Call for stronger animal welfare laws in Cook Islands

Transcript

Animal welfare and tourism groups in the Cook Islands are banding together to get the government to punish the mistreatment of animals.

They say people have been getting away with mistreating stock and domestic pets with no real penalty for years.

Koro Vaka'uta reports.

Staff at the Rarotongan Beach Resort and Spa say tourists have become increasingly aware and distressed by the mistreatment of animals they see. Its Managing Director Tata Crocombe says the tethering of animals around the neck or leg without water or food is particularly an issue.

TATA CROCOMBE: For those people who are animal lovers, it can be very distressing and in fact ruin their holiday to see animals in a state of distress themselves and without anybody seeming to take any positive and constructive action to address the concerns.  You quite often see pigs that are tied up and have got no food at all, no water, no shelter, nothing at all to eat and just a few steps away is the tropical abundance of a tropical island.    

Animal welfare laws in the Cook Islands are almost non-existent. A founder of the local SPCA Elmah McBirney says the lack of welfare legislation means the stiffest penalty for animal mistreatment has been 20 dollars under the police law. Ms McBirney says this doesn't act as a deterrent at all.

ELMAH MCBIRNEY: If the government just don't talk, talk and they put something down on paper and make it legal.  We are hoping that will happen.  We're getting there.  We are going for that.  If the government can put something together maybe people will listen.    

The Esther Honey Foundation is the only provider of veterinary care in the islands.  Its president Cathy-Sue Ragan-Anunsen says penalties need to constitute more than just a slap on the wrist.

CATHY-SUE RAGAN-ANUNSEN: Animals experience physical and physiological pain and suffering.  Protecting the welfare of animals is important to the animals themselves and also produces a range of economic, health and environmental benefits for the whole community.

The Ministry of Agriculture's Tiria Rere says legislation surrounding animals hasn't changed since 1974.

TIRIA RERE: We don't have any Act to back us up in prosecuting people who don't look after their animals.  Our Act is now being reviewed and I have asked the Ministry to include animal welfare in our Act once it starts being renewed and updated.

Mr Rere says while the Agriculture Act will cover livestock and farm animals there's still a need for smaller, domestic pets to be covered and he says the government will need to work with the SPCA to address that. Mr Rere hopes to have the review complete by the end of the year. But Mr Crocombe says it shouldn't take that long.

TATA CROCOMBE: It's a long-term public education issue.  The government needs to provide leadership.  I understand the Agriculture Department is looking at changing legislation but it probably needs to accelerate the time-frame down to a few months and get some sensible, practical, legislation in place.     

Ms McBirney says attitudes will have to change as well as laws and both the SPCA and Esther Honey Foundation are looking to boost educational programmes around the treatment of animals and also the importance of desexing pets to cope with the problem of stray and unwanted dogs.