VIC spends hundreds of thousands of $ to kill innocent pets

Kerser – a victim of Victoria’s breed specific laws, currently on ‘death row’ as his
owner fights to save his life.

As dog and law experts predicted, Victorian Local Councils are struggling with enforcing their badly designed, hysteria-driven dog laws;

Councils are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars defending court cases brought by dog owners challenging Victoria’s controversial restricted breeds laws.

Monash council has spent almost $100,000 on several court challenges over a single dog, which it declared a pit bull in 2012.

The laws are ”a dog’s breakfast”, said Monash mayor Geoff Lake. ”These laws are clumsy, unscientific and subjective. It’s unsatisfactory from a council point of view, dog owners are being denied fundamental justice and fairness and it leaves the community exposed because it’s not working.”

In Cardinia, ratepayers last year forked out $80,000 to defend a challenge regarding an alleged American pit bull terrier, which was later returned to its owner.

Shelters are doing well however;

The Lost Dogs Home is believed to have contracts with about 20 Victorian councils to house seized dogs, while the RSPCA has 18 contracts.

Councils pay from $17 to $30 a day for each dog, plus an additional fee if it is destroyed. Some are on death row for months as owners appeal, costing thousands of dollars in pound fees. Many councils ban owners from visiting the pets.

However sadly, the community is not being made any safer;

Figures obtained by The Age reveal dozens of dogs are being destroyed under the laws with little effect on dog-attack numbers.

In Hume, with suburbs including Broadmeadows and Craigieburn, 48 restricted breed dogs have been euthanised since 2011.

Despite these measures, dog attacks (on people and other animals) in Hume have crept up from 141 in 2011 to 148 in 2013. And ratepayers have funded costs over $135,000 to defend 10 challenges, with four more pending.

Cardinia shire, which includes Packenham and Emerald, prosecuted 28 dog attacks in 2012-13, up from 12 in 2010-11.

Monash has euthanised 10 restricted breed dogs and registered another 12. The council handled 70 dog attacks in 2011 and 68 in 2013.

Of the nine councils contacted, seven had similar or higher numbers of dog attacks since 2011, while two had fewer attacks. Brimbank, which includes St Albans, Keilor and Sunshine, had the biggest drop, from 111 attacks in 2011 to 86 in 2013. It has destroyed 19 restricted breed dogs and registered another 36.

As the Victorian legislation becomes understandably unpopular, The Lost Dog Home continues to betray the dogs – and makes the cowardly move of side-stepping responsibility for championing the original laws – by declaring that the organisations policies are now ‘under review’. Seems not enough innocent dogs have been slaughtered yet, according to Dr Smith.

Being expensive and ineffective is obviously not the most devastating effect of these laws, but the unnecessary killing of people’s family members. While animal welfare groups talk about ‘dozens’, the reality is that number is just the declared/seized animals. Thousands of dogs are losing their lives across the state – friendly dogs impounded, but thanks the laws, are unable to be rehomed. In every way, the situation is a tragedy;

”These laws are clumsy, unscientific and subjective,” says Monash’s Geoff Lake. ”It’s unsatisfactory from a council point of view. Dog owners are being denied fundamental justice and fairness and it leaves the community exposed because it’s not working.”