Greens MLC Abigail Boyd, in Senate estimates, asked Saunders if there was “perhaps a conflict of interest” consulting Newell because he had “made an absolute fortune from surgical artificial insemination of dogs as well as selling frozen semen”. He said he had talked to other people and knew vets “personally” who didn’t have an issue with the procedures. The NSW agriculture minister, Dugald Saunders, told an estimates committee last year he made the legislative change after consulting with veterinarians but only named Dubbo vet and frozen sperm pioneer John Newell.
“The Perrottet government is now on the record supporting an inhumane canine breeding procedure which is condemned by the AVA, the RSPCA and Australia’s independent veterinary group Sentient,” she said. The Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds president, Andrea Pollard, describes SAI as horrific and says NSW’s removal of the ban was “gutless and failed to respect veterinary science”. The AVA has updated its policy and is now calling for surgical AI to be banned in dogs in all states and territories.
