URGENT NOW!! Victorian Sheep Inquiry

Sheep Advocate Australia (SAA) has documented the widespread mistreatment of sheep on Victorian farms, and highlighted the repeated failure of the regulator, Agriculture Victoria, to ensure that producers comply with Victoria’s animal welfare laws.

Ultimately, SAA has identified significant systemic failures in the legislative and regulatory framework that exists to protect the welfare of Victorian sheep.

SAA has formed the view that there is an urgent need for a Parliamentary Inquiry into:

• The extent to which Victorian farmers are failing to comply with their obligations under the POCTA and the Sheep Code,

• The adequacy of Victoria’s current laws, and whether amendments should be made to the POCTA, the Sheep Code and/or the draft Animal Care and Protection Bill 2024, and

• The adequacy of the current regulatory framework, and whether there is a need for an independent and better resourced animal welfare regulator (i.e. a body that is not also responsible for promoting animal agriculture in the State).

This lamb deserved better - mutiple reports of cruelty at this farm and 6 years later? 

Nothing has changed.

Join us in telling Ros Spence, the Minister for Agriculture that this isn't good enough.

We need an inquiry NOW!

Dear Minister Spence,

I write to you in support of the request raised by Greens Member Ms Katherine Copsey for a Parliamentary Inquiry into the Victorian Sheep Industry, its practices, and the processes of the regulator, Agriculture Victoria, in upholding animal welfare frameworks and laws.

I understand that Sheep Advocate Australia (SAA) has been calling for such an inquiry since February of this year, and the recent developments in Case #17587 (East Bendigo) make it abundantly clear why this inquiry must be brought forward ahead of the many others currently queued.

We appreciate that initiating a new inquiry so late in an elected term presents challenges. However, given the imminent release of the Animal Care and Protections Bill, and its inadequacy in protecting sheep, we believe this matter is urgent. The removal of all references to the Code of Practice within the draft Bill, and the broad powers granted to you as Minister to amend the Code and define industry practices, make it imperative that such powers are guided by evidence and transparency — something only a Parliamentary Inquiry can provide.

We therefore ask that you raise and prioritise an inquiry into the Victorian Sheep Industry as a matter of urgency, and that its findings be timed to coincide with the release of the Care and Protections Bill, so that the inquiry’s recommendations can directly inform the draft legislation before it becomes Victoria’s new Welfare Act.

It is clear from SAA’s work over the past four years that the current system is not functioning and that sheep in Victoria remain without meaningful protection. Their ongoing investigations — most recently the East Bendigo case — have revealed repeated and systemic failures in both practice and enforcement.

Minister, we urge you — we implore you — to support Katherine Copsey’s request for a Parliamentary Inquiry and to act decisively to give sheep the protection they so desperately need.

Your government has consistently stated that it seeks to be progressive and to improve the welfare system “for the protection of the industry.” We ask that you now make good on that promise — by putting the welfare of animals first.

Thank you, Minister Spence, for your time and consideration.