This is a topic near and dear to my heart and I'm thrilled that Lucy has joined the team at Paw Justice. Being an animal lover, anything done to a defenceless, innocent animal is a crime and they can't speak up, but we can. I haven't read the stories on the Paw Justice site and I'm not going to because they will stick in my head and won't ever come out. I get a knotted, sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach when I hear about animals being tortured and it's better I NEVER read stories about that. I used to love to fish (goes back to when I was a kid fishing with my family and some VERY happy memories) but couldn't bear the thought of taking the hook out of the fish's mouth and decided that I should stop fishing which I have done.

I fully support Paw Justice but that's for the Kiwis. Over here in Oz we have our own Animals Australia and RSPCA Australia and one of my favourites WildLife Rescue (WIRES)

  Lucy has lent her name to another worthy endeavour in NZ; stopping the cruelty to animals. She appears in this video just after the start. 

An organisation called Paw Justice has launched a petition to increase the maximum jail sentence for animal abuse or neglect. The petition calls for Parliament to increase the sentence for neglect from 6 months to one year, and for wilful ill-treatment from 3 years to 5 years. Promotional videos for the campaign are fronted by an assortment of Kiwi stars, including Lucy Lawless, Erika Takacs and cast members from Shortland Street and Outrageous Fortune.

The petition is available here.   |   The official site is here

Read more at NZ Herald 4 September 2009