A Canberra woman whose dog was killed in a brutal dog attack in Melba has urged the ACT government to better enforce its regulations, as new figures reveal almost 800 attacks or reported incidents of harrassment last year.
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The woman, Bel Fuller, is one of many Canberrans whose pets have fallen victim to dog-on-dog attacks in recent years. The loss of her maltese-shih-tzu cross, Coco, left her with months of recurring nightmares of the attack.
The latest ACT government figures show 795 reports were lodged about dog attacks or dog "harassment" incidents in 2018. There were a further 73 attack or harassment reports in January.
The number of reported dog attacks has risen steadily in recent years, from 85 in 2012-13 to 389 in 2016-17.
Those incidents could range from aggressive behaviour towards another dog or person up to serious biting incidents, though the government could not provide detailed figures on the severity of those incidents.
Ms Fuller came forward as Labor and the Greens last week voted down an opposition bill aiming to encourage owners of dangerous dogs to hand them over to authorities by raising registration fees for those dogs.
She said the attack also caused her to leave her job and move to a new suburb due to the stress she experienced in the wake of Coco’s death, which she relived whenever she returned to the street she once lived in.
She said she had been walking Coco near her home when she saw two dogs wandering the streets off their lead. She turned a corner to walk away but soon heard the dogs in bushes nearby, before one attacked Coco.
Ms Fuller said the dog, believed to be a German shepherd, pounced on Coco, ultimately puncturing Coco’s lungs, kidneys and liver, in an attack that left both Ms Fuller and Coco covered in blood.
Despite being rushed to a veterinary surgery, Coco died 44 hours later, triggering a lengthy ordeal Ms Fuller underwent to recover the veterinary costs from the owner of the other dog.
Ms Fuller believed while more laws might help reduce attacks, she rarely saw rangers out penalising owners for allowing their dogs off their lead, and the existing rules should be more strongly enforced.
While there are some exceptions, such as on sporting grounds when sports are not being played, dog owners must keep their dogs on a leash under current regulations, and they are prohibited from schools and childcare centres during school hours or sporting events.
They are allowed to swim in lakes at least 10 metres from signposted swimming areas, but are prohibited from public playgrounds and barbecue areas. Dogs must also be on a leash at all major parks and on footpaths and cycle paths, with fines ranging from $150 to $350 for breaches.
Despite almost 800 attacks or harassment reports last year, Domestic Animal Services handed out only 117 warnings to owners who breached the rules, and those warnings led to just 59 fines.
The vast majority of those warnings and fines related to owners having a dog off the leash on someone else’s property without the occupier’s consent - 74 warnings and 31 fines in 2018.
The opposition has proposed reforms to the regulations due to the rising number of attacks in recent years, some of which have been taken up by the government. But the opposition’s latest bill failed to pass the Assembly.
The bill, introduced by Liberal deputy leader Nicole Lawder, would have doubled registration fees for dangerous dogs, removed a $60 fee for owners to give up dangerous dogs to authorities and cut fees for owners who undertook approved training.
Ms Lawder told the Assembly she believed it would have created a disincentive for owners of dangerous dogs to keep them, and incentivised other dog owners to undergo proper training. She said with an annual rise in incidents of about 30 per cent each year in recent times, more needed to be done.
But Labor City Services Minister Chris Steel rejected the bill on the grounds research indicated educating dog owners to be more responsible, along with more training and education, would be more effective than changing fees.
He also defended the government’s existing changes - which took on some previous Liberal proposals - and said the latest bill was unnecessary.
Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur said the minor party could not support the bill, in part due to concerns owners of dangerous dogs might simply not register them if their registration fees increased.
Ms Fuller has since bought a new dog, a cavalier-poodle cross named Dolce. But the traumatic experience of losing Coco has left her afraid to walk Dolce at times.
“It’s been two and half years since I lost Coco, and I still have nightmares from time to time,” she said.
“I still don’t have closure, as the government won’t tell me if there has been action taken about the dog that attacked Coco; they say it’s because of privacy concerns.
“It feels terrible not to know what the outcome was, to be honest. It feels like with animals, they're really a part of your family, but in the court system it's like they're nothing.”
