Government works on new animal welfare rules

The Government will work on developing 46 new animal welfare regulations this year. Changes to the Animal Welfare Act in 2015 allowed for the creation of directly-enforceable regulations, Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy said. ‘‘This has given the act more teeth, and creates more tools to deal with mistreatment of animals.’’ It was hoped proposals for the stricter rules would be finished by the end of this year, to come into effect by October 2018.