Tag Archives: sentience

Pet owners who fail to walk their dogs daily face $2,700 fine in this Australian territory

Posted on October 2, 2019 | 1 comment

Dog owners could be fined up to $2,700 (AU$4,000) if they don’t walk their pets at least once a day under new legislation recognizing animals as sentient beings in the Australian Capital Territory.

Dog owners walk their pets (file photo).

The Animal Welfare Legislation Amendment Bill, which became law on Thursday, imposes a range of strict penalties in a bid to improve animal welfare.

Owners can face heavy on-the-spot fines if they fail to provide basics like shelter, food and water. People who confine dogs for 24 hours must also allow them to move freely for the next two hours or face prosecution.

The territory is the first jurisdiction in Australia to recognize animal sentience.

“Modern animal welfare is about considering how an animal is coping both mentally and physically with the conditions in which it lives,” ACT City Service Minister Chris Steel, who secured the bill, said in a media release.

Source: CNN

1 Comment

Posted in animal welfare, dog care, Dogs

Tagged dog walking, sentience

Desmond’s Law – and more coming

Posted on April 25, 2019 | Leave a comment

Desmond’s Law, in the US State of Connecticut, came into force in October 2016.

Desmond’s Law is a program that uses qualified pro-bono lawyers and volunteer law students to provide investigations to guide the court in animal abuse cases.

The program is discretionary and under the supervision of the Court
It allows volunteer advocates to access facts, records and other information regarding the animal, readily share information with each party (prosecutor, defense attorney), and make recommendations to the Court
It applies only to cases involving cats and dogs
The court-appointed advocate does not directly represent the animal, but rather the ‘interests of justice’

A Harvard Journal on Legislation article published last year discusses that the law, although groundbreaking, could be significantly stronger if it allowed the advocates to represent the animal – as is currently done in child abuse cases using a children’s advocate. The rationale is that animals are sentient, as are children, and so they deserve stronger advocacy to represent their interests in the court system

Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island all have similar laws in the development and, hopefully, these laws will expand upon Desmond’s Law with even stronger advocacy for animals.

Desmond’s body was found in a trash bag in the woods, emaciated, bruised, and starved. As punishment, his abuser was given Accelerated Rehabilitation, and the incident has been expunged from his record.

Kathleen Crisley, Fear-Free certified professional and specialist in dog massage, rehabilitation and nutrition/food therapy, The Balanced Dog, Christchurch, New Zealand

Dogs are people, too

Posted on December 22, 2013 | 3 comments

In this New York Times opinion piece, Professor Gregory Berns discusses the MRI findings of brain activity in dogs, the evidence for ‘sentience’ and the reasons why dogs’ rights should go beyond consideration of animals as property.

For anyone involved in animal welfare advocacy, it is essential to have animal welfare laws that recognise dogs as sentient beings – with the ability to experience emotions like love and grief – because abuse and harm done to sentient beings carries a higher penalty in law than if an item of property is damaged. (In many areas, dogs are considered nothing more than property.)