New South Wales Consolidated Acts

VETERINARY PRACTICE ACT 2003 - SECT 65

65 Premises required to be licensed as a veterinary hospital

(1) A person must not perform major surgery on an animal except at premises that are the subject of a veterinary hospital licence that authorises major surgery of the type concerned to be carried out at those premises.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months, or both.

(2) It is a defence to a prosecution for an offence against subsection (1) if the defendant establishes that it was necessary to perform major surgery on the animal concerned at a place other than premises referred to in that subsection because of any one or more of the following reasons:

(a) the major surgery was performed in an emergency and there was no time to move the animal to a veterinary hospital,

(b) it was impractical to move the animal to a veterinary hospital because of the size of the animal or because of the type of animal,

(c) it was dangerous to the health of the animal to move it to a veterinary hospital.