The Victorian Government thinks they can reduce dog attacks by selectively killing lost dogs before their owners have time to collect them.

Victorian councils are required to hold lost dogs for 8 days to give owners a chance to collect them. As of 1st Sep 2010, councils can kill impounded dogs after 48 hours if:

  • the dog was ‘at large’
  • the owner cannot be identified
  • they ‘reasonably believe’ that the dog is likely to attack a person or animal in future if it were ‘at large’ again

I’ve written at length about why this is a bad idea but I’ll just received the Practice Note (download here) advising Councils how to establish ‘reasonable belief’.

This document shows an inexcusable level of ignorance about dog behaviour. I have trouble believing an adult was paid money to prepare it. Just look at the list of suggested reasons for killing dogs before the 8 days:

I think this is one of the easiest articles I’ve ever had to write as the author of this Practice Note says it all for me! Who wrote this and how did such bad advice get approved by the Minister?