Codes of Practice and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act

The Act allows the implementation of codes of practice relating to a wide range of activities involving animals.

The following codes are specifically implied in the Act:

Code of Practice for the Use of Small Steel-jawed Traps
Code of Practice for the Welfare of Rodeo and Rodeo School Livestock in Victoria
Code of Practice for the Housing and Care of Laboratory Mice, Rats, Guinea Pigs and Rabbits

The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Regulations 2008 contain considerable information about the requirements of these codes of practice

The Act also allows the making of regulations and the provision of penalties for their breach. However, the regulations do not apply to any act or practice with respect to the farming, transport, sale or killing of any farm animal if that act or practice is carried out in accordance with a code of practice.

See above for the DPI website where these codes can be found.

Special provisions applying to horses

Horses feature in several sections of the Act. It is an offence to:

knowingly or negligently ride an animal when it is unfit for the purpose
override an animal
use spurs with sharpened rowels on an animal
dock the tail of a horse unless on the advice of a veterinary surgeon and for an approved purpose
use the procedure known as 'firing '.

See also the requirements for rodeos below.

Special provisions applying to dogs

With regard to dogs, it is an offence to:

crop the ears of a dog unless on the advice of a Veterinary surgeon and for a therapeutic reason
debark a dog except on the advice of a veterinary surgeon
transport a dog in an open vehicle unless it is secured to prevent it from falling off or injuring itself
possess any dog-fighting implement except for display in a museum
use an electronic training collar on a dog other than in accordance with other prescribed rules.

Heritable Defects

It is an offence intentionally or recklessly to allow a cat or dog to breed if it has a heritable defect listed in the Schedule to the Act. It is also an offence to sell or dispose of a cat or dog with a heritable defect unless you tell the person to whom it is sold or disposed that it has such a defect.