5th December 2008

The AEWA is very happy to announce that the Minister for Primary Industries and Water, David Llewellyn has now signed off on the Tasmanian Equine Code of Practice.  The CoP went through many different phases and edits, and has now finally been accepted as a Guideline under the Tasmanian Animal Welfare Act.  This development is an incredibly positive step forward and is hopefully an important step towards having minimum standards of equine care enforceable by law.

The Code has now been officially renamed as a Guideline and will not be enforceable by law, but rather act as an official advisory document that can be used by courts and others to help determine whether a particular action or inaction is a breach of the animal welfare legislation.  It is an important step forward simply because there were no equine welfare guidelines in place under the Act before today.   
 
The AEWA will work with the RSPCA and the DPIW to promote and publicise the document as well as advocate its adoption amongst horse owners, trainers, breeders and the within the racing industry.  The AEWA will also continue to lobby for the Equine Welfare Guidelines to be adopted as an Animal Welfare Standard under the new system, therefore making its minimum standards enforceable by law.  We will also continue to have input into the Model Code of Practice being developed for nationwide use by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, and will look forward to this document being accepted as one of the first national Animal Welfare Standards.
 
For further information on Guidelines and Standards, please visit the DPIW Animal Welfare Site here:
http://www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/webpages/EGIL-535VVF?Open#Animalwelfarestandards

Download the Code as a Word document here.