Animal welfare legislation in South Australia underwent amendments 2008, where all the maximum penalties for animal offences were doubled. This commitment to increased arguably provides evidence of legislature's intent with respect penalties. Studies have speculated that legislative behind is not being reflected courts. interdisciplinary research sought gain confirm or disprove these speculations, by quantifying average custodial sentence and monetary fine handed down court before after 2008...

Animal welfare is not included in the Australian Constitution, rendering it a residual power of states and territories. Commentators have suggested that inconsistencies exist between state territory statutes, uniform approach would be beneficial. However, there has been no comprehensive assessment nature or extent these purported inconsistencies. This review addresses this gap by providing state-by-state comparison animal protection statutes based on key provisions. Utilizing systematic...

The state-based approach to regulating animal welfare in Australia is thought create national dis-uniformity that each state and territory legislates operates inconsistently. legal framework of the eight Australian jurisdictions made up a primary statute subordinate legislation, where forms regulations codes practices, are lower-ranking laws given power under jurisdiction's specific statute. Since review statutes identified broad patterns between jurisdictions, this study intended be...

Media portrayals of animal cruelty can shape public understanding and perception welfare law. Given that law in Australia is guided partially by ‘community expectations’, the media might indirectly be influencing recent reform efforts to amend maximum penalties Australia, through guiding shaping opinion. This paper reports on Australian news articles which refer for published between 1 June 2019 December 2019. Using electronic database Newsbank, a total 71 were included thematic analysis....

Nature of reform to animal welfare legislation in Australia has commonly been attributed increasing alignment with the ‘communities’ expectations’, implying that community power driving legislative change. Yet, despite this assertion there no publicly available information disclosing nature these ‘expectations’, or methodology used determine public stance. However, based on previous sociological research, as well legal reforms have taken place increase maximum penalties for offences, it is...

Animal welfare legislation in Australia is influenced by "community expectations." Given a major source of publicly available information on animal law that from media articles, it likely the discussed online could be influencing public opinion and consequently shaping reform efforts. This study examined social discourse response to news articles Australia. A content analysis was applied Facebook comments posts originating formal agency discussing cruelty penalties over 6-month period...