As the world changes so do worldviews and therefore, so do the accepted morals and values of the time. With these changing morals and values come altering laws, amended or renewed to reflect these changing views. This is called law reform, in particular, the subject of Animal Welfare.
Laws in relation to animal welfare have been made and amended to restore justice and equality to the voiceless members of society. Before recent times, the rights of animals had been severely overlooked. Attention has been brought to breeding and slaughtering practices around the world through wide scale media. In such countries these processes fly under the radar and are rarely monitored, until now. This is when worldwide regulations have to be put in place to ensure that appropriate and adequate treatments are adhered to around the world.
Most animal cruelties on a small scale are kept quiet, and are performed either in secluded areas away from prying eyes or those who witness such things are unable or unsure of how to seek justice. Although most of the first laws regarding animal protection from human mistreatment were made in the early 19th Century, according to Peter Sankoff and Steven White’s book; ‘Animal Law in Australiasia’, these laws fall short of bringing adequate justice to the cruelties within Australia and New Zealand. Activists, academics, law professionals and many others share this view, giving even more reason to amend relevant legislation to cover any discrepancies and loopholes. Animal law has only recently emerged as a studied genre of law, which means it is slowly becoming more known.
The constitution is the basis for all Australian law and in this case, particularly from section 51. Firstly, section 51 of the Constitution provides that the 'Parliament shall… have power to make laws for peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to ' 39 subject matters, known as 'heads of power '. Although
Bibliography: * http://www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health/welfare * http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/reform * http://www.lawyersforanimals.org.au/documents/Animal-Law-Subject-Proposal.pdf * http://lawyersforanimals.org.au/ * http://www.federationpress.com.au/bookstore/book.asp?isbn=9781862877191 * http://www.animallaw.info/nonus/articles/ovaustrailia.htm * http://lsa.net.au/wcb-content/uploads/lsa/files/2011/Animal%20Law%20-%20a%20need%20for%20reform%20(LSA%20State%20Conference%20March%202011).pdf * http://www.alrc.gov.au/news-media/2008/will-‘animal-rights’-become-next-great-social-justice-movement * http://www.alrc.gov.au/news-media/2009/voiceless-animal-law-lecture-series