Tempus Fugit

An update: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/police-hunt-for-men-after-man-dog-attacked-with-machete-in-home-invasion-20180403-h0yanu.html

For a kelpie, you should be able find a good muzzle from a farm supplies shop, either physically or on line, rather than from suburban a pet shop. The Baskerville Ultra is more designed to stop biting than eating, while I'm not sure a Jafco provides adequate ventilation in our hot summers.

Apparently another dog belonging to SA Correctional Services has had to be euthanized: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-25/advance-dermocare-dog-food-voluntarily-recalled-megaoesophagus/9584518

Well now there's been another attack in Melbourne and the media is howling. http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/kids/its-time-to-ban-dangerous-dogs/news-story/f9f662204dac7f9c5eadf1915dc75ca0.

There is actually an existing dog walk social group in Canberra.

Council staff recommend the green light for dog breeding facility at Fosters Valley

Let's hope it's a good year for dogs in China! Unless Chinese activists can persuade their government to pass better animal welfare laws I doubt much will change. Dogs will still be slaughtered for human consumption; Dog fighting is legal in China (although gambling on a dog fight is not); Dogs are still used as draught animals (poor man's horse) e.g. the so-called "rickshaw dogs". Also, this time of year, around Harbin in north-east china a tourist attraction is a ride in a one-dog open sleigh:

The way insurance works is that a many people contribute to a pot of money (premiums) from which hopefully fewer people make lower claims from the money pot than what goes in. Up until last year, most of our premiums were going to Allianz, as underwriters for Petplan. Then Petplan decided to change underwriter to the Lloyds MS Amlin syndicate. My guess is that Amjlin saw us people with middle-aged dogs as a high risk and since they hadn't been getting premiums from us from when we first took out the policies (they were pocketed by Allianz) they have sent us a price signal that we should either get off their books or pay a catch-up premium so that we end up paying them what we would have paid them had they been the underwriters from the time we first took out the policies. For me, I decided to get off their books and take out insurance with a competitor since not only was I faced with a doubling of my premium but Petplan/ Amlin have also introduced an age related co-payment on top of the normal excess that kicks in once the dog reaches 8 years old. I realise I will have wear the pre-existing conditions with the new insurer but hopefully the premiums will stay low enough that I can at least partially self insure but at least have some insurance for accidents.

One of the reasons compulsory microchipping was brought in.

I think it would depend on the jurisdiction. In the ACT, for instance: DOMESTIC ANIMALS ACT 2000 - SECT 50B Obligations of keeper or carer if dog attacks (1) This section applies if— (a) a keeper or carer of a dog is with the dog; and (b) the dog attacks a person or a person's animal (the affected person ). (2) The keeper or carer must, if asked by the affected person, give the affected person— (a) reasonable assistance as requested; and (b) the keeper or carer's name, address and contact details. Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units. (3) If the attack caused serious injury to a person or animal, the keeper or carer must tell the registrar about the attack as soon as practicable after the attack. Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units. Elsewhere in the legislation it is a defence from prosecution if the person or animal provoked the dog.

Well, in Russia up until very recently there was still a lot of live baiting of 'pest' species going on. You could take your dog to a 'baiting station' where for a fee you could have your husky bait a chained bear or have your terrier chase a fox around an artificial sett. Some US states had a similar practice known as coyote and fox pens. My biggest hassle with foxes is that my dog loves to chase them, which can be problematic as my local unfenced off-lead exercise is bounded by busy roads. They also tend to pop up when I am doing tracking training. Here is what one person in the US uses to stop coyotes taking his pet dog:

This is an often repeated scenario, especially in summer. Rellies, friends come over for a barbie or pool party bringing along their boisterous, screaming children; dog gets exited, startled, toes stepped on, petted on a hotspot or sore ear, gets protective his family's children, wants yummy food a child is eating, gets protective of his territory because he/ she is chained up in a corner of the yard etc. Result = bitten child and much acrimony

Miight be worth getting legal advice from the Animal Defenders Office https://www.ado.org.au/

Quite a few people do chip but then don't update their details when they move, change phone no Tec.

Link: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/home/pets/perth-man-savagely-attacked-by-his-own-dog/news-story/944ef4b0c36e06a0f8ff897009a2c4ca

Apparently the Bill has been passed.

The article doesn't convince me that dingoes are more vicious than numerous other breeds. It seems simply a case of redirected aggression onto an elderly lady who was trying to break up a fight where 3 medium size dogs were attacking a small dog. The attacking dogs could easily have been bullys, shepherds, malamutes, staghounds or a variety of other breeds or crosses thereof. If the dogs were normally kept in pens like that pictured, it might indicate a lack of socialisation though.

The GSD Council of Australia maintain an on-line database of ANKC registered GSDs. If the breeder had him microchipped & registered as a puppy you could search the database for his kennel prefix. You need to be a member of your state GSD body eg GSDL NSW to access the database.

As far as I aware, the above is a slang definition. According to my Oxford Dictionary, the etymology of the word wild is of Germanic origin, from the word wilde meaning not domesticated or cultivated, whereas feral is from the Latin fera, referring specifically to wild animals. So it would be correct to refer to a wild animal as a feral animal but a wildflower would not generally be referred to as a feral flower. So lawyers and aficionados of Latin would talk about feral foxes whilst peasants and lower classes would refer to them as wild foxes.

Apparently there is now a book about it titled "How to tame a fox and build a dog"

Do they also have a similar policy for roosters that crow before 7am?

What about the pens that declared dangerous dogs have to be housed in?

Not really. It's just that dog attacks in Canberra are a political issue at the moment. All over the world big dogs have been attacking little dogs for centuries. In the wild, coyote kill foxes, while wolves kill both coyote and foxes. As a society we humans domesticated wolves, but never completely eliminated their predatory instinct, and then we started shrinking some of them to be smaller than foxes. Also as a society, we seem to be unable to totally confine our canine companions to our properties when unsupervised so they get out and their predatory instincts kick in. Remember, dogcatchers have been around for centuries. I guess the latest incident will have rotties in the firing line, as they are in some european countries along with pitties.

According to newspaper reports, the property was public housing rental. The housing authority claimed they had no record of being asked to repair the fence.

Just got my PetPlan renewal notice. The premium for my 6 year-old GSD has doubled from $75 per month to a massive $150 per month (back in 2014 it was a reasonable $50 per month). The underwriters are now apparently a mob called MS Amlin Syndicate 2001 at Lloyds in London. Somehow I get the feeling that this Lloyds syndicate is using us colonials as milch cows to recover losses from disasters such as Fukushima (see the Wikipedia entry for MS Amlin).