fact they were grown in commercial sheds. Game Farm has paid two Australian Competition and Consumer Commission infringement notices and has been ordered to send a corrective notice to its major customers. Read more here: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission : Game…
The World Trade Organization has upheld Europe’s ban on imported seal products, ruling that it is justified on “public moral concerns” for animal welfare. This landmark decision will set a precedent which supports the rights of nations to ban the seal product trade. Read more here. For a summary of the WTO panel’s key findings, click…
China’s Food and Drug Administration has announced that from June 2014, China plans to remove its mandatory animal testing requirements for domestically manufactured cosmetic products. “Non-special use cosmetics” such as shampoo or perfume may then have their product safety substantiated in reliance on existing safety data for raw ingredients, or European Union-validated non-animal tests instead…
The Prime Minister by media release today announced on cost grounds the abolition of the Australian Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, a non – statutory body which amongst other things advised the federal minister and department of agriculture and the Standing Council on Primary Industries ( federal and state agricultural ministers) on animal welfare matters. In…
As a member of the Animal Coalition, the Panel opposes indigenous hunting of marine life like turtles and dugongs. The Panel has arranged for legal advice to be tendered shortly to the Animal Coalition on the means to secure this in the face of native title and exemptions from cruelty laws for indigenous custom. The…
Here are the overheads for the Bill Bruce seminars. We thank him for kindly making them available to the Panel for publication. 2012_Animal Services Presentation Chilliwack 2
Baiada (owner of Steggles) and Bartter, which supply meat chicken products, have been fined $400K in respect of their misleading ‘free to roam’ representations by Tracey J of the Federal Court sitting at Melbourne on Wednesday 30 October 2013. The companies together with the Australian Meatchicken Federation had been previously found (in a separate judgement handed…
Victorian duck producer Luv-A-Duck was today fined $360K by the Federal Court sitting at Melbourne for false claims its products were “range reared…in the spacious Victorian Wimmera wetlands” when in fact the ducks were at all times confined to their shed. The claims were taken up by the Panel and Animal Liberation NSW with the…
An investigation by Animals Australia during the Eid religious festival in Jordan in mid-October 2013 shows Australian sheep being dragged along the ground, thrown into car boots or trucks and carved open at the throat. Over 10,000 Australian sheep were sold outside the current Exporter Supply Chain Assurance Scheme (ESCAS), introduced in 2011 following the Indonesian…
Australia’s largest woodchip exporter has stopped logging in areas with high populations of koalas after admitting it had killed and maimed animals in Victoria’s south-west. You can read more here: http://m.theage.com.au/victoria/australian-bluegum-plantations-says-sorry-for-killing-koalas-20131029-2wdnu.html Also, see the footage aired last night on ABC’s 7:30 program:
Associate Justice Derham of the Supreme Court of Victoria yesterday expedited the hearing of Mylo’s appeal by directing, first, that both the application for leave ( permission) to appeal and the appeal be heard together by a Judge of the Court and, second, that the parties file and serve written submissions and a court book…