DISABILITY ASSISTANCE ANIMALS: DA BILL REJECTED

DISABILITY ASSISTANCE ANIMALS: DA BILL REJECTED

• 26 November 2025
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

Democratic Alliance MP Wendy Alexander’s Performing Animals Protection Amendment Bill has been rejected by the National Assembly’s Agriculture Committee, according to a report included among papers recently tabled in the House. Introduced in April 2025, the Bill’s overarching objective was to facilitate access to private and public areas, buildings and transport for people dependent on assistance animals.

Acknowledging the importance of doing so, the report nevertheless draws attention to an array of factors tending to suggest that the human rights issues concerned:

• cannot be addressed by amending the 1935 Performing Animals Protection Act, which focuses on animal welfare, and
• would be more appropriately accommodated either:
  • by amending the 2000 Promotion of Equality & Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, or
  • in new legislation ‘enhanc(ing) the rights of persons with disabilities … us(ing) assistance animals’.

The report also refers to the 1962 Animals Protection Act and the 1993 Animal Matters Amendment Act – possibly in the context of the rejected Bill’s implications for ‘the welfare of assistance animals’ and ‘human injuries caused by animals’ respectively. It is not clear why.

What is clear is that this should have been spotted by whomever was responsible for draftng the Bill – a process that began in June 2023, as SA Legal Academy reported at the time.

• parliamentary papers (page 6)
• Bill (rejected)
• June 2023 SA Legal Academy report 

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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