From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 21 November

Patently, heavy fines are not enough to convince some people that dog ownership comes with the most serious of obligations. Flagrant breaches of responsibility require increased penalties.

LIKE many children, I grew up with dogs. There was Patch, Puppy, Blink, Brownie, and Tippy, who was given to me as a Christmas present. He was a beautiful black cocker spaniel whom I loved. Together, we wandered around the town and the bush in the north-eastern goldfields of Western Australia.

Sadly, when I went away to boarding school Tippy fretted and transferred his affection to the little boy who lived next door to my married sister. After some discussion, it was agreed he should be handed over. Anthropomorphising, I want to believe that Tippy live a long and happy life with his new owners, and occasionally remembered me, and how much I loved him.

In more recent years, I managed a pack of dogs. They came to me in varying states of distress and in need of a new home. At one time I had five – four small ones, and Penny an orange roan English Cocker Spaniel. She was a lovely girl and lived to be two-months shy of 13, which is a goodly span for the breed.

On the day Penny departed, it was obvious there was something wrong. It was high summer. I found her lying on the grass in the shade of a tree. I carried her back into the house and put her down a few feet away from my desk. As I was talking with the vet about her condition she died, with no fuss. Penny is buried in my back garden.

The others suffered from a range of conditions including diabetes, which led to blindness, and Cushing’s, a difficult and costly ailment. They required daily injections and expensive medication; however, if you have them for the good times, then you need to be there for the bad. It was a constant and on-going challenge, but as any committed dog owner will tell you, what you get back in unconditional love makes it all worthwhile.

These days, because of work dictates and circumstances, I am not able to have a dog. However, I am reduced, whenever my neighbours are out or away, to borrowing – or stealing, Daisy, their dog. Daisy and I have a wonderful relationship. I keep telling her she hates her owners, but she takes no notice and happily bounds home at the end of the day. When I suggested that if Daisy nipped the children she could be sent to live with me, the owner said, “If Daisy nips the girls, they go, and Daisy stays!” Thwarted, again!

Dogs are, for the most part, a reflection of their owners. While some breeds are vicious by nature, most are companion pets; however, they need to be properly trained and strictly disciplined. It is unfathomable that a domestic household would choose to home a dangerous, illegal, unregistered animal. It is even more concerning they would walk the creature without any form of restraint. That is, by any reasonable standard of reckoning, totally irresponsible and courting trouble.

For an owner to make it possible for a dog to chase and kill a family cat is inexcusable. It is hard to believe the dog’s reaction was a one-off response. No amount of contrition, however genuinely heartful, exonerates or diminishes the owner’s lack of responsibility, regardless of the animal’s instincts. Nor does it do anything to relieve the grief of the owner.

Courts need to be less accommodating in their judgements. Punishments should reflect community expectations and fit the crime.

Australia should follow the lead of Germany which plans to legislate some of the toughest terms and condition for the ownership of animals, especially dogs. When animals run amok, it is, for the most part, the fault of the owner, not the animal. Sadly, it is, invariably, the animal which bears the brunt.

We should penalise the owner, not the pet.

Roland can be contacted via [email protected].