Page 3434 - Week 11 - Thursday, 15 November 2007
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DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (11.30): I have already spoken on Mr Pratt’s amendments, and it is my intention this time to just speak briefly because I have covered all the main points. For all the reasons that I expressed on Tuesday, the difficulty is in defining one breed as more dangerous than another. What do you do when an animal is a cross-breed; which breed do you favour in making a decision?
I do not believe that setting up certain conditions for certain breeds will solve the problem of unpredictable dog attacks. So many of the attacks that we read about have been totally unpredictable and do not seem to be associated with breed. But I do want to put in a word for dingos and jack russells because there is a concern that this debate will become a debate about breeds. Mr Hargreaves has had a difficult time with a couple of jack russell dogs, apparently, and there is no doubt that jack russells can be very pugnacious. Being a small dog with the heart and mind of a large dog they often forget their place in society. But, while Mr Hargreaves has had some bad experience with jack russell dogs, I want to acknowledge that my own jack russell, called Grit, was probably about as gentle as you can possibly find.
Mr Pratt talked about dingos, and this is a very interesting one because, of course, dingos are not technically a dog and also they are, in their pure form, getting close to being an endangered species. We have wild dogs. We have dingos. Dingos of course are not necessarily the greatest love of farmers and that is one of the reasons why they are threatened. A number of people I know have had dingos as pets. I lived two houses away from one when I lived in Yarralumla and it was famous and much loved by the community. It used to lie out the front of the house and everyone gave it a pat as they walked past.
The point I want to make here is that the domestication of dingos may be one way of protecting the species. I also want to point out that people have recommended that the tiger quoll, which is another endangered native species—it is endangered because it has lost its habitat through clear felling of forest for timber harvesting—would make a good pet as well and that would be one way of protecting and keeping the species alive. So let us remember when we talk about these things that we might need to extend some of these laws to other breeds. I am sure that a tiger quoll—it is not a cat, it is not a feline animal, but it has many of the characteristics of a cat—could, no doubt, bite someone at some time too.
So I think we need to remember that generally these things lie in the bailiwick of the owners. It is like children: children require responsible care and a lot of love if they are to grow into responsible adults and good members of our society. Animals—dogs, cats and so on—are much the same. But we should always remember that children should always be taught how to deal with dogs, and dogs should be kept separate from children no matter whether they are gentle or not. That is a part of the responsibility of dog ownership.
I once shared a house with someone who had a very gentle border collie, yet that dog picked up my daughter by the back of the neck. Maybe it was just playing. The owner did not believe me when I told him that it did that—because it was such a gentle dog. What I am saying is that there is probably no such thing as a safe dog in regard to children and we should always be aware of that, rather than demonising certain breeds.
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