ARLAN WEB SITE REVIEW (August 2002)

The New South Wales Young Lawyers Animal Rights Committee:
http://www.lawsociety.com.au/page.asp?partid=6153

By Deidre Bourke

The NSW Young Lawyers Animal Rights Committee is an Australian based group of lawyers interested in animal welfare and laws regulating the treatment of animals. Their website is really practical and informative, and well worth a regular visit if you are interested in being kept updated on current animal law related issues and debates going on in Australia.

The “urgent action” section of the website focuses on particularly pressing and controversial initiatives affecting animals, from new or proposed legislation to government planned culls or pest management programmes of concern. The site gives you access to the media releases, articles, letters and submissions made by the Committee in relation to these issues, as well as any responses they have received.

The website also contains information on current and past projects undertaken by the Committee, including their work on issues such battery hen cages, the NSW Kangaroo Management Programme, the rights of students to conscientiously object to course requirements that involve them harming or killing animals, and the various submissions they have made in relation to new Bills or legislative reviews.

In addition, there is a wealth of information on animal law generally: with links to Australian animal-related legislation and animal law websites around the world, as well as details of law schools offering courses in animal law and recommended texts in the area. The site also contains copies of articles and papers that the Committee has prepared, such as: “Sentencing under our anti-cruelty statutes: why leniency will come back to bite us”; “how to make a submission and influence the decision-making process” and general works like “Animals and Ethics”. Not surprisingly perhaps, many of the issues and debates being raised in Australia and which are discussed on this website will be familiar to animal advocates in New Zealand. This is particularly the case in regards to sentencing issues in animal cruelty cases, factory-farming and in the area of pest management. This makes the website of the NSW Young Lawyers Animal Rights Committee a particularly relevant and valuable resource for New Zealand based animal advocates and legal practitioners interested in animal law.