Proposed Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines – Exhibited Animals Consultation Regulation Impact Statement March 2014

Appendix 2 – Estimation of animal exhibit facilities, keepers and animals

The estimation of costs and benefits in Appendix 2 are based on critical population statistics on the number of licensed animal exhibit facilities (hereto referred to simply as ‘licensed facilities’) and keepers associated with these facilities, as well as the number of enclosures and animals kept in these facilities. These statistics are discussed in sections A2.1 and A2.2.

A2.1 Estimated number of licensed facilities and keepers

Statistics on the estimated number of licensed facilities and keepers are provided as they are utilised in the cost benefit analysis in this RIS. As shown in Table A2.1 below the total national number of estimated licensed facilities is given as 211.

Source of table:

• 
  Victoria – Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) advised of 39 facilities involving native animals but not including Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Zoo, or Healesville Sanctuary. Information on facilities with exotic animals was not provided by the Department of Primary Industries (DPI);
  
• 
  South Australia – Biosecurity South Australia (division of PIRSA) advised of 3 licensed zoos (Adelaide Zoo, Monarto Zoological Park, and Gorge Wildlife Park) – ZAA also lists Cleland Wildlife Park – and 2 additional facilities have been identified in – excludes facilities that are no longer in operation;
  
• 
  Western Australia - Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) advised of 40 facilities – excludes facilities that are no longer in operation, only 1 of those listed with ZAA;
  
• 
  Tasmania - Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE) advised of 12 facilities;
  
• 
  NT – no response from Parks and Wildlife – ZAA lists 3 facilities – 3 additional ones have been identified and listed at & & ) – excludes facilities that are no longer in operation – The Curator of Life Sciences, Territory Wildlife Park advises of 6 facilities;
  
• 
  ACT - ZAA lists 2 member facilities
  

In order to determine the distribution of facilities (i.e. large, medium and small) by number of persons employed – ABS data is used and an assumption is made that such a distribution is constant over time. (More current data is not available regarding this distribution). In June 1997 there were 65 businesses with the following break-up of sized based on the number of persons employed¹⁰⁸:

• 
  8 large (50 persons or more)
  
• 
  8 medium (20 to 49 persons) – (14.04% of 57 medium and small facilities)
  
• 
  49 small (less than 20 persons) – (85.96% of 57 medium and small facilities)
  

Holding the number of large facilities with 50 persons or more constant at eight and assuming the same proportions for the remaining medium and small facilities for 2011-12 (i.e. 85.96% and 14.04%, respectively) – the following distribution of facilities is provided in Table A2.2 based on an estimated 211 animal exhibit facilities by state and territory.

The average number of keepers based on the extent of employment (size of facility) is provided by ZAA based on data collected between 2007 and 2011 through the Association’s Accreditation process and between 2011 and 2012 through the Association membership process. The number of representative keeping staff in Table A2.3 is summarised by size of facility.

Size (extent of employment)	Number of data collections (f)	No. of keeping staff reported (full time/part time and casual) by facility size (g)	Average number of keeping staff reported by facility size (h) = (g)/(h)
Small (less than 20 persons)	10	45	5
Medium (20 to 49 persons)	11	110	10
Large (50 persons or more)	11	418	38

The estimated number of keepers across facility size and distribution by state and territory is summarised in Table A2.4 and is based on average number of keeping staff by facility size in Table A2.3 and the distribution of facilities across states and territories by facility size in Table A2.2.