MIDDLE GROUND
Great moves are afoot in
municipal pet management (MPM) in Australia and New Zealand.
In South Australia, Ken
McCann, Chief Executive Officer of the Dog & Cat Management
Board, has a new act in place, the Dog and Cat Management Act
1995. Itís going well. 1
2 3
In Victoria, John McCrory from the Victorian Bureau of Animal
Welfare travels from council to council to advise on the new Domestic
(Feral and Nuisance) Animals Act 1994. Over the border, Ros
Riordan watches with interest. She is coordinating the development
of a new companion animal act in her role as Policy Adviser to the
New South Wales Minister for Local Government. 4
People in other states of
Australia and in New Zealand are close behind, reviewing their
legislative arrangements.
Meanwhile, on the streets,
another game has been developing. In the last five years,
environmental managers, rangers and animal control officers have
revolutionised MPM at local government level. The revolutionaries
are people such as Graeme Raine in Western Australia, Peter Guest
from Tasmania, Phil Carr from the Northern Territory, Shane
Scriggins from Queensland and Ken Muir from New Zealand. Many of
them made their difference without the benefit of extra funds or
new legislation.
But whether they are
operating at the top of the public service or at grassroots level
of local government, all these people (and you may be one of them)
have one thing in common. They are brave people trying to balance
a myriad of interests to reach the middle ground of MPM.
Weíve listed some of the
conflicting interests that must be balanced. (See: Some interests
to be balanced ) The list is a modification of a list by Riordan.
4
It gives some idea of the complexity of the task facing municipal
pet managers.
So there are no easy paths to
middle ground. Or, if there are, we donít know them. But we
think we know some of the questions to ask:
-
To what extent should our
society encourage pet ownership?
-
What principles should
underlie our community pet policies?
-
How can pet policies be
implemented in the most effective ways?
-
What specific procedures
should we follow to deal with the Big Six:
registration, restraint, biting, barking, public health,
unwanteds?
-
Who will pay for harmony
between pets and people in our communities?
-
Are cats different?
These are the questions we
consider in this publication.
1.
McCann KJ. 1993. Dog control review. In: Paxton DW, editor. Urban Animal Management: proceedings of the Second National Conference on Urban Animal Management in Australia (Penrith NSW, 1993). Sydney: AVA: 81-90.
2.
McCann KJ. 1994. Cat management in South Australia. In: Paxton DW, editor. Urban Animal Management: proceedings of the Third National Conference on Urban Animal Management in Australia (Canberra, 1994). Sydney: AVA: 99-102.
3.
McCann KJ. 1994. Dog management in South Australia. In: Paxton DW, editor. Urban Animal Management: proceedings of the Third National Conference on Urban Animal Management in Australia (Canberra, 1994). Sydney: AVA: 93-98.
4.
Riordan R. 1996. Developing the proposed NSW Companion Animal
Legislation. In: Hassett S, editor. Urban Animal Management:
proceedings of the Fifth National Conference on Urban Animal
Management in Australia (Sydney, 1996). Sydney: AVA: 57-62. |