Rescue news from around Australia…
Ipswich (QLD) – Confirming that dog attacks often happen in the home, a blue heeler has bitten the nine-year-old girl on the lip. Thankfully, although police were called, the girl’s injuries weren’t life threatening.
Health and Regulation Committee chairman Councillor Andrew Antoniolli said the incident highlighted the importance of parents to supervise their children around dogs.“A good percentage of the dog attacks that we’ve been seeing lately are attacks that are occurring within the dog property,” Cr Antoniolli said.
“It just indicates that at all times you must ensure that you’re vigilant with children and dogs.”
Congratulations to Cr Andrew for his considered response to this attack. All dogs can bite.
Also in Ipswich, the beginning of the fallout from the recent Supreme Court decision that dogs registered as Amstaff’s are actually ‘pitbulls’;
The city’s health and regulation committee chairman Andrew Antoniolli said the redefinition of the American Staffordshire was the result of a drawn-out court case on the Gold Coast.
“We are concerned that we have at least 126 of the 30,000 dogs registered in Ipswich which were identified on their registration as American Staffordshire terriers,” Mr Antoniolli said.
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Mornington Peninsula (VIC) rangers have killed a dog, that had been impounded while its owners built a dangerous dog enclosure;
Ms Clements returned home from work on April 29 to find the terrier, called Syphon, gone and a note from a council ranger telling her to phone him.
The pure-bred dog was taken to the pound because his backyard enclosure was inadequate.
Syphon had been declared a dangerous dog after he escaped as a young pup last year and bit another dog.
Ms Clements and Mr Bartling had erected a locked 2m-high cage in their backyard, but had not finished the required roofing and guttering when their pet was impounded.
Four days later they received the devastating phone call.
“They said they had put the wrong dog down,” Ms Clements said.
“They said he was in the fridge and when did we want him dropped down?”
Mr Bartling described Syphon as his best mate and said there was no excuse for the mistake because his pet was microchipped.
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Manningham (VIC) will be getting its first dedicated dog-friendly park from July.
The dedicated dog zone will be fenced off to give pets a safe place to run free off-lead and to socialise with other dogs. The park will also feature drinking water taps for dogs, and extra seating for pet owners.
Cool! Single use, fenced and patrolled parks are vital to the health of the dogs in any community, especially as people’s backyards shrink. Patrols are also vital; not only to ensure that people using the park are doing so in a responsible manner, but as a chance for council animal management to have positive interactions with the pet owning community.
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While the RSPCA ACT have again, showed us the way with this post on their Facebook and Twitter;
The video of the dogs is here:
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Mitcham Council (SA, not VIC) is encouraging residents dob in neighbours who own more than two cats or who fail to microchip and register them, as part of the enforcement model for their new cat bylaws. Thankfully, some councillors are not convinced;
Cr Grant Hudson told the meeting it was the council’s role to intervene in cat problems, not a neighbour’s job.
“These days a lot of neighbours don’t even know each other and making complaints about pets is one way to create neighbourhood friction where none existed before,” he told the Eastern Courier Messenger after the meeting.
If the bylaw is passed, which will force cat owners to register and microchip their pets from August 1st, the only way to actually enforce the model would be some kind of ‘neighbourhood spy’ campaign. Cats don’t carry their licences in their wallets and those people with ‘too many’ are going to go to ground. So with neighbours dobbing on neighbours and everyone now complaining about that free-roaming cat that no one owns, Mitcham Council animal control is going to be busy! busy! busy! trapping and impounding cats.
The bylaw is set to cost $252,000 for five years. The RSPCA supported the introduction of the bylaw and have accepted a ‘generous grant’ from Mitcham Council to buy cat traps to hire to the public.
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An update on the disastrous removal of feral cats from Macquarie Island.
A team of experts are bound for a remote island equipped with helicopters guns and dogs to eradicate rabbits, black rats and house mice.
The imported species have wreaked environmental havoc on Macquarie Island, a tiny piece of Australian territory halfway between New Zealand and Antartica.
The World Heritage listed island serves as the mating and nesting place of countless penguins, seabirds and seals who are under threat from the pests.
This exercise has been required after parks and wildlife management, removed all the feral cats from the island to save the native seabirds. Unfortunately, the decision allowed the rabbit population to explode and, in turn, destroy much of its fragile vegetation that birds depend on for cover. The resulting “environmental devastation” was estimated to cost $24 million Australian dollars to remedy. Whoopsies.
See another post: ‘Introduced’ doesn’t mean not important
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Wanneroo (WA) has problems with its pound;
Councillor Rudi Steffens said the current facilities were “old and aged”.
“There is still no exercise area for the animals, the kennels are constantly wet through the day and animals are susceptible to cutting their feet on the cages,” he said.
“I don’t believe this facility is standard, I believe it is substandard.”
Councillor Alan Blencowe agreed.
“Six dogs die every day in the City of Wanneroo, that is 2000 dogs per year and we only have one crematorium in the northern suburbs,” he said.
“As a council, we need to be a little bit more responsible than to have these animals’ bodies just being put into landfill.”
You could try not killing them – just a thought.
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And Australia gets its own rescue pet stamps out on the 29th June;
This stamp issue promotes responsible dog ownership and supports the dedicated work of organisations re-homing lost and abandoned dogs.
Their number is significantly boosted by the many other small shelters also re-homing dogs.
Congratulations to NSW Animal Rescue for punching above their weight, being included alongside the RSPCA and Lost Dogs Home.
