Future Direction And Intiatives For Animal Management At Ipswich

[Cr Andrew Antoniolli]

Ipswich City Council has recently released some new strategies and initiatives designed to improve our service in the Animal Management area and reduce the negative social impacts of animal ownership on the greater community. These initiatives have taken many months to develop to the release stage and include:

1. A data pofile of pet ownership in Ipswich which also includes community understanding and behaviour in relationship to ownership. This will enable council to develop a strategic plan for the management of animals in Ipswich, particularly pet ownership;

2. Continuation of our Active Pets/Active People program which encourages health and wellbeing for both pet and owner;

3. An increase in our 'Pet of the Week' program, in co-operation with the AWL.

Media Releases and links to Media stories are attached below:

http://www.qt.com.au/story/2010/02/27/more...omeone-to-love/

http://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/about_counci...iewMediaRelease

http://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/about_counci...iewMediaRelease

Please note that Ipswich City Council has had a very long working relationship with the AWL and as a direct result of that co-operative arrangement many hundreds of pets have been rehoused and avoided the normal grisly fate of most unclaimed pound pets. A number of unclaimed dogs and cats are collected from the pound each week by both the AWL and the RSPCA, however, we also have in conjunction with the AWL a local program where we offer 1 to 2 unclaimed dogs or cats to the public. These dogs/cats are desexed, microchipped and registered and then sold to the community at a price that covers costs only.

Until recently both the pound and the AWL have not been able to provide more than approx. 1 or 2 dogs a week. Due to some co-operative discussions we have been able to increase this to 5 or 6 dogs/cats per week. This might seem like a small number, however the dozens of dogs/cats that are collected by animal welfare agencies each week are taken out of the city and rehoused outside of Ipswich.

This icrease/improvement is designed to take responsibility for our own local problem and rehouse the dog/cat locally.

Council is in current discussions with the AWL to further improve this situation and take full control and responsibility for our local situation. It is hoped that further initiatives will be announced soon.

I look forward to the forums feedback.

[Mila's Mum]

Great to see Council being so proactive with these programs and sharing in the responsibility of pet management. And thank you for taking the time to let us know what's happening

I wonder if any of these initiatives could include some sort of training in the junior school environment, so that tomorrow's adults will (hopefully) be more caring, responsible and knowledgeable about dog/cat/pet ownership. Much easier to educate the child than the adult, and with a longer term positive effect.

[iggy mum]

Agree with Mila's Mum.

Just another thought, what about making work experience for school children available with pounds/RSPCA/Rescue organisations. It seems to me that this would give the kids a first hand experience in the problems faced by our pets and hopefully make them much more aware of pet ownership responsibility.

[sandra64]

I so much agree with the junior education programme.

[Jed]

Hi Andrew, and welcome to the forum.

How nice to see a representative of Local Government here.

Will read the links later, and come back. thank you for the opportunity for us all.

[mita]

Council is in current discussions with the AWL to further improve this situation and take full control and responsibility for our local situation. It is hoped that further initiatives will be announced soon.

I look forward to the forums feedback.

It's a 'Wow', from me. Ipswich Council couldn't be working along with a finer partner than AWL Qld. AWL has used every shred of evidence & the experience of many at the frontline of dog/cat management, to come up with the best of animal welfare programs.

If you want to influence the next generation of dog owners, the AWL is famous for its education programs to school children...including on-site visits at their shelter. Also good use could be made of the mobile education unit which the RSPCA takes to schools. So both already have programs, materials & resources which could be tapped into.

Is Wacol in the Ipswich Council area? If so, in 2010, University of Qld is opening a new specialist small animal hospital & diagnostic laboratory at the new RSPCA Animal Care Campus in Wacol.

I hope lots of well-informed PR gets to the community in the Ipswich region so they can get behind it all.

The Brisbane City Council has K9 Capers Days throughout the year, at various dog parks. People can bring along their dogs & be informed of all the council's initiatives. Animal welfare groups are also invited to set up information stalls. A good & informative time is had by all. Maybe the Ipswich Council could do something similar to strengthen ties with the dog-owning community in their region.

Edited February 28, 2010 by mita

[Lhok]

The NSW local government had a junior pet education system it ran for 3 years however it won't be continued this year

here's the link for you to have a look at the program

http://www.spot.nsw.gov.au/Spot_Index.asp?sec=PL

It is something I am very interested in and the only flaw I could see with the Spot program was the fact that it ran for only 15mins (no follow up lessons) and was taught in classrooms by volunteers with only a weekend's seminar as a basic knowledge.

--Lhok

[Kissindra]

I'd be looking at ways to draw the public to the pound.

Vollunteer programs, work for the dol opportunities, foster programs, links with a variety of small rscue groups and maybe a "friends of Ipswich Pound" group who could undertake activities like listing available animals on www.petrescue.com or taking good photos of animals for their profiles.Pound open days with stalls and information and offering cheap microchipping are great too.

VERY nice to see innitiatives targeting locating un-registered animals, a council who can demonstrate they are actively enforcing such laws can expect a higher rate of compliance

Logan pound have good innitiatives for links with small rescue groups as well as the AWL and RSPCA, could definately be worth liasing with them to see how they go about incorperating private rescue groups and the contracts/agreements for doing so.

You could also investigate forming links with pet supply stores which do not sell animals but are willing to have adoptable animals from the pound/rescues in their store. RSPCA fairfield are currently doing this so I'd imagine they would be ale to help with details.

A review of pound facilities and practises, particularly in reguard to disease prevention could be a worthwhile starting point to looking at ways to improve.

[WoofnHoof]

Hi Councillor,

I seem to vaguely recall something in the paper a while back regarding the involvement of council in greyhound racing in Ipswich. I would be interested to know whether there are any moves being made by council towards taking a more active role in the regulation of this industry which appears to be fairly prominent in Ipswich and which also contributes to pound statisitcs?

[justin19801]

According to the media release dog ownership will be limited to current levels. This surely can't be good for owners as a whole, can it?

[PoppyDog]

The Active Pets afternoon at Battye's Park in Brassall looks great! I would of loved to have taken Poppy as we live nearby but she hasn't had her 3rd vacc. Will there be more events like this? We are new to Ipswich and so don't know many people, let alone people with pets. I think it would be a great opportunity to meet new people and let our puppy socialise!