MidCoast Council urges residents to exercise responsible pet ownership MidCoast LGA (overall news) by News Of The Area - Modern Media - February 5, 2019 BEING a responsible pet owner and ensuring animals are microchipped and registered ensures MidCoast Council can return animals to their homes. Modern Media: Advertise with News Of The Area and you get your ad in 1) in Print, 2) on the News Website (like this ad), and 3) on our Social Media news site. A much more efficient way to advertise. Reach a HUGE audience for a LOW price TODAY! Call us on 02 4983 2134. Or media@newsofthearea.com.au Or CLICK FOR ADVERT QUOTE Council’s Acting Director of Planning and Natural Systems, Paul De Szell said, “The number one priority for our rangers is to return animals to their owners, however this can only happen if the animals are microchipped and ownership details kept up to date.” “All pounds in the MidCoast Council area are managed in accordance with the Companion Animals Act 1998 and the NSW Animal Welfare Code of Practice 5 – dogs and cats in animal boarding establishments. Council has acknowledged the current concern with the way local pounds are run, saying it is important the community understands how the pounds operate.” “Dogs that make their way into our pound generally fall into the following categories: not identifiable, removed from their owners due to the threat they present or surrendered/dumped as they are unwanted by their owners.” Mr De Szell said. While he understood the concerns from well-meaning members of the community, there was often a misperception that all animals which end up in the pound can be rehomed. Many dogs that do end up at the pound have not been well cared for, and in many cases have been mistreated. As a result some dogs are not suitable to be rehomed, due to their temperament and behaviours. Mr De Szell said the animals are well cared for by Council staff, and it is upsetting for staff to be vilified on social media for doing their job. Council staff do work with several organisations to rehome suitable animals including the Animal Welfare League of NSW Great Lakes/ Manning branch, Paws Crossed Animal Rescue and Sweet Pea Animal Rescue.
I gave a suggestion to The Mayor and informed him to share my email as this will resolve the dog issues. It’s for the team to take note Reply
I dont think this statement has anything to do with the conditions that these animals have to live in wilst waiting for ownwrs to collect them council needs to adress the living conditions at the pound the heat the animals was extreme as one dog has already died in this pound from lack of care of duty no one is there on a permant basis dogs are left alone for many hours a fulltime position needs to be made so these dogs are kept cool on hot days Reply
Why did this reporter allow sweeping statements to be made about everyone in the area being irresponsible owners when they didn’t even ask for any statistics to back that up. If the number one priority was to return dogs to owners, Council would have a website or Facebook page and engage with the community. No one would even know their Animal is in the pound unless they go there. Microchips fail or aren’t even scanned. He has not acknowledged that any are lost at all. He has ignored the number that are actually reclaimed. 117 dogs/cats were reclaimed by owners last year. He mentions not a word about cats, yet they impound cats too. Then he says many end up there because they are mistreated yet acknowledges that only some of them are unsuitable for rehoming. So only a small amount are actually unfit for rehoming. Including cats and dogs no more than 23 year before last and last year no more than 50 Why didn’t this reporter ask how many people in the Council area have registered dogs and cats and how much Council made from registration fees last year and what they did with those fees because they had to be spent on animals. How many microchipped animals are in the Council area that aren’t registered. And the question I want this Council or its representatives to answer is where is the $10,000 grant money for the Chip, Snip & Vax program. Did they run the program. If so why didn’t anyone know about it and if they didn’t run it, where is the money? Have they paid it back and if not why not because they would be in total breach of the conditions of that program. Misuse of grant money is something that would be investigated by ICAC Reply
Maybe you guys should go sit in a pound kennel for a day when it’s 40’ and feel how hot that concrete gets and how stuffy it is in there. Yes the kennels aren’t too bad in theory but they aren’t protected at all from the elements. Even a carport type roof for summer would be a start. It’s not all about the companion animals act it’s about kindness and consideration for our furry friends Reply
There are absolutely people who do not look after pets and we all know it I hate Christmas time when people ramp up breeding pets as Xmas presents, and people take them not realising duty of care and cost of duty of care and the damage growing pups can do (chewed lounges, shoes, etc etc). But in our area there are also many people who dearly love their animals and even though they don’t have much, consider them as their family and can and do try to do the best by them. We are in an area in this region where inflation is not met by income, and their are too few jobs, we are in an area that many lonely people have noone else but their pets and for myself I choose not to judge them with a blanket statement. Pets do get out of homes and go missing, in a perfect world they wouldn’t, but they do and people don’t have spare money laying around to pay for fencing on top of the cost of living or to try and get them out of a facility that has such a ridiculous daily holding charge (and that is comparing it to other councils). Look in a perfect world all pets would be required to be registered and desexed and personally I would dearly love it to be illegal to have cats outside without proper enclosures so they don’t decimate our native wildlife. That backyard breeders are stopped fullstop with out special licences. But here is the thing, Pets teach children and in fact many of us empathy, when things go wrong, can give them an unjudmental friend to lean on, are absolutely family although sometimes it’s a poor one etc etc but that is not what this post is about. To my way of thinking if a pet does end up in a council pound facility for whatever reason then that council has a duty of care towards the animals they have and from what I have gathered there is a lot to be desired with this council and people want immediate change. If other councils can and are doing far better why can’t this one? Reply
