Animal welfare law

The Animal Care and Protection Act 2001 places a legal ‘duty of care’ on anyone in charge of animals to meet the needs of those animals in an appropriate way.

Aims of the Act

The Animal Care and Protection Act has four aims:

• to promote the responsible care and use of animals
• to provide standards for animal care and use that:
  • balance the welfare of animals with the interests of people whose livelihoods depend on animals
  • allow for advancements in scientific knowledge and changes in community expectations about practices involving animals
• to protect animals from unjustifiable, unnecessary or unreasonable pain
• to ensure that the use of animals for scientific purposes is accountable, open and responsible.

Animals that the Act covers

The Animal Care and Protection Act covers all living vertebrate animals (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish) as well as cephalopod invertebrates (octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus).

It also applies to a:

• live pre-natal mammal or reptile foetus in the last half of gestation or development
• young pre-hatched bird, mammal or reptile in the last half of development
• live marsupial young.

The eggs, spat or spawn of fish are not considered animals.

Enforcing the Act

Biosecurity Queensland and the RSPCA have inspectors throughout Queensland to investigate complaints about animal neglect or cruelty and ensure compliance with the Animal Care and Protection Act. Police officers, while not inspectors, can respond to animal welfare complaints.

Offences under the Act

Under the Animal Care and Protection Act, it’s an offence for anyone in charge of an animal to:

• abandon or release it, cause cruelty or breach their duty of care
• organise, supply animals to, participate in, or be present at prohibited events, such as dog fighting, coursing, certain types of hunting and other events that cause animals pain
• conduct certain surgical procedures on animals (unless performed humanely by a licensed veterinarian for the benefit of the animal), including cropping dogs’ ears; docking tails of dogs, cattle or horses; debarking dogs; and removing cats’ claws
• possess and use certain traps and spurs
• administer, feed or lay a bait, or a harmful or poisonous substance, to injure or kill an animal
• allow it to injure or kill another animal.

The Act also details specific offences relating to the treatment of dogs. These offences relate to:

• an obligation to exercise closely confined dogs
• cropping dogs’ ears and tails
• knowingly causing an animal in captivity to be injured or killed by a dog
• releasing an animal to allow it to be, or in circumstances in which it is likely to be, injured or killed by a dog
• keeping or using an animal as a kill or lure to blood a dog or to race or train a coursing dog.

Read more about the Animal Care and Protection Act.

Animal welfare codes of practice

Animal welfare codes of practice contain guidelines and information to ensure the considerate and humane treatment of animals. They outline the minimum acceptable animal welfare outcomes.

It is important to understand your obligations under the codes—ignorance is no excuse for inappropriate treatment of animals.

Animal welfare codes generally state that certain things should be done and other things must be done, with a mix of general and prescriptive statements. They are not comprehensive manuals on how to care for animals. 

Most codes of practice are voluntary. However, some codes are compulsory if the risk to animal welfare is high enough to require compulsory compliance. These include:

Queensland code of practice for the welfare of animals in circuses

Australian code of practice for the care and use of animals for scientific purposes

Parts of the adopted poultry code and pig code  

Read more about animal welfare codes of practice.

Duty of care

Under the Animal Care and Protection Act, if you’re in charge of an animal you have a duty of care to that animal—no matter why you’re in charge of it, what you’re using it for or how long it will be in your care. In certain cases, even if you are not directly in charge of the animal, but have an interest (either commercial or otherwise), then you may also be legally in charge. This is often the case in agistment situations where you may own the animal but keep it on someone else’s land.

If you have a duty of care to an animal, you’re legally obligated to provide 'appropriate care' for it by meeting its needs in a reasonable way.

Read more about duty of care to animals.  

Welfare and transport of animals

Under the Animal Care and Protection Act, any person in charge of an animal being transported has a duty of care to maintain the animal's welfare before, during and after transport.

National model codes of practice outline acceptable minimum practices for transporting animals by land.

Read more about the codes of practice for transporting animals.

Exhibiting animals

In Queensland, you need a licence or permit to exhibit animals in:

• zoos
• wildlife parks
• wildlife demonstrations
• circuses
• magic acts
• film or television productions.

Licences and permits allow you to keep, house, display and transport the animals you exhibit.

Exhibited animals are also protected by animal welfare, biosecurity and environmental protection laws.

 Find out more about exhibiting animals in Queensland.

Laws for vets

Veterinarians have general responsibilities and specific roles under the Animal Care and Protection Act.

Veterinarians have to abide by the Act in the same way as the rest of the community, and they also have duty of care obligations to any animals in their care. The Act also allows vets to:

• perform certain procedures in the interests of an animal's welfare, such as dock a horse's tail or declaw a cat if there are medical reasons why these need to be done
• give harmful substances to an animal, such as Lethobarb for humane destruction.

 More about animal welfare laws for vets.

Making a complaint

If you suspect cruelty to animals or that animals aren't being cared for properly, you should make an animal welfare complaint.

Ideally, an animal welfare inspector should talk to someone about how to properly look after an animal before an offence is committed. Generally, once a person commits the offence, the animal has already suffered, which should be avoided where possible.

Complaints about commercial livestock

Biosecurity Queensland handles complaints about commercial livestock, including poultry businesses.

To make a complaint, phone the Customer Service Centre on 13 25 23 between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday. You can leave a voicemail message outside these times but it won’t be received until 8am the next business day.

Complaints about hobby farms and pets

The RSPCA handles complaints about hobby farms and pets.

To contact the RSPCA, phone 1300 264 625 between 8am and 7pm, 7 days a week. RSPCA ambulance staff answer calls outside these times.

When to call the police

If you can’t reach Biosecurity Queensland or the RSPCA and the matter is urgent, you can also phone your local police station.

Always phone the police if there’s been a road accident involving animals.

Read more about the animal welfare complaints process.

Further information

• Contact the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Customer Service Centre on 13 25 23 between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday.
• Read how the Animal Welfare League of Queensland assists with the care, shelter and re-homing of cats and dogs.
• How the RSPCA improves the lives of all Queensland domestic, farmed and native animals.