New Dog And Cat Laws In South Australia

[AMuse]

The report actually says:

"Central to the Jury's recommendation is that desexing is to occur at/or prior to the point of sale of dogs and cats".

It then goes onto mention exceptions but makes it pretty clear that they are talking about point of sale for both dogs and cats and that an exception will be required if you don't wish to. I am a huge supporter of having desexed pets but my latest dog will not be desexed until she is closer to 2 years and my previous bitch was 14 months. They are a medium sized breed purchased from registered breeders who I do not intend on breeding from but prefer to wait for health reasons as they compete in performance sports.

I also wonder why the RSPCA have to get involved in the registration side of things. Seems to be a double up when there are already organisations which look after and encourage responsible breeding like Dogs SA.

I understand Ness. One of the things that you need to understand is that this is a report put together in a short time by a large bunch of gifted amateurs who met infrequently and had to try to get their ideas together and onto paper for release to the Minister in an 11 day period between the last deliberation day and yesterday - really under a week actually because the report had to be printed and in the hands of the Minister some time before it waas presented to him last night.

What I can say is that there was much much more discussion and a lot of ideas that were discussed and possibly, given time, would have been further fleshed out but weren't - leading to these types of small 'detail level' issues.

The other thing to know is that throughout the Jury's deliberations there were senior staff members from both the minister's office and the Dog and Cat Management Board in attendance quietly observing what was being said. The concepts are in the report and the detail will have to come. The detail is already part of what was discussed and picked up upon by those whose job it is to work out that stuff. The concepts are the things that matter in the report.

[ness]

I am very familiar with government process and length of time for turning around documents :laugh: and hopefully they do take into account the detail when it comes to finalising things. I also know to well though that sometimes the high level broad statements are what is run with and adopted and the detail gets lost.Have seen many instances of this.

Edited August 14, 2015 by ness

[casowner]

I looked at the at a glance which suggests all abandoned or unwanted pets get rehomed via pet shop.

I completely disagree with this. No puppy or dog should be in a pet shop unless being supervised by a human who is dedicated to that job. Ie socialisation and rehome via rescues. Where is the rescue system in this?

Also desex should not be compulsory. It's not good for bone development if you want a sport dog or you have a larger breed. But it only suggests the puppy should be desexed before sale which would mean 8 weeks.

I will have to read the big report now.

Not rehomed by a pet shop but rather, as Pet Barn and Pet Stock do now, rehoming days run in conjunction with RSPCA and AWL.

They are not the only ones, nor the first but just FYI the AWL and RSPCA refused to rehome through Independents for years and only started with the Corporates who have massive marketing dollars. Thousands of animals could have been saved and rehomed well before the Corporates were on the scene

[casowner]

The report actually says:

"Central to the Jury's recommendation is that desexing is to occur at/or prior to the point of sale of dogs and cats".

It then goes onto mention exceptions but makes it pretty clear that they are talking about point of sale for both dogs and cats and that an exception will be required if you don't wish to. I am a huge supporter of having desexed pets but my latest dog will not be desexed until she is closer to 2 years and my previous bitch was 14 months. They are a medium sized breed purchased from registered breeders who I do not intend on breeding from but prefer to wait for health reasons as they compete in performance sports.

I also wonder why the RSPCA have to get involved in the registration side of things. Seems to be a double up when there are already organisations which look after and encourage responsible breeding like Dogs SA.

I understand Ness. One of the things that you need to understand is that this is a report put together in a short time by a large bunch of gifted amateurs who met infrequently and had to try to get their ideas together and onto paper for release to the Minister in an 11 day period between the last deliberation day and yesterday - really under a week actually because the report had to be printed and in the hands of the Minister some time before it waas presented to him last night.

What I can say is that there was much much more discussion and a lot of ideas that were discussed and possibly, given time, would have been further fleshed out but weren't - leading to these types of small 'detail level' issues.

The other thing to know is that throughout the Jury's deliberations there were senior staff members from both the minister's office and the Dog and Cat Management Board in attendance quietly observing what was being said. The concepts are in the report and the detail will have to come. The detail is already part of what was discussed and picked up upon by those whose job it is to work out that stuff. The concepts are the things that matter in the report.

And who represented the Pet Industry? The businesses that will be affected should have had representation. I do not have puppies and kittens and have been a strong advocate of supporting rescues in fact my staff member was interviewed in my store yesterday by Channel 10 but I find it curious that the discussion was held without expert Pet Industry input or if it was none of it was relayed to key businesses for their experience/input/recommendations

[AMuse]

I looked at the at a glance which suggests all abandoned or unwanted pets get rehomed via pet shop.

I completely disagree with this. No puppy or dog should be in a pet shop unless being supervised by a human who is dedicated to that job. Ie socialisation and rehome via rescues. Where is the rescue system in this?

Also desex should not be compulsory. It's not good for bone development if you want a sport dog or you have a larger breed. But it only suggests the puppy should be desexed before sale which would mean 8 weeks.

I will have to read the big report now.

Not rehomed by a pet shop but rather, as Pet Barn and Pet Stock do now, rehoming days run in conjunction with RSPCA and AWL.

They are not the only ones, nor the first but just FYI the AWL and RSPCA refused to rehome through Independents for years and only started with the Corporates who have massive marketing dollars. Thousands of animals could have been saved and rehomed well before the Corporates were on the scene

Thanks for that. Obviously the 'biggies' are more visible to us all. The fact remains that no matter who is doing it the model is good - better than couping up pets in pet shop windows.

[casowner]

I looked at the at a glance which suggests all abandoned or unwanted pets get rehomed via pet shop.

I completely disagree with this. No puppy or dog should be in a pet shop unless being supervised by a human who is dedicated to that job. Ie socialisation and rehome via rescues. Where is the rescue system in this?

Also desex should not be compulsory. It's not good for bone development if you want a sport dog or you have a larger breed. But it only suggests the puppy should be desexed before sale which would mean 8 weeks.

I will have to read the big report now.

Not rehomed by a pet shop but rather, as Pet Barn and Pet Stock do now, rehoming days run in conjunction with RSPCA and AWL.

They are not the only ones, nor the first but just FYI the AWL and RSPCA refused to rehome through Independents for years and only started with the Corporates who have massive marketing dollars. Thousands of animals could have been saved and rehomed well before the Corporates were on the scene

Thanks for that. Obviously the 'biggies' are more visible to us all. The fact remains that no matter who is doing it the model is good - better than couping up pets in pet shop windows.

Ok so is it fair that the "biggies" who honestly care about $$ and not the homes, profit is good business and good PR = $$ so what about the "restraint of trade" so to speak for the Independents when the "biggies" are the ones contracted to the main shelters? My affiliated rescue has rehomed over 5000 dogs/cats and they started in my store in 2012. You did not answer my question, who represented the Pet Industry? The people that you were making recommendations for, I am honestly interested because it seems the "biggies" are the only ones that have been considered and not those that built the Industry based on a true passion and love of animals, those that have not sold dogs/cats for years

[casowner]

I looked at the at a glance which suggests all abandoned or unwanted pets get rehomed via pet shop.

I completely disagree with this. No puppy or dog should be in a pet shop unless being supervised by a human who is dedicated to that job. Ie socialisation and rehome via rescues. Where is the rescue system in this?

Also desex should not be compulsory. It's not good for bone development if you want a sport dog or you have a larger breed. But it only suggests the puppy should be desexed before sale which would mean 8 weeks.

I will have to read the big report now.

Not rehomed by a pet shop but rather, as Pet Barn and Pet Stock do now, rehoming days run in conjunction with RSPCA and AWL.

They are not the only ones, nor the first but just FYI the AWL and RSPCA refused to rehome through Independents for years and only started with the Corporates who have massive marketing dollars. Thousands of animals could have been saved and rehomed well before the Corporates were on the scene

Thanks for that. Obviously the 'biggies' are more visible to us all. The fact remains that no matter who is doing it the model is good - better than couping up pets in pet shop windows.

I find it interesting that you don't want to see animals couped up in pet shops so what about the tiny RSPCA cages in the pet shops? Is that acceptable because the cages have RSPCA on them? Genuine question what is the difference?

[Christina]

http://ysa-v2-katalyst-com-au.s3.amazonaws.com/production/2015/08/12/07/36/26/d6cc5ff9-5d7b-4706-a2d3-e4d24bdf5954/Dog%20and%20Cat%20System%20Visual%20%20Citizens%20Jury%202015.pdf

Having read the above I am pleasantly suprised at how sensible it seems overall.

There may be a few problems with implementing it all & I wish there was another body apart from RSPCA to oversee the breeders side but seems that they are the most suitable having the prosecution powers.

However it is a worry when sometimes they do such a good job & then sometimes they don't prosecute when it appears obvious that they need to. However I don't understand the full legalities of it all, which is probably often a factor.

The pre ownership course may be a bit of a waste of time depending on the views of who sets the course & its all a bit nanny state but maybe that is what is needed & it can't do any harm I guess.

I strongly support the non sale of cats & dogs, except rescues, in pet shops & do believe it contributes to both impulse buying & puppy farm suppliers however I wonder can they get around fair trading laws to implement this ? There will be huge objections from the industry.

I was worried that we would end up a state with only large licensed business, government & council approved puppy & kitten farms that obeyed the regulations & dog breeding would become a profit based business as opposed to a love your breed, want to breed well & promote passion, which is how it is for many small breeders.

There is no way everyone will agree on what is best & a proportion of people will always neglect, discard or abuse animals but so far it looks ok.

10,000 euthanised cats & dogs a year is heartbreaking, irresponsible & probably not warranted in many cases. No wonder the staff get traumatised.

I hope it all works out well.