All but one Councillor voted to endorse Hilltops Council's response to the discussion paper on the Companion Animals Act published by the Office of Local Government as the first of the OLG's steps in seeking feedback from councils.
In the discussion paper the NSW Government aims to transition the Companion Animals Act from being as focused on rules and processes to legislative changes focused on principles and outcomes, meaning that they hope to create a social licence while also continuing to hold animal owners accountable for the care and management of their animals.
"Amendments are also sought to address the urgent need to prevent companion animals from entering the council pound and rehoming system," the report read.
In the proposed submission response from Hilltops Council there were four key concerns held by Council:
- the need for increased public awareness and education, in addition to mandatory training
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- stronger penalties and legislation
- the ability for victims of companion animal attacks to be compensated through the courst and
- expanding restricted dog breeds to include 'American Staffordshire Terriors' (Staffys)
Director of Planning Jamie Dyhrberg filled out the submission on behalf of Council and in a question related to strategic framework for encouraging responsible ownership of companion animals said other matters that should be considered include dog ownership in rental properties to require registration and certification from agents confirming the property is secured and that pet accredited properties should mandate chipping, registration and containment as minimum requirements.
Other comments in the section included investigating the feasibility of a state-wide cat curfew, particularly in environmentally sensitive areas, the Office of Local Government subsidising microchipping fees to encourage higher compliance, informational fliers from OLG to Councils to distribute and raise awareness of pet responsibility.
Council also suggested tax exemptions for desexing of non-breeding pets, funding from the state for programs for low income owners to have their animals desexed, stronger breeding regulations and penalties for unlicensed breeding and clearer guidelines on feral cate management, including state supported trap-neuter-return programs.
Cr Gallo, who moved the recommendation, thanked the Director, manager and two rangers who worked on the response and spoke against the 'sensationalised' way the recommendation and report had been discussed on social media.
"To give you a bit of background, we sat down and had a chat about it, they put a lot of work into preparing this report, it's not an easy report to prepare and it seems today that the item on the agenda has been sensationalised on Facebook, which has been blown out of proportion in quite some ways," Cr Gallo said.
"To give people a bit of a feedback on what's happened in relation to dog attacks in the last three months, October to December, there have been 1,202 dog attacks, 1,235 deaths to animals, 697 attacks to people, 133 attacks to children, which led to 76 people being hospitalised.
"Of these attacks 208 were done by American Staffys, 83 by Staffordshire Terriers, 19 by American Staffys, 19 by Bull Terriers and 26 by Bull Terrier crosses.
"Just recently, in the last two weeks there have been two attacks in the Hilltops region involving Staffys."
Cr Gallo said given that information the Rangers have taken the task of the response 'quite seriously'.
"I commend them for that," she said.
"Whilst I'm not a big believer of breed specific legislation, I think looking at these stats we need to move forward and be realistic."
She also stated that the recommendation is a submission and will not necessarily be implemented by the OLG.
"This is only a submission that's going to OLG, there's 128 Councils that have the ability to put in a submission, it doesn't mean that our submission will be accepted in any way, shape or form," Cr Gallo said.
"Anyone that feels that they would like to put their own submission in, they can and they have until the 4th of May."
Cr Stadtmiller spoke against the recommendation.
"I, like Councillor Gallo, have issue with breed specific attacks," he said.
"It's very hard to pin down a breed.
"My research today did find some breeds are more prone than others, I've personally been bitten by a labrador before, which people think is a warm and fuzzy dog and a family pet, but any dog at any time can be treated as a dog that has equipment to potentially bite someone."
Cr Stadtmiller asked the Director where the information relating to breeds and data had come from and why Councillors hadn't been presented it earlier, he also said he had people reach out to him ahead of the meeting to ask what would happen to their pets.
The Director addressed the information regarding to dog attacks first.
"We report on dog attacks every year, through the annual report," Mr Dyhrberg said.
The Director estimated around 50 dog attacks.
"I can say from lived experience of our Rangers that Staffordshire Bull Terriers are over representative and are the dogs that are attacking, and it is on that basis that we're recommending that this go as a submission to the OLG to consider and nothing more than that.
"Also, just to say it is recommended they go on a restricted dogs list, it doesn't mean that it's impossible for a very responsible dog owner to take the obligations of responsible pet ownership seriously to go with this breed and with that there's a huge risk because the penalties for non-compliance with restricted dogs is significant."
The Director said it's not a blanket prohibition, it's just saying on a list of dogs 'that you've got to be really careful as a pet owner.'
Cr Blackwell also thanked the Director and staff for their hard work in putting together the submission.
"It's a very good submission, it's very thorough one, as someone who in a previous life has advocated very strongly for feral cat containment and management, it's good to see that here as well," Cr Blackwell said.
To read the full submission visit the Hilltops Council website and if you would like to submit a response to the discussion paper please visit the Office of Local Government website.
