According to the Animal Medicines Australia ‘Pets in Australia – A national survey of pets and people’ report, 61% of Australian households have a pet, while 90% of Australian households have had pets at some stage.
‘There are almost 29 million pets in Australia today- more than the estimated human population of 25 million.’ (Editors note: Correct at time of original publishing)
It stands to reason that every Australian will inevitably have an animal encounter or many throughout their life and of those, many will inevitably have animals in their care. This means that living with animals is essentially a ‘Life Skill’ that every Australian should know, but unless we are taught, how do we know how to understand, interact and care for animals? More importantly with select Government parties currently pushing to enforce harsher penalties for animal cruelty, it would stand to reason that we would educate people in how to regard, care for and keep animals along with the laws that surround that responsibility in order to prevent anyone inadvertently causing cruelty to an animal out of ignorance.
It would also make sense that basic Companion Animal education would be introduced into our school curriculum as a starting point to instill such life skills into our children for the future benefit of animals in general. Not just as an elective for secondary and tertiary school entry level but for all grades from kindergarten through to year 12 as a structured subject as we do Maths, English or Science. Doing this would ensure that every student has the opportunity to learn about pet ownership and how to be a responsible pet owner, and more importantly how to interact with animals, as this would surely help prevent situations where children are involved in animal attacks. There is a lot to be said in the old phrase of ‘Prevention is better than cure’.
Unfortunately, bringing animal education into school curriculum is not our governments’ focus. While animal welfare advocates are in high favour of education to prevent animal cruelty, there are minorities with loud voices and standing positions within government that highly prefer brute enforcement, harsher penalties and animal bans. Methods that have been proven not to prevent animal cruelty.
Whilst there are governing animal bodies i.e.: for dogs and cats, and other small organisations that are involved in mobile animal education initiatives, such programs are very hit and miss and do not target all schools, nor all grades and children. Even Local Government education days set up at local council animal shelters require the public to come to them, so these do not target the community as a whole to learn the much-needed message about responsible pet ownership. Mobile animal education initiatives are definitely a positive direction for animal welfare and even a small audience is better than none, but if we really want to make an impact on animal welfare for the better then we need to think bigger. Companion animal education needs to be solidified into school curriculum as a non-elective, then ALL schools and ALL students will receive that education in their classroom.
The benefits of education outweigh the results of enforcement.
There is definitely a place for enforcement as there are always going to be a minority of people intent on knowingly doing the wrong thing, however, enforcement occurs after an act of cruelty has occurred, and therefore has not prevented it at all. Enforcement also does not deter an act of cruelty, people who knowingly do the wrong thing are just incentivised to find ways of not getting caught. In fact, a majority of cruelties occur out of pure ignorance and are not an intentional act to do harm at all. Ignorance is easily prevented by education.
On the 28th March 2022, during the 2021 Inquiry into the Approved Charitable organisations under the prevention of cruelty to animals Act 1979, Mark Slater, (then) Chief Executive Officer of the Animal Welfare League NSW was asked by The Honourable Scott Barrett:
“Does educating people work, before the inspectorate needs to get involved, to do things better?”
Marks response was:
“Yes, it is a double-edged sword. It is not necessarily a good thing to focus on prosecution because the nature of animal ownership can sometimes be based on parochial knowledge. To prosecute someone – even though in the eyes of the law ignorance is not a defence, it is better to educate someone than drag them through court for two years and then create a bad taste in someone’s mouth which can perpetuate itself into other problems in terms of animal welfare moving forward. The education does work. Working with some people in terms of ownership, body score, what good care looks like, prophylactics, worming, veterinary care is part and parcel of what the inspectorate undertake on a daily basis. It does work.”
While enforcement will certainly tackle the deliberate cases of animal cruelty, it will be education that will see a majority of acts of cruelty decline.
How will education help increase animal welfare?
Education will definitely raise standards in animal welfare across the board from companion animals and animals in agriculture to wildlife conservation. It will instill a starting point for responsible pet ownership and animal awareness.
Australia is a diverse and multicultural continent, and many cultures have different views about how they keep and regard animals. Companion Animal education in the school curriculum will bring to families from other cultures the knowledge and awareness they need on how to be responsible pet owners in their communities and that there are laws and expectations required when keeping and/or breeding animals.
Children would understand basic animal behaviour, how to and how not to approach animals and how to respect an animal’s space. This can prevent animal attacks within the home by family pets.
Companion animal education will also teach the responsibilities of pet ownership, and that size and species of the animal kept as a pet does not determine the size of the responsibility nor the costs involved. Children would learn how to make good choices when considering bringing a pet into the home along with the importance and benefits of training, socialisation and containing pets. What is and isn’t acceptable when having pets in a public space i.e., keeping dogs on leads etc When not within its premises.
Children would learn how to conduct themselves around Guide dogs and service animals and the important role that they have in our society. Children should also learn the basics in what to do in an animal emergency situation.
If we are to improve animal welfare then we need to stop focusing on the punishment as enforcing harsher penalties and punishment does not address and solve the source of the problem. Instead, we should be preventing the cruelty from happening to begin with by giving people the knowledge and skills they need to do better.
Education is the long-term solution.
By: Rachel Sydenham – Animal Care Australia Small Mammals Representative. Originally published: December 2022 ACE Newsletter.
