An amnesty for pet owners

WHEN a cat or a dog goes missing, nothing is more important to a pet owner than finding their beloved four-legged friend.

Pet registration helps our animal management officers quickly reunite lost cats and dogs with their humans and prevents them ending up in the pound.

This is just one reason why every cat and dog owner in our municipality should register their pets – so we can reunite them with their furry companion as soon as possible.

Which is why we are offering four to five months of pet registration free of charge to eligible pet owners, in a six-week amnesty ending Sunday 15 December.

City of Greater Geelong residents with microchipped dogs or microchipped and desexed cats that are not currently registered are eligible. This excludes menacing or dangerous dogs and registered animal breeders.

You can register as many cats or dogs as you need to, as long as you and your pets meet the eligibility criteria above.

Pet owners who take advantage of this amnesty will not have to pay for their registration until the next renewal date on 10 April 2025.

This amnesty is an opportunity for pet owners, who may have overlooked their legal responsibility, to avoid penalties from upcoming compliance checks, as failing to register your pet can result in a $395 fine per animal and can have other impacts across our community.

We take an average of 90 dogs and 150 cats to Council pounds each month. Many of these are unregistered and, in most cases, registering them would have prevented them being impounded.

We really don’t want animals to end up in the pound – the shelter environment can be stressful for animals, and they are much better off at home with their family.

This distress is also heavily felt by the pet’s owner and is compounded by the extra costs if their pet ends up in the pound.

On top of the $395 fine, owners face a pound release fee of $128 and will have to pay to register their animal on the spot.

Each animal impounded costs an average of $680 in total, with both pet-owners and ratepayers bearing this cost.

The City of Greater Geelong engages Geelong Animal Welfare Society (GAWS) to provide pound services at a cost of approximately $2.5m a year and more than half of this goes towards looking after lost pets.

The cost associated with unregistered pets that have been impounded is money that could instead fund animal-related projects across our municipality such as building dog parks, desexing programs, cat traps, removing wandering livestock from roads, investigating animal nuisance complaints and prosecuting serious dog attacks.

More people registering their pets also gives us a better understanding of pet ownership in our region, which is crucial as we put together our next Domestic Animal Management Plan.

A more accurate registration database allows us to better plan and advocate for programs and services for our resident pets.

We are very grateful to the vast majority of pet owners who register their pets – thank you for doing the right thing.

I urge everyone else to take advantage of our generous pet registration amnesty by heading to geelongaustralia.com.au/pet and clicking the “Register a new pet” tab.

Please do your part as a responsible pet owner and help us continue to provide effective and compassionate animal management services across our municipality.

Ali Wastie

Chief executive officer,

City of Greater Geelong