Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (11:31): I rise to speak on this motion of Mr Meddick’s today. In doing so I just want to point out that we have got to be very careful about cost-shifting to local government, which is already burdened in many ways by activities that we pass in this place. I think there is a differentiation we need to also be aware of between rural and urban municipalities. Urban municipalities collect sometimes the same amount of money in pet registrations as the total budget of some rural municipalities. In many cases ensuring that we have got a proper system for rehoming or dealing with lost animals or wild animals that are causing trouble, especially cats in many areas, is an issue that urban municipalities do not have to deal with, while having enormous budgets that they collect from pet registrations. In 2019 there were 662 855 dogs registered through local councils and 221 541 cats. All Victorian councils collect a registration fee of $4. If you equate that out, that is $3.5 million that could be used to subsidise desexing and other rehoming activities. There is no doubt that this needs to be done.

I would just say that, and I have contacted all the municipalities in Mr Meddick’s and my region about this issue, local governments by and large do an excellent job at trying to rehome lost animals or find their owners, and social media has advanced this cause now because you often see a dog that they have found, the pound keeper has put it up and in no time it will be reunited with its owner. Vets likewise do an extraordinary job in helping to check microchips. Of course we do not want vets being charged for doing something that absolutely should not be illegal. They should be able to assist in the identification of animals so that their owners can be found, and if owners are not looking after their animals properly, they are the ones that need to be dealt with.

I would say that one of the major issues in this is education. Some people just should not own animals. We have had an increase in people purchasing animals to have companions while they have been locked at home. One wonders what is going to happen if they all go back to work and these poor pets are left locked in an urban environment with nobody there to be their companion. We are going to have a greater influx of distressed animals or animals that are hopefully not let loose, as Mr Bourman has pointed, in rural areas where we have got a major situation with wild dogs and cats causing no end of trouble with our native animals.

This is a serious matter in many rural areas. Not only are wild dogs and cats causing issues with native animals but they are causing issues with farm animals as well. Wild dogs can do enormous damage to sheep and lambs and so on. This is because people get a pet, treat it as a toy effectively and do not know how to look after it. Then somehow the pets get released into the wild and become very good predators and we all suffer. I think we need to use the money we collect from registrations to make sure that money is not going into consolidated revenue but is used to help desex animals.

Like Mr Bourman, I have got issues with the fact that we have virtually closed down legitimate breeding enterprises and they have gone underground. The veterinary association have said to me that one of their worst problems is the number of backyard breeders and the cruelty that is inflicted on so many animals where pets are being bred illegally, with no regulation whatsoever, and sold in car parks and in no way properly looked after. We need to do a lot more, we absolutely do, but we have got to be very careful that we do not shift this burden onto local government and that we actually start educating the population about what it is to be a pet owner.

House divided on motion: