Animal Welfare Draft Bill

Have your say on updates to the Animal Welfare Act.

What's being decided?

We're updating the Animal Welfare Act to ensure the laws governing animal welfare are supported by science, consistent with contemporary practices and in line with community expectations.

We are seeking your feedback on a draft version of the Bill.

Background

The Animal Welfare Act is the primary piece of legislation concerned with the treatment of animals in South Australia.

Our understanding of, and expectations for, animal welfare has evolved significantly since the Act was proclaimed in 1985.

The state government committed to reviewing the Act to ensure that these laws reflect modern practices and community expectations.

Several reforms were identified as part of this review process, and form the basis of the proposed changes within the draft Bill. They focus on improving the Act and moving towards alignment with comparable jurisdictions.

These reforms are:

1. Update the purpose and include objects in the Act – to better explain why the law exists and help the reader interpret its intent.
2. Better recognise animal sentience – to acknowledge that animals experience feelings, both positive, such as pleasure, or negative, such as pain and fear.
3. Broaden the definition of animal – to allow the law to cover more types of animals by removing the exclusion of fish, and including cephalopods (such as squid, octopus, cuttlefish) for scientific purposes.
4. Introduce a ‘duty of care’ provision – to create a positive requirement to provide a minimum level of care.
5. Improve regulation, oversight and transparency of the research and teaching sector – to enable greater accountability and address community concerns.
6. Increase the ability to administer and enforce the Act – to provide appropriate powers and ability to hold to account people that do not meet animal welfare requirements, preventing cruelty and promoting welfare.
7. Contemporise the governance and administrative provisions for the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee – to ensure that animal welfare advice comes from a transparent and diverse group.

Get involved

Find out more:

• read the draft Animal Welfare Bill
• read the Explanatory Guide to the Draft Bill – which guides you through each section of the draft Bill and highlights changes from the current Act.
• take a look at our FAQ's
• look back at the previous stage of community consultation
• ask us a question

Have your say:

• take our survey

Please note: your feedback may be made publicly available unless you indicate on the submission that you wish for it to remain confidential. Any responses that are made on a confidential basis may still be subject to access under Freedom of Information laws.

What are the next steps?

We will consider all feedback provided to inform the Bill that will be introduced to the South Australian Parliament.

We will publish the final draft Bill on YourSAy and DEW's website.