Animal management can be a huge asset to its community; working to keep its public safe, offering a service that protects people and their animals and leading the way in compassion. Or it can work against its public, seeing them as an enemy that needs to be coerced with more laws, more fines and expanded powers to officers to seize and kill pets.
In 2008, there was recognition of a pet crisis in Victoria;
Reporter: There’s currently 10 times the average number of dogs looking for a new home. Staff are blaming pressure on family budgets for the increase, for some it’s just too expensive to collect their precious pooch.
Sue Conroy: If the dog’s going to cost them fines for being out with the council, or microchipping fees and desexing fees, then maybe they’ll opt not to take the dog back home again.
In 2010, despite the experience that fines are an obstacle that keep people from collecting their lost animals ensuring shelters stay perpetually full, and ignoring the global financial meltdown which has stretched families even further than two years ago – issuing larger and larger fines is still the Victorian government’s preferred approach to animal management;
Errant dog owners face harsher fines
Wandering dogs deemed an imminent threat to people could be destroyed on the spot under laws coming into effect today.
Pet owners who fail to register their dogs or cats face doubled fines of almost $2400.
New penalties include:
DOUBLING of potential fines for owners who fail to apply for or renew dog and/or cat registrations to $2389.
FINES up to $717 for dogs found wandering during the day.
FINES doubled to $4778 if a dog attacks someone.
The laws also broaden the criteria for declaring a dog menacing or dangerous.The Herald Sun, 1st Sept 2010
Victorian groups The Lost Dogs Home and the RSPCA, both supported this move by government to strengthen laws against roaming dogs (commonly known as ‘lost dogs’). The Cat Protection Society has long called for stronger laws against ‘semi-owners’, the group least likely to have their free-roaming cat registered.
Prepare for a bloodbath as people who’ve lost pets give up all hope of being able to afford their release. Prepare for the enormous increase in ‘unavoidable’ killing as dogs who’ve never caused a problem in their family or community are branded of ‘dangerous’ breed and are seized from their families. And don’t forget the thousands of cat carers now facing fines of over $2,000 if they continue to give their local stray a little bit of food.
We are witness. We should not forget who stood by and not only let this appalling action against animals and their owners happen, but encouraged it. Those groups claiming to be working to ‘protect’ pets.
I have never figured out the logic of fining people for the accidental escape of their dog or cat. It seems that many of us have had this happen: a tradesman leaves the gate open despite being counseled not to but forgets, a storm or fireworks scare the animal, a dog digs a hole under the fence next door and your dog escapes (this happened to us).
If you have ever come home after a day’s work and found your dog missing the ensuing trauma until you find it safe and sound is something you never want to repeat and yes this happened to us:we found our dog wandering along a main road that same afternoon. Oh to add the insult to such a thing: a hefty fine if the dog were picked up by your local council.
We recently minded a cat for someone going away for a week. Her cat was a male just about one year old. He was desexed, microchipped, immunised but not registered. The council fined her.
If a council wants to encourage responsible ownership and make an attempt to limit the cat stray population which of those four things would you consider the most important? registration?
Why do councils pour their (our) money into a black hole which is self perpetuating and only gets larger each year? Is this fining an owner for such an unimportant misdemeanor an attempt to pretend they care about the thousands of innocent lives lost while they do nothing about the source of the breeding? other than to destroy?
It is a truth when Nathan Winograd claimed that the only way to progress was to sack the existing CEO’s of a country’s major shelters because look at what is happening in Victoria? is that a model for success?
To fine a person for having feelings for a hungry cat? $2000.00? I have to ask how many cats could have been desexed for that.
And for the RSPCA, LDH and CPS why don’t they use some of their vast wealth, stop making statements about the public who are their mainstay in that wealth and use it to stop the slaughter? Start desexing and stop killing, or resign from your posts if you have any sense of honesty left.