News from the Australian Institute of Animal Management conference in Darwin, that hot on Tasmania’s heels, South Australia is also reviewing their companion animal legislation with view to strengthening their laws.
SA’s preferences presently look like this:
microchipping of all dogs and cats by a specified date
or
microchipping of dogs and cats at first registration
and/or
microchipping of seized cats at owner’s expense
Seizure of cats wandering at large,
plus
annual registration of new cats or annual registration of all cats,
and
the appointment of cat management officers.
Once again, rather than look to new life saving initiatives having success overseas, these states have followed those in the east down the path of trap, seize and kill. Despite there being no evidence of it reducing pound kill rates or cat populations one fluffy tabby.
NSW implemented their compulsory microchipping policy on the first of July 1999, after identifying it as the key to saving the lives of pound pets.
While a certain amount of opposition continues some seven years after compulsory microchipping was introduced, microchipping has dramatically improved the chances of a lost pet being reunited with it’s owner. And it’s instigators have hailed it a success…
Microchipping has decreased the euthanasia rate and increased opportunities for councils and breed and animal rescue organisations to work together to rehome unclaimed dogs and cats.
Compulsory Microchipping in NSW – Maree Garrett, Department of Local Government, NSW
However, compulsory microchipping has nothing to do with rehoming unclaimed pets – it’s about reuniting owned pets with their families. So whether you have compulsory microchipping or not, you can and should have good rehoming programs for unclaimed dogs and cats. And while it would be great if compulsory microchipping did reduce the euthanasia rate, unfortunately the pound stats tell a different story.
This year, the first-ever compulsory pound survey revealed that of the 49,916 dogs and cats that went into NSW council pounds in the 2006-07 year 48% of the animals (24,003) were killed.
9 years on, almost 1 in 2 pets received die in shelters, microchip law or no microchip law.
Meanwhile, the Victorian Government (who already had compulsory registration, and limits on the numbers of pets people could own) legislated in 2007 on the advice of animal welfare groups, that all newly registered cats and dogs should be microchipped, with the RSPCA citing;
Compulsory microchipping will mean that if a pet becomes separated from its owner and lands in a pound or shelter, its owner can be quickly contacted. This will reduce the number of animals that end up in shelters and in turn reduce the euthanasia rate for animals that are unable to find a new home.
Which would be great if that were true. But a little over a year on, having been granted their wish for compulsory microchipping, the RSPCA as part of the Cat Crisis Coalition have moved on to compulsory desexing. While freely admitting their last two ‘big ideas’ compulsory registration and microchipping haven’t actually changed anything.
From the CCC website FAQ on ‘why we need compulsory desexing’….
In 1996 the Domestic Animals Act (DAA) introduced compulsory cat registration as a means to reduce the numbers of unwanted cats. However, after eight years of implementation, it is evident that registration (by itself) has done little to reduce the numbers of unwanted cats. In fact, the numbers entering shelters has risen slightly from 45,000 in 1990 to 48,000 in 2004. As this is a problem of cat overpopulation, desexing is the answer.
Seriously! Why are we looking to give these groups more power when they haven’t yet proven their last TWO ideas were sound?
So along with Tasmania and South Australia, Queensland is also forging ahead with this still unproven, and quite likely completely unsuccessful, pet management model:
In an effort to reduce the number of cats and dogs being put down every year, Premier Anna Bligh today revealed a voluntary two-year local government trial and plans to make registration and microchipping of dogs and cats mandatory.
Ms Bligh said there were thousands of unwanted cats and dogs without homes that had to be put down every year. “As a dog lover, it is very sad to hear of the senseless killing of thousands of healthy cats and dogs every year because there are no homes for them.
Again – compulsory microchipping has nothing to do with creating homes for homeless pets and everything to do with only getting ones WITH homes, back to their owners, which when you’re talking about the overwhelming majority of impounded cats never having had owners, makes no difference at all.
This compulsory microchipping trial, although a feel-good to animal welfare groups and a way for the council to look like it’s taking some action, will have no effect in reducing pound kill rates. People who purport ‘compulsory microchipping saves lives’ are simply repeating a common furphy and what’s worse, kill rates will actually rise as semi-owned and feral cats are seized for being the unfortunate situation of not having a ‘traditional’ owner.
Now you might think with all this, I’m anti-microchipping. I’m not. No one is debating that microchipping helps reunite pets with owners or whether every responsible owner should microchip their pets – that’s a no-brainer. I’m simply against legislation that doesn’t work, will never work and has enormous potential to hinder our ability to implement new ideas and lifesaving TNR programs in the future.
But don’t take my word for it; watch the video.
Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is a strategy for improving the lives of feral cats and reducing their numbers.
