Moving on animal cruelty

The government has announced that it will adopt Simon Bridges' members bill to increase penalties for animal cruelty. Good. But increased penalties are only part of the solution. The real problem is lack of enforcement, with the SPCA not funded to prosecute cases, while MAF actively looks the other way. If we want to effectively deter the sort of sadistic torture which has outraged the public recently, we need to increase enforcement to ensure that those who torture animals have a reasonable expectation of being held to account. This means proper funding for prosecutions (a fund of a couple of million a year should do it, and its pocket change to the government), combined with a cultural shift at MAF. Unfortunately, with the latter body thoroughly captured and compromised by the farmers it is supposed to police, that is easier said than done...