Demand more funding to protect animal rights and a stronger legislative response to prosecute offenders.

Animal cruelty is a blight on our community and is an indicator of future crimes against society. The way we treat our children, our elders, our animals and our earth relects the health and sophistication of our community. Individual and mass cases of cruelty, (for financial gain), feature too regularly in the mainstream and alternative media, both here and overseas. Current legislation does not support efficient and effective prosecution of perpetrators, nor prevent future crimes and cruel practices against wildlife, domesticated creatures, and animals bred for food. In addition, our taxes are not utilised to help assist in animal protection, meaning groups/agencies which either fully volunteer, or rely on major fundraising to operate, expend valuable time, energy and resources just continuing their (our) work of rehabilitating victims of cruel, or neglectful humans. To prosecute offenders is an expensive and exhaustive process, so it is probable only cases likely to succeed reach court. This petition calls on all levels of government in each State/Territory of Australia to work together to build universal legislation which protects the rights of all land and marine animals, fish and birds so that courts can use the full force of that legislation to punish perpetrators of cruelty and neglect to a level reflecting community standards. In addition, this petition calls on the three tiers of goverment to budget to include funding protection of animal rights, including educating all Australians about community expectations.