New South Wales Consolidated Acts

PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ACT 1979 - SECT 26AA

26AA Powers of veterinary practitioners to destroy animals

(1) Where, in the opinion of a veterinary practitioner:

(a) an animal is so severely injured, so diseased or in such a physical condition that it is cruel to keep it alive, and

(b) the animal is not about to be destroyed, or is about to be destroyed in a manner that will inflict unnecessary pain upon the animal,

the veterinary practitioner may:

(c) take possession of the animal,

(d) remove the animal to such place as the veterinary practitioner thinks fit, and

(e) destroy the animal, or cause it to be destroyed, in a manner that causes it to die quickly and without unnecessary pain.

(2) The reasonable costs incurred by a veterinary practitioner in the exercise of the powers conferred upon the veterinary practitioner by subsection (1) in respect of an animal may be recovered from the owner of the animal as a debt in a court of competent jurisdiction by the veterinary practitioner.