Australia’s Need for An Independent Office of Animal Welfare

Abstract

Each year, Australia raises and slaughters approximately half a billion farm animals, making it one of the world’s largest producers of farm animals. The Australian Government and the agricultural sector claim that Australia is an international leader in animal welfare. Australia has a wide-ranging system of Commonwealth, State and Territory legislation, as well as regulations and industry codes, which regulate farm animal welfare. This paper argues that the existing framework fails to effectively protect farm animals from cruelty, and that an effective way to improve farm animal welfare would be to establish a federal Independent Office of Animal Welfare.