Guidelines for the control and responsible ownership of dogs

NCCAW Position Statement

Dog ownership and companionship gives many Australians much pleasure, exercise and reward. Dog ownership is an important part of everyday life.

Irresponsibly owned dogs, on the other hand, are potentially a considerable nuisance, a cause of injury and death to other animals and of trauma to humans.

Legislation regulating dog control and ownership of dogs must support and protect responsible dog ownership and clearly address the problems posed by irresponsibly owned, stray, nuisance and vicious dogs.

General Principles

• Public awareness and education programs are of top importance and should complement any legislation
  
• Legislation needs to provide a tangible reward to consistently responsible dogs owners
  
• Legislation must clearly define problem areas and provide realistic solutions
  
• For individual dog owners, legislation must establish their legal responsibility and establish a link between the dog, its owner and the regulating authority
  
• a realistic and sustained level of funding must be available to enable the general principles to be implemented.

Issues to be addressed:

• registration and identification of dogs
• problems posed by straying dogs
• nuisance dogs
• dangerous dogs
• guard dogs
• legal redress for members of community
• police dogs and guide dogs
• breeding and supply of puppies
• training of regulatory personnel
• A reward system for responsible dog ownership.

Registration and Identification of Dogs

The need for dog registration needs considering.

A regulatory system is needed to formalise and protect dog ownership and to make access to education programs on dog ownership easier. Provision should be made to fund these programs.

Any system should assist the prompt return of straying dogs to their owners and should also enable legal redress where dogs have caused nuisance or injury to people or caused damage to property .

Straying Dogs

The definition needs to clearly outline situations in which a dog is deemed to be straying. In most cases this will involve a dog leaving its owner's property without being under effective control.

In addition to a general requirement for owners to keep their dogs confined to their property, measures are needed to address dogs straying into:

• farms
• conservation zones
• schools
• shopping zones
• beaches
• other specific locations.

Regulatory authorities must be given powers to catch, impound and dispose of straying dogs.

Nuisance Dogs

The definition of a nuisance dog should include persistent barking or barking that continues to the extent that it interferes with the peace, comfort health or convenience of people in nearby premises.

• Within reason, regulatory authorities should be given authority to address problems posed by dogs confined to an owner's property but cause nuisance, especially by persistent noise
  
• Consideration should be given to requiring owners to dispose of dog faeces left in public thoroughfares.

Dangerous Dogs

Legislation should include a clear definition of a dangerous dog and the consequential additional restraints to the ownership of these dogs.

The definition should be based on an individual dog's behaviour, not on a breed.

Regulatory authorities should be able to designate a dog as dangerous in any of the following cases:

• where it inflicted serious injury on a person without provocation (whether the attack occurred on private or public property)
  
• where it has killed or seriously injured an animal, without provocation while off its owner's premises
  
• where it is kept, or has been trained, as a guard dog
  
• where the owner has applied to have it designated as dangerous
  
• where the dog has been trained to attack humans.

The owner of a designated dangerous dog must be required to:

• maintain the animal on the property in an enclosure from which the dog cannot escape
  
• ensure non-residents cannot gain access to it.

Dangerous dogs must be individually and permanently identified - and identifiable by a collar of a colour designating them as dangerous. They must be suitably restrained and muzzled when taken off the owner's property.

Legal Redress for Members of the Community

Legislation should clearly establish a capacity for anyone suffering personal injury or property damage (including injury and death to animals) from a dog, to recover the costs incurred in full.

Police Dogs and Guide Dogs

Legislation should include:

• exemptions to enable dogs to assist the legitimate work of government authorities (police, Customs and protective services)
  
• recognise the role of dogs used to guide visually and hearing-impaired people.

Breeding and Supply of Puppies

Commercial breeding establishments should be required to observe suitable regulatory standards.

Pet shops and other animal distribution outlets should also be required to meet suitable regulatory standards for animal health, welfare and management.

Puppy sellers should be required to provide information on puppy management at the point of sale.

Situations sponsoring 'impulse' buying of dogs and puppies should be banned.

Training of Regulatory Personnel

People responsible for implementing dog control legislation must be well briefed on its provisions and kept informed on technical and political issues.

Important parts of the training program are communication skills and effective participation in education and public awareness programs.

Reward System for Responsible Dog Ownership

The reward system should preferably be based on the concept that a responsibly owned dog is much less likely to involve the participation and expense of a regulatory authority.

Responsible owners should pay a reduced dog registration fee.

Responsibility could be demonstrated by:

• having dogs desexed
  
• having them obedience trained to a recognised standard
  
• having the dog permanently identified.

Guard Dogs

There should be an enforceable code of practice for the commercial keeping, training and use of guard dogs, including provisions for the animal's health and welfare.

This Position Statement was first published in April 1995 and was reviewed by NCCAW on 20 February 2008.  NCCAW made the decision to retain it without amendment.