The concern of the Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party (SFFP) is that the officious and overzealous raids of people’s homes by the RSPCA will target Mum and Dad small scale pet breeders and livestock farmers.

SFFP Deputy Leader Philip Donato says the party believes that animal cruelty is abhorrent and is in no way acceptable, tolerated or condoned, but that the party won’t back giving more power to the RSPCA to attack hobby and recreational breeders and farmers.

“Prosecute those doing the wrong thing, those engaged in intensive production neglecting the animal welfare codes – but don’t stand by and allow the RSPCA to target the low hanging fruit of hobby breeders, and families that have sold a puppy or two.

“The Bill, brought by the Nats and supported by The Greens failed to include changes that would increase the accountability of the RSPCA, all it did was hand them the power to dole out bigger fines,” said Mr Donato.

“We’ve seen this behaviour before with the Greyhound Racing Ban of 2016 – dog breeders today, farmers and livestock, cat and bird breeders tomorrow. It’s the start of a slippery slope.”

Member for Barwon Roy Butler says that until the Government deals with the overreach of the RSPCA and puts in place accountability measures the SFFP won’t support increases in penalties.

“We have people in the Barwon electorate finding RSPCA inspectors on their property, in their paddocks unannounced – a total invasion of these hard working farmers’ home and work place.

“This organisation charged by the Government to enforce their laws must be held accountable for their actions. For such significant power the burden of proof needs to be extremely high. It’s not always clear to me such a threshold is reached,” said Mr Butler.

“I cannot support increasing penalties until we see a higher degree of transparency from the RSPCA.”

Download a PDF copy the media release here.