In the Media 2006

Call to delete legal loophole
7 April 2006
Northern Times
By Elise Martin

WILDLIFE Warriors at Beerwah's Australian Wildlife Hospital are hoping to change State Government Legislation to offer animals a fighting chance against development.

Wildlife Warriors Executive Manager Michael Hornby said the group was formulating a case which they hoped to later present to the State Government, the Environmental Protection Agency and to Queensland Parks and Wildlife.

Mr Hornby said the group hoped to see spotter-catchers used to assess areas of land before approval was given for the development.

“(The spotter-catchers) would assess the potential impacts of clearing and recommend ways of reducing that impact,” he said. “That would include taking steps to relocate the wildlife if possible.”

Mr Hornby said the Warriors also wanted to see the current Animal Care and Protection Act strengthened to remove loopholes.

“It is (now) an offence to knowingly perform an act of animal cruelty, but that is a loophole, because people say they didn't know,” he said.

“We want people to have to take responsibility for the wildlife which is on the land they own and understand the impact they are having.

“We want to see people start at the start, not to try to repair the damage once they have knocked down all of the trees.

“We also want to ensure to quality of the spotter-catchers' work is consistent, by introducing a code of practise.”

Mr Hornby said the group had recently received $10,000 toward their research by Sydney-based foundation, Voiceless.

“We want to take a sensible, pragmatic, tandem approach for a win-win situation,” he said.