Animals in Australia are suffering terribly. They have no voice, can not defend themselves and are considered ‘objects’ under our law.

As a society, we justify the suffering of animals in many ways.

• Cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and turkeys are considered ‘food products’. We therefore find it acceptable for them to be confined in barren cages for their entire lives, given no access to the outdoors, denied normal social interactions with their family groups, physically mutilated, removed from their mothers and generally treated in a manner in which we would find abhorrent (and illegal) for our ’companion animals’.
• Introduced species such as foxes, rabbits and feral cats are considered to damage the country and are therefore ‘justifiably’ shot and poisoned.
• Primates, who we know are remarkably intelligent, as well as horses, dogs, pigs, rabbits and the humble mouse undergo traumatic procedures such as burning and dismembering in the name of scientific experimentation despite many existing available alternatives.
• We see wild animals in documentaries and are awed by their complex family groups and perfect adaptation to their natural environment, be it in the Arctic or the African plains. These majestic creatures peer out of their enclosures in Australian zoos under the guise of ‘education’ and ‘conservation’ although they will never be returned to the wild. Others are given short moments of ‘freedom’ to perform tricks for us in circuses.
• Ask an Australian why our proud national icon the Kangaroo is killed? The answer will be because they are a ‘pest’. This term effectively demonises the kangaroo despite the fact that they were here well before us or our sheep and cattle. The term 'pest', furthermore, purportedly justifies the annual slaughter of millions of kangaroos and the suffering of hundreds of thousands of joeys legally clubbed to death, or otherwise left to starve or die from hypothermia in their mothers’ pouches.

Get informed about animal protection issues and see for yourself the cruelty and injustice that animals live and die by each day, across our country.

Some facts and figures:

• More than 335,000 female pigs (sows) are kept inside sheds continually pregnant and confined.[i]  62% of them live in ‘sow crates’ for part of their reproductive cycle.[ii]  Sow crates are 0.6m x 2.0m.[iii]  Sows are not able to turn around or take more than one step forward or back.  Around 10 million 'battery' hens are held in barren wire cages in Australia.[iv]  Each hen has just 450sqcm - 550sqcm of space (less than an A4 size piece of paper), with not even enough space to stretch her wings fully, to freely move or to exercise. Click here to learn more about factory farming.   
• In the past five years more than 260,000 sheep and 5,800 cattle have died on board livestock vessels.  Last year 35,534 sheep and 769 cattle died.[v]  We can not measure the suffering of those animals that survive the journey. Check out the live export fact sheet at the Animals Australia website.
• More than 6 million animals including primates, horses and dogs are used in research and teaching each year in Australia. Many of these experiments are not necessary and can be replaced by existing alternative methodologies. Click here to learn more about animal experimentation.
• 130,000 dogs and 60,000 cats are killed each year in pounds because they have been abandoned. Check out the companion animal fact sheet at the Animals Australia website, and to learn more on this issue, visit the Deathrow Pets site.
• 30 million kangaroos have been shot over the last decade. [vi] A further 3 million young-at-foot were orphaned, left to starve or exposed to attack by predators.  Under the current regulatory regime, it is lawful to kill joeys by decapitation or a heavy blow to the skull. Learn more about kangaroos at the Australian Wildlife Protection Council website. [vii]
  
• Millions of native animals are killed on Australian roads every year. Their pouch young often die slowly from hypothermia or starvation if they survive the initial vehicle collision. Learn more about road–kill at the Road Ecology Research Group, University of New South Wales.

1. Australian Pig Annual 2004, Australian Pork Limited (2005), p 10. 
   
2. Animal Welfare Science Centre & Department of Primary Industries, Pigs: Welfare Audit for the Pork Industry, A reference document for industry quality assurance programs, April 2004. 
3. Standing Committee on Agriculture and Resource Management, Australian Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals – Pigs (2^nd edition, 1998), SCARM Report No. 66, CSIRO Publishing. 
4. Australian Egg Corporation Limited, Australian Egg Industry Annual Statistical Publication 2003, (Australian Egg Corporation Limited), 2004, p 48. 
5. Australian Government Department of Agriculture Fisheries & Foresty, ‘Livestock Mortalities for Exports by Sea’ 
   
6. Maryland Wilson and David B. Croft, A Sampling of Kangaroos Myths & Realities, Australian Wildlife Protection Council Inc, p 2. 
7. Maryland Wilson and David B. Croft, Kangaroos Myths & Realities , Australian Wildlife Protection Council Inc, p 6 (as updated 2005) and  p 111.