Muswellbrook Shire Council is renewing the call for pet owners to take responsibility after an increase in calls for rangers to collect roaming or escaped dogs.
“We’ve had a very high spike in issues around dog attacks and roaming dogs, and we’re getting a few dogs into the shelter as well that aren’t being reclaimed,” Michelle Crook, senior ranger, shared.
“Most of them (the unclaimed animals) end up being litters of puppies coming in, they’re not microchipped.”
In these situations, the dedicated animal shelter staff spend time working with rescue agencies to foster the puppies out, so they can be exposed to a normal home environment rather than being in the animal shelter.
Another frustration the rangers face is picking up roaming dogs, which have been causing a number of issues in the area.
“Generally, we’ll get the report, a member of the public will contact our administration and the report comes through to us, we have a quick look at the finer details, see exactly what the job is,” Nikita Butt, a ranger for council, said.
“Before bringing the animal back to the shelter, we will scan them for a microchip and try and get them home first.”
There are a few things that are assessed on a case-by-case scenario, like if the dog or listed owners have a history with council, the rangers can’t get hold of an owner, or if the address is out of the area.
This reiterates the importance of having your pet microchipped, with their details up to date, to ensure you can be contacted if the ranger does come into possession of your dog so they can be returned to you without incurring the impound costs.
Michelle shared that it is a legal requirement of pet owners is to keep their dog contained, safe and secure.
“When you are out of the home environment, it is a legal requirement for dogs to be on a leash,” she said.
“That’s an absolute black and white legal requirement, it doesn’t matter how well behaved and how well trained your dog is, it has to be on the lead.”
While talking with Muswellbrook Shire Council rangers about the issue of roaming dogs, they do acknowledge that sometimes things happen.
“Situations where we’ve returned dogs directly to people’s addresses, we’ve been invited onto the property and we’ve looked at the area, looked at fencing to give advice, offer assistance to upgrade it, just so make sure that it’s not going to get out again,” Nikita explained.
“We’ve got absolutely no problem assisting someone who has put in that effort to ask us for a bit of advice, we are happy to talk.”
