Animal cruelty Victoria: Number of complaints, penalties and prosecutions

Agriculture Victoria has fielded more than 1000 animal cruelty complaints – but just a fraction are proven.

Animal cruelty complaints are up, but less than a third are actually substantiated. Picture: File. Zoe Phillips

Less than ​a third of animal cruelty complaints made to Agriculture Victoria in the past 18 months were proven – and just 1 per cent led to a criminal conviction.

New data from the department shows despite receiving 1731 animal cruelty complaints between July 2021 and December 2022, only 559 were substantiated.

Of those, 23 cases resulted in a successful prosecution in court, while three infringement notices were issued.

Among the most serious cases were:

A BULOKE farmer fined $60,000 and banned from owning or being in charge of any farm animal for 10 years, after aggravated cruelty led to the death of numerous cattle in his herd;

A WALKERVILLE farmer fined $50,000 and a 10-year ban after numerous sheep in his flock of 2300 died;

AN Avenel farmer fined $40,000 after pleading guilty to 34 charges relating to failing to look after and properly feed his 1500 sheep; and

A MELBOURNE man fined $25,000 for failing to properly care for cattle at his Mirboo property.

An Agriculture Victoria spokeswoman said the agency responded to all allegations received in accordance with legislation and departmental procedures.

The department has previously said early intervention and other prevention methods such as education mitigate the animal welfare issues, meaning prosecution is not needed.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano said the figures showed the complaints system was working and that education should always be the basis for tackling animal welfare issues.

“The difference between 1731 complaints and 559 being legitimate would potentially demonstrate the lack of understanding about how agriculture happens,” Ms Germano said.

“It could be that someone thinks something they see driving past a farm is an animal welfare concern, so there needs to be that capacity for people to find out how things are grown and raised.”

​​Animal welfare ​is set to dominate agricultural policy in the new year, with state and federal governments last week agreeing to look at ways to improve the development of national standards and guidelines.

The Victorian Government will be seeking to get its new animal welfare laws – which recognise animal sentience and include a suite of mandatory standards of care – through parliament in 2023.

Animal welfare complaints, July 2021-December 2022

Total complaints: 1731

Substantiated complaints: 559

Advisory letters sent: 431

Warning letters: 43​

Successful prosecutions: 23

Infringement notices: 3

Source: Agriculture Victoria