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Fw: an eye opener

Posted by: "Alahni" alahni1@gmail.com   alahni_2000

Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:03 pm (PST)

-------Original Message-------
I know many of you on this list are interested in Clover Moore's bill and some will be heartily sick of the discussion. However the following comments were sent to me with permission to cross post, and they have been very carefully thought out and detailed and I personally find it an eye opener.

Add to this that a representative of the Pet Shop Industry has stated that registered breeders should in their eyes be a breeder registered by the RSPCA. and the only person who I have heard to make a comment on this was Robert Zammit (on 2GB) who warned people that this bill was supported by PETA and if passed as it is would have severe ramifications on pet ownership:

First, Clause 11 places restrictions on advertising dogs for sale regardless of whether they are being sold through pet shops etc. The clause is a general prohibition on advertising mammals (other than livestock, and dogs are not defined as livestock) for sale unless they are "...at the time the advertisement is made, being kept at an animal shelter, council pound, veterinary practice or prescribed private home..." (clause 11 (b).  A prescribed private home is "a private dwelling at which a person looks after lost, stray, abandoned or surrendered mammals for the purposes of providing refuge until those mammals can be claimed or sold by the RSPCA (NSW), the Animal Welfare League, the Cat Protection Society or a non-profit organisation that is approved by the Minister ... " (4 Definitions). It would appear that a notice in the Dogs, NSW Journal Breeders Directory, or on any of the regular dog websites, could constitute an offence. We would want definitive clarification and rewording if that is not intended.  

Second, clause 10 provides that "A person must not, while at a shop, or market or any other place, or while conducting a business that is connected
with a shop or market, act, or purport to act, as an intermediary to negotiate and obtain for another person (the customer), whether as a vendor
or purchaser, the sale of a mammal unless .... (c) the mammal is, at the time the person acts or purports to act as an intermediary, being kept at an animal shelter, council pound" etc etc as above.  So, you may be committing an offence if you offer to find a puppy for a person who, at a show, asks you about puppies available. You may even be committing an offence if you direct that person to a registered breeder. Apart from the fact that the clause says you can't act as an intermediary at "any other place," the definition of a market includes "a) any fair, and

(b) any similar event to a market or fair, and (c) any booth or stall at any market, fair or similar event."  

Third, clause 13 provides that no one can carry on a business of selling dogs or propagating dogs for sale unless they are members of the RNSWCC or any other body approved by the Minister. That looks fine, except that it in no way restrains the impact of clause 11 (no advertising) on those recognised breeders. So even recognised breeders though recognised in the draft Bill as having a legitimate business selling and propagating dogs would not be allowed to advertise puppies for sale.  

I am amazed that this has got so far with so little comment from Dogs, NSW and other advocates. A Notice of Motion was given in June. The Bill has now been introduced by Clover Moore MP on 18 October, when an "Agreed to in Principle" speech was given.  I would hope that the Bill as it stands does not receive a second reading, because a formal second reading speech in Parliament is one of the last  steps before the passage of the Bill to seek the Governor's assent, when it will become an Act of Parliament - the law!