Tasmanian pounds ready and willing to kill

Back in November the Tasmanian government’s Animal Welfare Advisory Committee closed public consultation of a new welfare standard for dogs kept by ‘Domestic Animal Businesses’ including pounds and shelters.

Some of the paper’s recommendations included:

– requiring vet care for sick or injured dogs.

– specifying a minimum pound enclosure sizes for large dogs of 10sqm (that’s 2m x 5m).

– that temperatures would need to be kept between 15C and 27 and dogs would need to be protected from the rain and sun.

– that dogs be given daily exercise.

In response to these specifications, the submission from the The Local Government Association of Tasmania – or the overseeing body for local council pounds – reacted in the only way they know how… by threatening to kill more pets;

“Tasmanian councils have warned that dog registration fees will rise and more stray dogs could be put down if pounds are forced to adopt costly new dog welfare standards.
…
Councils expressed concern that significant increases in costs would likely require an increase in registration fees to cover those costs,” the association’s submission says.

“This would come with the consequent risk of more unregistered dogs and a reduced ability to reunite stray dogs with their owners promptly.

“Pound fees would also increase with a possible rise in unwanted dogs and consequent increase in the number of dogs euthanised.”

I’m struggling with their calculations – how much revenue exactly, does an unregistered dog make in rego fees? How much money do you make, when you put up your reclaim fees so much, a dog is unable to be reclaimed… and then you kill him?

Seems that although there’s no money for basic health and welfare improvements in council budgets… there’s always enough money to kill.