Livestock shade and shelter must be mandatory, says Animal Justice Party

The Vic Government is under pressure from Andy Meddick and the Animal Justice Party to make it an offence if farmers fail to provide livestock with shade and shelter.

If re-elected Labor has promised to introduce enforceable care requirements for livestock in Victoria, which include providing “appropriate shade and shelter”.

The Animal Justice Party is campaigning to make it mandatory for farmers to provide livestock with shade and shelter in all weather – rain, hail or sunshine.

AJP MP Andy Meddick has gained almost 4000 signatures on his petition calling on Agriculture Minister Gayle Tierney to make shade and shelter a mandatory care requirement for “all animals”.

Mr Meddick said farming communities were always saying “animal welfare was uppermost in their minds, (so) they shouldn’t resist this at all”.

“At the end of the day, if you’re raising an animal for slaughter, then you want to keep them in the best environment possible, to keep them in the best health.”

Victoria’s current codes of accepted farming practices are not mandatory, and in most instances simply state “all reasonable precautions should be taken to minimise the effects of weather that produce either cold stress or heat stress”.

Andy Meddick’s petition has gained almost 4000 signatures.

But the Labor Government plans to introduce new enforceable ‘care requirement’ for animals next year, if re-elected on November 26.

Those care requirements are yet to be defined, but Labor’s plan, released for public consultation last month, states it will ensure animals are kept in “a living environment that provides appropriate shade and shelter.

“A person who failed to ensure the care requirements are provided would be liable to financial penalties of up to 125 penalty units ($22,717 at 30 June 2022) or imprisonment of up to six months for an individual, or up to 625 penalty units ($113,587 at 30 June 2022) for a body corporate”.

Victorian Farmers Federation livestock president Steve Harrison said making shade and shelter requirements mandatory was unnecessary, given farmers were conscious of their livestock’s needs.

“It’s horses for courses,” Mr Harrison said. “You can have trees in paddocks when it’s 40C and the sheep will still stand out in the middle of the paddock.

“In our situation it has been difficult to grow trees, so we’ve put up tin walls for shade and shelter. One fella in our (Giffard) area has just put in 16km of tree shelters.”

Mr Meddick said he also wanted “CCTV cameras placed in all slaughter houses”, as part of the government’s animal welfare reform plan.

If re-elected Labor has promised its new legislation will not only recognise animal sentience – the capacity to feel fear and other emotions — in commercial and domestic animals but would cover a new range of species, from octopuses, squid, cuttlefish, lobsters and crabs to crayfish.