Page 2827 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 11 October 2022
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requirements which overlap, particularly annual registration. This is a minor and non-controversial amendment, given that there are only a handful of active multiple dog and cat licences in place. However, this is a positive example of adjusting the way we do things to make practical improvements to support the people who are doing the right thing, ensuring that our legislation is not overly burdensome and remains streamlined to achieve its overarching purpose.
Similarly, and in recognising the important work that individual foster carers do for the rehoming organisations in the ACT, exemptions are also proposed for both the multiple dog and cat frameworks to remove the need for foster carers to provide the registration number for every dog or cat under the licence, allowing for a blanket licence which accounts for the number of dogs or cats on the premises without requiring the carer to update their licence every time an animal is successfully rehomed and another comes under their care.
Other more minor amendments under this bill are also proposed to make necessary updates to the legislation to reflect existing policies and operations on the ground. The female-specific wording contained in the illegal breeding offence concerning the keeper or carer of a dog or cat is proposed to be removed, aligning more closely with the existing scope of another similar offence and better reflecting the current law where the keeper or carer of both male and female dogs or cats requires a breeding licence if they wish to breed a litter from either a dog or cat. Illegal breeding can lead to serious consequences for the welfare of the animals involved and puts pressure on our shelters from unwanted pets. This amendment corrects the older style of wording surrounding illegal breeding to ensure that responsibility is taken by owners of dogs and cats regardless of the gender. Instances of stud dog services without breeding licences are known to DAS, and it is essential that the community understands that these activities are not lawful and that there are consequences for continuing this behaviour.
In addition, the offence for publishing certain information when advertising dogs and cats is proposed to be amended to make a technical correction that narrows the scope of the offence and makes advertising by shelters simpler. This amendment involves removing the requirement for advertisements to display both the rehoming identifier and microchip number of an animal, which is overly burdensome for adoption listings. This information will still need to be provided at the sale stage of the advertisement, ensuring that the gifting and sale of dogs and cats is traceable to support responsible breeding.
Another minor amendment proposed by this bill involves the explanatory definition for “desex”, which will be reworded to better align with the emerging trends in surgical sterilisation methods for dogs and cats. While this does not change the scope of the term’s application in the legislation, this brings the definition up to date with current practice and ensures that the language of our legislation reflects the science.
The bill goes further to align legislation with operations, proposing a minor amendment to the assistance animal accreditation framework which reflects the established difference between trainers and assessors, where only assessors may test and accredit assistance animals. As there are two types of registration available for working with assistance animals, registration as a trainer and as an assessor,
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