Liberation Preferable To Annihilation Option

Newcastle Herald

Wednesday August 18, 2004

Mark Pearson

And on the eighth day she was put to death. Crime: she was abandoned. LEGISLATION in NSW makes it an offence to unjustifiably, unreasonably or unnecessarily kill an animal. The only exemption is for the humane production of food.

There is no exemption to kill an animal just because it has passed its sell-by date.

The Companion Animals Act does provide for shelters to kill animals after seven days, but the shelter or pound is not obligated to "do the brutal deed".

So what is happening down at the local RSPCA shelter?

This little dog here in the picture was saved from a completely unnecessary death because the inspector who was instructed to "practice euthanasia" on him refused to do so and, rather, rescued the little girl and now she happily lives with a family in the north coast.

Intensive chicken farmer, Peter Bartter (of Bartter and Steggles), was approached by Bernie Murphy, chief executive officer RSPCA NSW to chair and drive fund-raising to build new shelters costing more than $100 million.

Two interesting questions here. RSPCA policy is opposed to intensively farming chickens based on very serious animal welfare concerns.

Why was the second largest intensive chicken farmer asked to help the RSPCA?

Secondly, we must ask whether some pounds and shelters are little more than "killing machines".

And we aren't talking about only a few animals here, it is tens of thousands.

They are healthy, full of energy and life; a life they have a right to live.

World best practice adopted by many shelters, including here in Australia, have implemented very successful pro-active re-homing programs, which involve sophisticated networking with large numbers of carers and creative advertising techniques to ensure all animals, that can be, are re-homed.

The only animals euthanased are those too sick or injured where it would be cruel to keep them alive and those which have been so abused they are an extreme safety risk for a carer, other people, animals and themselves.

World best practice is not only a possibility it is a reality in San Francisco, Los Angeles, parts of New York, the UK and Europe.

It is a reality in Australia too and with organisations of very limited resources such as the World League for the Protection of Animals, PAWS, Cat Defence and Monika's Dog Rescue, all in Sydney.

There are groups on the north coast and south of Sydney.

Rather than put millions of dollars into new shelters, the money could be used to implement a proven program which will save, in the end, hundreds of thousands of animals' lives.

That is closer to the charter of "for all creatures great and small" than putting man's best friends on death row.

So this is a call for the RSPCA to adopt the very best practice to help abandoned and lost animals. People, including breeders, in the community have put these animals in peril where they have no one to turn to but the organisation the public has created to fight the good fight for them. Fighting the good fight means implementing what really works and saves lives and this can only be done with co-operation with other groups as well.

I have enormous respect for the RSPCA's volunteers and employees who are doing the heart-breaking work on the frontline day in and day out. I know they would embrace such a program with open arms so that they don't finish work on Friday afternoon knowing the beautiful little kittens and that feisty, loving dog may well be dead Monday morning.

Killing healthy and even not so healthy animals which are full of life and hope is the ultimate betrayal; the final abandonment. This should not be "part of the job" down at the local RSPCA shelter. It just simply does not have to be.

The day may come when the "giant of animal welfare", the RSPCA, may feel the bite of the very legislation it enshrines. If it is going to kill an animal, it must convince the community, and the judiciary if it came to it that the killing is justifiable, reasonable and necessary.

With all the possible alternatives to death row for our abandoned companions, there is a growing reasonable doubt about whether it is necessary, except in extreme circumstances, to kill at all.

Mark Pearson is executive director of Animal Liberation and vice-president of Animals Australia.

© 2004 Newcastle Herald

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