Page 864 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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(g) anywhere else this rate of increase in crime or injury would be regarded as a crisis;
(h) anywhere else this rate of increase in the neglect of animal welfare would be regarded an animal welfare tragedy;
(i) dogs that have been found to have committed vicious attacks on people or other animals are still returned to the community; and
(j) the tragic death last week of yet another beloved innocent domestic animal as a result of a violent dog attack; and
(2) calls on the ACT Government to:
(a) provide the resources needed to ensure that the current dog laws are effectively enforced; and
(b) provide the resources needed to ensure that dog attacks are investigated quickly and treated under the law with the urgency and seriousness that the community expects.
To borrow some words from Ms Cheyne earlier, here we are talking about the same thing again: standing up on this side of the chamber for Canberrans. The difference here is that we are talking about dog attacks. We have been aggressively pursuing reform in the area of management of dangerous dogs, whereas Ms Cheyne’s motion was about something that we have already agreed on. Yet we talked about it again. So I am going to talk yet again about better management of dangerous dogs.
My motion today calls on the government to ensure that the resources that are obviously required to better manage dangerous dogs are in place to make sure that dog attacks can be investigated quickly and treated under the law with the urgency and seriousness that our community expects. This sadly does not appear to be happening.
I can refer members to comments made by Ms Le Couteur recently that acknowledged there are not enough resources, despite the fact that it is, in effect, her own government that is managing this process. Since I last spoke in this place about dogs there has been a very well circulated story about the sad loss of another beloved pet—in fact, a therapy animal that was killed, or euthanised, as the result of a dog attack. I think we have probably all heard about it on social media and through traditional media.
On 12 March, Mimosa, a therapy alpaca, had to be euthanised after being attacked by a black staffy dog, apparently while the dog’s owner filmed the mauling on his phone. This happened at about 6.40 pm in a public place in Giralang. This alpaca was not just a beloved companion to its owners but also a form of treatment for ill people. It had been used in therapy programs for years, bringing joy to patients at places such as Clare Holland House and the mental health unit at the Canberra Hospital.
There has been an annual increase in dog attacks in Canberra of about 30 per cent year on year over five years. The number of dog attacks in the past few years has been increasing year on year. The number of dogs in Canberra has also increased. However, we find that the number of fines issued has been decreasing. It would appear that,
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