Sat, 02 Jan 2010 9:58a.m.
National MP Simon Bridges is drafting the bill, which would raise the maximum jail term for wilful ill-treatment under the Animal Welfare Act
The Auckland SPCA says it supports a draft private members bill which would raise the maximum penalty for ill-treating animals.
National MP Simon Bridges is drafting the bill, which would raise the maximum jail term for wilful ill-treatment under the Animal Welfare Act to five years.
Auckland SPCA executive director Bob Kerridge told the New Zealand Herald that sentences were too light at present.
"It is time to recognise that cruelty to animals is a social sickness that is as heinous as any act of violence inflicted on fellow humans, and the two are inextricably linked," he said.
Lawyer David Jones, who is part of a panel which prosecutes for the SPCA, said the longest sentence imposed for animal cruelty had been 12 months, subsequently reduced to 10.
He expected sentences would go up if the maximum penalty in the law was raised.
NZPA