About us
Our objectives
The Committee’s objectives are to:
- educate itself on an ongoing basis about the law and legal issues relating to animals and their welfare
- engage in law-related projects on animal welfare issues
- raise awareness of law-related animal welfare issues within the legal profession and the wider community
- liaise with other relevant organisations and, where possible, support and assist them
- lobby for appropriate law reform.
Our history
When the Committee was established in 1997, there were already several bodies in Australia devoted to animal welfare issues, such as the RSPCA, Animal Liberation and Animals Australia. However, there was no animal protection organisation with a legal focus. It was believed that a committee, charged with examining and responding to legal issues associated with animals and their welfare could play an important and powerful role. Our areas of concern include:
- hunting
- animal experimentation
- increasing consumption of animal products
- factory farms
- neglect and abuse of companion animals.
We still have a lot of work to do. Under the law as it presently stands, animals are a form of property, and their treatment by humans reflects this. Unlike other forms of property, however, animals are living, sentient beings. This is recognised to some extent in the fact that each State and territory has legislation that regulates the treatment of animals. However, we believe that such laws are deficient and fail in many ways to protect animals.
