Animal Abusers In Australia Will Face 2 Years In Prison And $110,000 Fine

Those who harm animals in Australia will now be slapped with a lengthy prison sentence and huge fine, as new rules will come into law this November.

The tough new consequences will come into force as Australia cracks down on those who harm animals in their possession, via revised laws.

These laws include, at its harshest punishment, up to two years in prison and a $110,000(AUD) fine, having shot up fives times from $22,000. While $16,500 fines will be imposed on those who do not offer their pet enough food and acceptable shelter, which has risen from the already significant $5,500 and a possible six months behind bars.

The country’s Agriculture Minister, Adam Marshall, is set to legislate the new laws as soon as next week, which will hopefully be enough of a penalty to dissuade those who abuse animals from doing so – or at the very least, ensuring it sends the right message and impacts their life enough to prevent them from ever doing it again.

‘In some cases, these punishments are more than double that in most other states, so when these laws are passed, NSW [New South Wales] will have the toughest set of animal cruelty penalties in Australia,’ he revealed, ahead of the new sanctions.

Animal cruelty is a prevalent issue in countries across the world, with the RSPCA receiving around 14,000 complaints each year. However, only around 100 of those are ever prosecuted to anything in the above top tiers of punishment, meaning a vast majority are able to get away with their crimes relatively unpunished.

The idea is that increasing the consequences for harming animals will deter abusers and, if the right message is spread, see the numbers reduce annually.

The consequences for anyone found guilty of harm will now prohibit people from owning pets ever again. ‘For the very first time we will be giving powers to the courts to issue an order for an individual from ever owning, caring or even breeding an animal anywhere in NSW,’ Marshall clarified.

In 2017, a man from Sydney was found guilty of kicking and punching his dog, and swinging it by it’s lead, resulting in a $5,500 fine. Under new rulings, he’d see that massively increased to $44,000 and face jail time of up to a year.

Just this year, another abuser was imprisoned in Sydney for 16 months when he left his sheepdog to starve to death in its own filth on a balcony, after authorities found the deceased animal in 2019.