Yes, Fish Are Animals Too – SA Updates Animal Welfare Act
South Australia has introduced new reforms to the Animal Welfare Act. The revisions introduce tougher penalties for humans caught abusing some animals as well as minimum standards of care, allowing authorities to intervene when a companion animal is being neglected.
The new rules have also finally updated South Australia’s definition of an animal to include fish. As PETA pointed out in our submission to the bill’s consultation, fish are sentient animals with consciousness and cognition comparable to other animals.
The government says that its inclusion of fish aims to address cruel practices such as harvesting shark fins and stingray tails. Recreational and typical commercial fishing activities are not affected by the new laws and remain under the control of the Fisheries Management Act.
Piercing fishes’ delicate mouths with painful hooks or scooping them up in nets to haul them from their homes – and the only environment in which they can breathe – to club, behead, and gut is inherently cruel. Such acts would never be exempt were they happening to a dog or cat.
While we’re glad to see progress in updating the bill, to rightly recognise fish as animals would have included them in all laws against cruelty to animals.
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