The Minister for Local Government, Don Page MP, has today put out a media release in regards to upcoming changes to the Dangerous Dog legislation in New South Wales, Australia. While we at Team Dog certainly welcome behaviour-based, as opposed to appearance-based dangerous dog legislation, we are very skeptical of the impact increased penalties and jail time will have to achieve a reduction to the numbers of dog attacks in our community. Time and time again, models such as the Calgary Model have shown us that education and incentives for responsible dog ownership has the biggest impact on dog attack numbers and severity. If we have a great framework to encourage people to do the right thing, and give them every opportunity to do so, we find that there are very few people who continue to allow their animals to cause a nuisance in the community. For those few left over, enforcement is certainly needed, however it is much better and much more effective to prevent that enforcement ever needing to happen in the first place. The introduction of a ‘menacing’ category, if implemented correctly, could certainly have a positive impact for both dog owners and the wider community. The devil is in the detail, however – and we wait and see if it plays out in the way it is intended. It is disappointing that the Calgary Model has again been ignored, however this simply means our voices must be louder. Be a hero. Be #TeamDog. Send our proposal to your local MP and Mr Don Page himself: bit.ly/teamdogsolution
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 04:27:47 +0000
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