News & Media: Outrage over 'inappropriate' animal cruelty rulings prompt call for system overhaul
Outrage over 'inappropriate' animal cruelty rulings prompt call for system overhaul
There are calls to overhaul the way animal cruelty offences are investigated and punished in Tasmania after two recent cases caused outrage among animal welfare campaigners.
On Monday Joshua Leigh Jeffrey was sentenced to 49 hours of community service and ordered to pay court costs of $82.15 for beating six penguins to death with sticks at Sulphur Creek beach in north-west Tasmania in 2016.
A day later, Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Wildlife and Environment (DPIPWE) revealed it would not prosecute a southern Tasmanian abattoir where footage from hidden cameras showed alleged mistreatment of livestock in 2016.
DPIPWE said audits had found Gretna Quality Meats was complying with animal welfare requirements and the Director of Public Prosecutions determined there was no reasonable prospect of a conviction.
Animal Liberation Tasmania (ALT), which obtained the footage from an anonymous source, held a candlelit vigil on Hobart's Parliament Lawns on Tuesday night to protest the decision.
ALT campaign director Mehr Gupta said animal welfare campaigners no longer trusted DPIPWE to investigate and prosecute animal cruelty allegations.
"I think it's reaching a point now where it's just completely unacceptable," she said.
"I think you're going to see us, as well as the Tasmanian community, pushing even more for them to relinquish their powers in policing matters of animal welfare and handing it over to an independent office."
Ms Gupta said her organisation had not given up on seeking prosecutions.
"We'll still be out in the streets campaigning for it, we'll be holding more vigils and actions and things like that and we'll be campaigning directly to politicians as well," she said.
In 2016 Animal Liberation Tasmania members caused traffic chaos in Hobart when they attached themselves to the Tasman Bridge to protest the Gretna Meatworks case.
ABC News has contacted DPIPWE and Tasmania's Agriculture Minister Sarah Courtney for a response.
Petition calls for harsher sentences for animal cruelty
Meanwhile, more than 56,000 people have signed a petition calling on Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman to initiate a review of Mr Jeffries' sentence.
Paul Lewis started the petition and said people were "disgusted and absolutely blown away" by the sentence.
"We feel that this sentence in no way fits the crime and it will not be seen as a deterrent to other criminals that carry out similar acts of callous cruelty," he wrote on change.org.au.
Mr Lewis said the number of signatures was beyond his expectations and he had emailed Premier Hodgman about the petition.
"It really goes to show that all of us are not at all happy with the way these crazy, totally ludicrous and pathetically inappropriate sentences are being given all over Australia for not only animal cruelty cases but for many other cases that are handled by courts all over Australia each and every day," he said.
A Tasmanian Government spokesman said sentencing was a matter for the courts.
He said the Government amended the Animal Welfare Act in 2015 to increase the maximum penalty for animal cruelty up to five years in prison.
Posted 28 Jun 2018Thu 28 Jun 2018 at 7:09am, updated 28 Jun 2018Thu 28 Jun 2018 at 8:20am