Introduction
Good morning Distinguished Guests, ladies and gentleman
It is wonderful to be here this morning.
On behalf of all New Zealanders the first thing I want to do is thank you for all you’re doing all over this country, as well as internationally in some cases, to protect and care for animals.
Everyone in this room knows – and the latest research continues to confirm – that animals are much smarter than we give them credit for – and much more like us than we have historically thought – save for one thing.
Animals haven’t devised as many ways as humans to be cruel and inhumane.
My story
Today I want to candidly tell you the story of how New Zealand has almost gotten one of the best pieces of legislation against animal cruelty in the world.
I reckon if a PR person had taken hold of a draft of this speech they would have changed and sanitised a lot of what I am going to say to you.
A PR person might have made the story a bit better – a bit less warts and all if you like.
Nevertheless, in only a few months a few people in this room, aided by me, the Minister of Agriculture, the Prime Minister, and ultimately every Member of Parliament, made some pretty big changes to animal cruelty law.
You may have noticed just before, I said we’ve almost gotten one of the best pieces of legislation against animal cruelty in the world.
I said almost because the bill is currently about to come back to Parliament for what is called its second reading.
It is not law yet but the good news is we can be confident it will be.
I also want to acknowledge through my use of the word almost that there will be some who think we should be doing more still.
That is a discussion we could have, but we can nevertheless all agree that this law takes justice for animals that have suffered ill treatment much further than the past law did and does give us one of the toughest laws I know of.
On that front, I can tell you I’ve had correspondence with academics from around the world impressed by what we have achieved.
But I digress. Back to the story.
The best place to start is in the Koru Lounge, Wellington Airport.
And no there weren’t any animals in there – not unless you count Politicians!
I couldn’t give you a date but it was well into the second half of last year. It was a Thursday.
Much earlier that day Paul Henry had probably been mean to me about something on Breakfast TV and I had just finished Parliament for the week so I will have been tired as I always am by that point.
I was hungry, and was eating mince on toast.
I don’t think I finished my mince however as before I could I was engaging in conversation with Anita Killeen, SPCA board member from Auckland, who had tapped me on the back.
She was on to me about animal welfare. Law changes were needed.
I remembered back to my prosecuting experience.
I knew anecdotally of the strong link between cruelty to animals and criminal offending across the board.
Anita kept talking, and talking, and talking.
We exchanged business cards and I agreed to look into the matter and come back to Anita.
As a former Court room lawyer I’m both conservative and pedantic.
I over analyse things from every conceivable angle before acting.
I did this in relation to animal welfare.
I read books, academic articles, more books, and more articles.
They made it clear to me that at a basic, if you like, intrinsic level, we haven’t been achieving sufficient justice for animals who suffer ill-treatment.
I could today quote you research, philosophy, even poems that have made this clear.
But these following statistics say it all.
Despite the heinousness and frequency of acts of cruelty perpetrated on animals not just every year or even month but daily, less than 3% of prosecutions result in imprisonment.
The most common penalty is the lowest possible, a fine.
We can state this even more starkly. In the history of this nation only ten people have been sentenced to imprisonment for animal welfare offending.
And I also thought about my Tibetan Spaniel, Tilly, and my Pomeranian, Bruce.
It may sound like sacrilege to say so in this audience but I have never been an animal person.
I’m the youngest of six children who grew up in West Auckland. My father always reasoned he had enough mouths to feed without pets.
There was a strict no dog or cat rule but one sister (who went on to marry a vet) did keep a menagerie of mice, budgies, guinea pigs, rabbits, gold fish, an axolotl, frogs and lizards over the time of our growing up.
Nevertheless, my wife wanted a puppy and we ended up with two. Now I’m a born again dog lover.
Why am I telling you all of this.
Because for me at both a head and heart level change had to come.
The cold hard logic made it plain; my knowledge and companionship of Tilly and Bruce made it clear.
So I got back in touch with Anita, and then met and obtained invaluable advice and support from Bob Kerridge and then Robyn Kippenberger.
A bill was drafted lifting the maximum penalty for the wilful ill-treatment of animals from three to five years imprisonment.
My aim was to raise public awareness so that there would be less offending and to send a message to everyone, but especially Judges, to toughen up and do better justice for animals.
Media, starting with newspapers, began to cover the bill and I believe it captured the public’s imagination, or perhaps more accurately, their conscience.
Social media started kicking into gear with Facebook supporter pages getting thousands of members.
The campaign also gained massive momentum due to a public outpouring in relation to some very well publicised but horrific cases in January not long after I had announced my member’s bill.
In fact there were a number of cases over the period but two stand out:
First was Te Ahu Aaron Mankelow’s horrific case involving the feeding of five kittens to his dog.
Second was the Wellsford Dog Killing involving 33 dogs shot dead.
In combination all of what was going on prompted decisive action from the Prime Minister who was appalled by what he saw and decided my bill and probably a strengthened version of it needed to be fast tracked.
At a National Party Caucus meeting on 2 February this year it was unanimously agreed to take on the bill and make it law. It was also agreed to more systematically deal with animal offending and so under the care and attention of the Minister of Agriculture who has responsibility for animal welfare more work was done, a more comprehensive bill approved by Cabinet and then introduced into the House.
In hindsight it was crucial that the bill be a Government one rather than an ordinary member’s bill.
My bill was subject to chance – the random ballot process which determines when member’s bills will be debated.
A Government Bill is a much more controlled affair with priority accorded to it, as is right in this case given that the law will I believe deter more cruelty to animals in our nation.
The first reading was on 18 February. The bill received the support of every political party and every Member of Parliament.
An historic day
I may sound overly cheery, but I believe 18 February was an historic day for Animal Welfare in New Zealand.
In the end result we are not getting a law that simply lifted the maximum penalty for the wilful ill-treatment of animals from three to five years as my member’s bill would have.
That would have been a good start. It would have made some difference and would have, I believe, achieved my goals of raising public awareness and sending a message.
We are getting much more.
We are getting a substantially strengthened law that simplifies and rationalises offences, increases offence penalties across the board, and does more to protect the welfare of animals.
There was, if I am frank, the possibility that my member’s bill would have had more symbolic than real effect. Our Government bill will certainly do more than that, improving the law across the board.
I will come to the detail of the law very shortly but before I do I want to give one more reason why this law is historic.
All 123 MPs – MPs with different backgrounds and very different political views –
All 123 MPs – whether Green or staunchly libertarian, as some of the Act members are, voted for this.
In other words, the entire Parliament of New Zealand came together on this and reached a consensus against animal cruelty and in support of what you do at SPCAs from Kaitaia to the Bluff.
Let me tell you this doesn’t happen often on issues of substance. It did here against animal cruelty.
And exactly what is it that the bill achieves?
Penalties for offending across the board have increased:
- As I had originally sought, the penalty for the worst offending, wilful ill-treatment of animals, has increased from 3 to 5 years imprisonment and financial penalties have gone from $50,000 to $100,000 for individuals and from $250,000 to $500,000 for body corporates.
- Ill treatment offending has gone from 6 months imprisonment to 12 months and financial penalties have gone from $25,000 to $50,000 for individuals and from $125,000 to 250,000 for body corporates.
- Neglect offending has increased in exactly the same way as ill treatment offending.
As I say, penalties have gone up across the entire spectrum of possible offending.
In addition, an entirely new offence of reckless ill-treatment of animals has been created to sit in the spectrum between wilful-ill treatment offending and the lesser ill-treatment and neglect offending.
This means offending which may not be proved to be wilful but is nevertheless very serious is adequately criminalised and penalised. Formerly it has inadequately been dealt with as simple ill-treatment.
Significantly, wilful-ill treatment of animals as an offence has been simplified and expanded so in effect it is easier to prove. Instead of having to prove the animal was permanently disabled, died, or had to be destroyed to prevent suffering, the threshold is now serious injury or impairment.
Finally, the provisions relating to disqualification from animal ownership and forfeiture of animals have been bolstered and improved significantly.
Conclusion
In conclusion ladies and gentlemen, it has been a pleasure to be here this morning with people who do so much for animals.
This year the Government is also doing something great for animals and against animal cruelty.
I wish you a wonderful Conference today. |