A case of animal cruelty in which a cat was shot with an arrow was not prosecuted partly because of shortcomings with South Australia's pet protection laws, the RSPCA says.
The RSPCA and the SA government today launched a review of South Australia's legislation — described by the watchdog as the worst in the nation — to examine ways of removing barriers to prosecution.
"RSPCA undertook a national benchmarking of animal protection legislation across Australia last year — South Australia is clearly ranking bottom," RSPCA SA chief executive officer Paul Stevenson said.
"There are some gaps in the scope of it and we'd like some specifics added in there, especially when it comes to duty of care and actual care of animals — what are acceptable standards of care?
"That's still left for interpretation, which is a bit of a worry."
Mr Stevenson said the RSPCA had achieved successful prosecutions in 1,200 cases under the current Animal Welfare Act, but said the effectiveness of the laws could be significantly improved.
"These are criminal prosecutions so there's a very high hurdle of evidence," he said.
"We've had a case, for example, where a cat was shot by an arrow. Now, very clearly we identified where the arrow and the bow came from.
"[But] we couldn't identify who inside that house actually [fired] the bow and arrow so we weren't able to prosecute."
Mr Stevenson said the RSPCA was hampered by legislation that encourages reactive rather than pre-emptive action, meaning its inspectors have to wait for harm to occur before they can intervene.
"Dogs have been rescued from hot cars and because they've been rescued in time and haven't actually suffered harm then, again, there's no opportunity to prosecute people," he said.
"That's obviously a big sticking point for us — always having to wait for animals to suffer harm before we can take action isn't the way our legislation should be framed."
Environment Minister Susan Close said the review fulfilled an election promise by the government to ensure the legislation, which has "not been properly reviewed" in 15 years, reflected community standards.
"It's so important that we not waste resources for the RSPCA and that we [do] not allow true cruelty to pass unanswered," she said.
"To do that we need to make sure that the legislation is modern, up-to-date and fit for purpose.
"People care about animals … and we want to make sure that that care also translates into ensuring that, if there is cruelty, it's addressed and it's prosecuted where it can be."
