Regulation of the Treatment of Companion Animals

Abstract

Companion animals play a highly significant role in the lives of Australians. Companion animal ownership in Australia is amongst the highest in the world. Around 63% of Australia’s 7.6 million households include companion animals, most commonly a cat or dog. 1 Companion animals variously inspire pleasure, invoke an ethic of care and responsibility, advance psychological and physical well-being, promote social engagement, and provide economic benefit, including for the veterinary profession, pet shops, and pet food and other industries. Commensurate with the very close attachment between humans and their companion animals, the protection extended to companion animals through animal welfare law is arguably greater than for any other category of animal. Despite this, there are some significant limitations in the regulatory system governing the treatment of companion animals, and these will be explored in this chapter.

This chapter begins with a consideration of the meaning of “companion animal”. The chapter then considers the significance of companion animals as reflected in law, distinguishing between instrumental and non-instrumental value. The next section addresses the two major qualifications imposed on the instrumental, personal property rights enjoyed by companion animal owners – the prohibition against cruelty and the duty to meet basic welfare needs. These legal obligations are potentially quite stringent, although their application in practice is complicated by resource constraints, regulatory inconsistencies and limited judicial recognition of the significance of harm done to animals. The last part of this chapter considers “animal management”, an area traditionally distinguished from issues of animal welfare, but which is more appropriately understood as an important component of an enlarged conception of the law of animal welfare. How best to address the treatment of dangerous dogs, the surrender and abandonment of companion animals and companion animal overpopulation has so far proven to be difficult for regulators to satisfactorily resolve.