Does My Dog Need To Be Registered

Every dog and true cat three months of age and over must be registered with your local council. Existing registrations must be renewed by 10 Apr each yr.

Your registration fee gives y'all more than just a lost and found service for your pet.

Note: Where the owner of a dog or cat is under the age of 18 years, the parent or guardian of that owner volition be deemed the legal owner of the dog or cat and subject to any penalties/prosecutions.

Why pet registration is important

Pet registration is a legal requirement under the Domestic Animals Act 1994. You can be fined for not complying. However, there are many additional reasons to register your pet.

We are oftentimes asked almost the benefits of quango registration, when microchipping will help a lost pet find its way home. While microchipping provides a reunification service, there are many things that microchipping cannot provide that registration does. This section outlines some of the key community facilities and services that your dog and cat'south registration fee pays for.

Facilities

Your pet registration fees may become toward providing the post-obit facilities:

dog parks, including off leash parks and fenced domestic dog parks
domestic dog poo bins
pounds and shelter facilities.

Reunification

Individualised registration tags for each of your registered dogs and cats.
Animate being management staff to support the collection and return of devious animals to owners.

Events, inventive schemes and information

Events, incentive schemes and information may include:

free information booklets and fact sheets
pet expos
customs discounted microchip and desexing days
discount incentive schemes for new registrations
on-line Responsible Canis familiaris Ownership e-learning form.

Beast direction staff

Staff are needed to:

attend to nuisance complaints such every bit barking complaints, cat and dog trespassing complaints, wandering and stray animals
attend to and investigate dog attack/bite/rushing incidents
patrol parks, beaches and streets
pick upwardly stray cats and dogs
manage and run pound and shelter facilities.

Grooming courses and programs are provided for fauna management staff to ensure they have the nigh up-to-engagement data and skills in animal management

Animal direction tools are provided to ensure beast management officers are able to perform their role in the almost efficient and comprehensive manner.

Domestic Animal Business compliance

Your registration fee ensures that local authorities accept sufficient staff to audit Domestic Fauna Businesses, such as:

pets shops
breeding facilities
boarding kennels
catteries
preparation establishments
shelters and pounds.

Auditing for compliance with the relevant mandatory codes of practice under the Domestic Animals Act 1994 provides both consumer protection and beast welfare assurances for the community.

Dangerous and restricted brood dog management

Your registration fees encompass the costs of staff to enforce the control of unsafe, menacing and restricted breed dogs to ensure that owners are compliant with the legislation and ensure these dogs practise non pose a threat to the community.

In addition, the registration fee covers the cost of the Victorian Declared Dog Annals — a database that tracks and records all:

declared unsafe dogs
menacing dogs
guard dogs
restricted breed dogs.

Dog bite and dog assault education programs

Registration fees for dogs and cats in the community contribute to the post-obit dog bite prevention programs:

'We are Family' is a community education program provided gratuitous of charge to expectant and new parents preparing or introducing a new family unit member to a dwelling house with pets. The plan provides learning tools for education sessions within antenatal and maternal and child health programs and data booklets and guides. The 'Nosotros are Family' Plan offers components of the 'Living safely with dogs' program to families with infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
'Responsible Pet Ownership and Living Safely with Dogs' programs provide costless pet instruction visits to more than 2600 primary and preschools in Victoria each twelvemonth. The program includes a visit from a trained pet educator and their dog, free curriculum activities, on-line games for children, parent training sessions and information booklets. The program teaches safety around dogs and responsible pet ownership.
Free community dog bite prevention education resources.

Emergency animal welfare

Evacuation and relief centres

Your local council needs to know the number of dogs and cats within its municipality to ensure adequate evacuation and relief centres with enough resources are provided for everyone who may demand to seek refuge with their animals.

Local councils also provide registration numbers of dogs and cats to supporting agencies and not-for-profit creature welfare agencies such equally the RSPCA and Animal Help. This is so they can provide aid items like:

cages
food
bedding
bowls
leads
kitty litter
creature care staff
veterinary support.

Identifying locations where animals may take been left backside

Local council can also employ registration information to identify homes where animals may take been left stranded in an evacuation. If you do not annals your animals, in the event of an emergency — no one will know they are in that location.

Registration could be the divergence between your fauna being evacuated and cared for or not.

Exotic disease and biosecurity

The Country Government uses pet registration information for responding to exotic disease threats that affect cats and dogs. In the upshot of a disease outbreak, without proper noesis of the location of cats and dogs, the State Government does not know who to contact to prevent the spread or effectively plan the eradication of the illness.

Research

The State Government uses pet registration fees as a source of funding for research into dog and cat welfare. These enquiry programs provide the government and the general public with valid and reliable information to maximise the welfare of our pets.