SHANE Rattenbury has announced the passage of legislation that will increase the penalty that can be imposed for dog attacks.

“Under previous legislation, the maximum penalties for a dog harassment incident and an attack incident were the same at $7,500 (or 50 penalty units). This means a person whose dog barks at and scares another person or animal – a harass incident – could receive the same fine as a person whose dog viciously mauls a person or animal,” Shane said.

“The new legislation changes the Domestic Animals Act 2000 and Magistrates Court (Domestic Animals Infringement Notices) Regulation 2005, creating a separate penalty for attack incidents and imposes a scheme of escalating penalties with infringements appropriate to the degree of injury caused to a person or animal from an incident.

“This scheme aims to differentiate the severity between harass and attack incidents and create penalties that are more in line with community expectations.

“There are an average of 260 dog attack or harass incidents in the ACT each year. These incidents can result in physical harm to a person or animal and cause significant emotional distress to those involved.

“The new maximum penalty for dog attack offences that cause serious injury are increased to $15,000, imprisonment for one year, or both, while the maximum penalty for dog harassment and minor attack offences will remain at $7,500.

“Some jurisdictions have introduced breed specific legislation in an attempt to avoid dog attacks; however there is strong evidence against this approach. The ACT Government’s position instead identifies specific individual dogs that have already exhibited signs of aggression and identifies them as dangerous dogs, rather than targeting individual breeds.

Mr Rattenbury said the legislation will also see the maximum penalty for a declared dangerous dog involved in an attack significantly increased.

“Owners of dogs that have been declared dangerous should be well aware of the potential for their animal to cause serious harm to people or other animals and are required to comply with strict licence conditions. The previous maximum penalty when a dog that has been declared dangerous attacks a person or animal is $15,000 (or 100 penalty units), imprisonment for one year, or both. Under the new legislation this will be raised to $75,000 (or 500 penalty units), imprisonment for five years, or both.

The increased penalty brings the severity of this offence in line with other offences such as assault occasioning actual bodily harm in which the maximum penalty is also five years imprisonment. The maximum penalty can only be imposed by a court. Changes to legislation will not be applied retrospectively.

[Photo: George the kelpie savages Charlotte the cat, no fine was imposed]