Page 921 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 30 March 1993
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measures to encourage them to do so, and we have taken gentle measures to encourage them to do so, and still it does not seem to be working. I will not go through the advantages of registering a dog, but there is a responsibility on the owner to do so.
The point that has been made is valid; that to undertake ownership of a dog means many things. You undertake a serious responsibility. You have to feed it and exercise it. You have to be able to maintain its good health and to see that it has appropriate living conditions. Unfortunately, some people do not maintain all elements of those needs. Among other things, it is important that the dog is trained to be safe. This goes even for some seemingly inoffensive breeds. People should, when they acquire a dog, if they do not have the skills already - and most do not - see that they go to a dog obedience class and have their dogs trained. It was for that reason that we gave concessions to owners whose dogs had been through an obedience class when it comes to registering their dogs. We recognised the value of that.
I indicated that I met a group of people today - the RSPCA, the Canberra Kennel Association, representatives of the obedience club, police, and my own officers - to try to come up with solutions to the problem, and there are difficulties ahead. We want to try to control the number of dogs in the community, and that is easier said than done. We are going to go down that path of reducing the number of dogs that are roaming the streets and ensuring that dogs do not attack people. I mentioned earlier the statistics on dog attacks. Unfortunately, while many people do report attacks, many still walk away from giving the evidence in court that is necessary to ensure a prosecution. People whose neighbour's dog has bitten them will, in many circumstances, say to the police, "Look, I am not going to help in a prosecution. I have to live with these people. I like these people and I do not want to see them punished. We have come to our own settlement on this". They agree to accommodate it in some way or other, and they do not proceed.
I might say also that there has been a level of generosity or humaneness in the way the dog control unit has acted. Often they will take a dog back to its place and put it in the yard. They will ring up the owners or leave a note on the door, saying, "We have your dog", or "We have brought it home instead of taking it to the pound and thereby incurring a cost". They are decent, humane people who have a regard for the owner of the dog. However, I have now told them to become tougher; that if dogs are out they have to be impounded. Sorry, no second chance. If your dog is out, off it goes.
Ms Szuty and others are working towards legislation to say that, if a dog that is out, or any dog, has attacked someone, it will be put down, almost mandatorily. There will probably be a clause allowing some other consideration, but it will be assumed that the dog will be put down if it has attacked someone, and so it should be. We are going to be tougher in respect of dogs that attack other dogs. Lately they have been pretty flat out in the unit, running prosecutions, and we have not launched prosecutions in any significant number, if at all, when one dog attacks another dog. Often there are difficult circumstances there. Perhaps one dog might start the attack and finish up worse off. However, we will certainly look at that matter. In the case of these dogs that were just put down, it was clearly established that they had attacked a Labrador which died as a result. We would launch a prosecution in that event.
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