Can You Register A Cat As Your Pet

Every domestic dog and true cat three months of historic period and over must be registered with your local council. Existing registrations must be renewed by 10 Apr each twelvemonth.

Your registration fee gives you more than just a lost and plant service for your pet.

Note: Where the owner of a canis familiaris or cat is under the age of 18 years, the parent or guardian of that owner volition be deemed the legal owner of the dog or cat and subject to whatever penalties/prosecutions.

Why pet registration is important

Pet registration is a legal requirement under the Domestic Animals Human action 1994. You can be fined for not complying. However, there are many additional reasons to register your pet.

We are often asked about the benefits of council registration, when microchipping will help a lost pet find its way habitation. While microchipping provides a reunification service, in that location are many things that microchipping cannot provide that registration does. This section outlines some of the key customs facilities and services that your dog and cat'south registration fee pays for.

Facilities

Your pet registration fees may become toward providing the following facilities:

dog parks, including off leash parks and fenced domestic dog parks
domestic dog poo bins
pounds and shelter facilities.

Reunification

Individualised registration tags for each of your registered dogs and cats.
Animate being management staff to support the collection and return of stray animals to owners.

Events, inventive schemes and information

Events, incentive schemes and information may include:

gratuitous information booklets and fact sheets
pet expos
community discounted microchip and desexing days
discount incentive schemes for new registrations
on-line Responsible Dog Buying due east-learning course.

Beast management staff

Staff are needed to:

attend to nuisance complaints such as barking complaints, true cat and dog trespassing complaints, wandering and stray animals
attend to and investigate dog set on/bite/rushing incidents
patrol parks, beaches and streets
selection up devious cats and dogs
manage and run pound and shelter facilities.

Training courses and programs are provided for animal direction staff to ensure they have the most up-to-appointment information and skills in brute management

Beast management tools are provided to ensure animal management officers are able to perform their part in the most efficient and comprehensive manner.

Domestic Animal Business concern compliance

Your registration fee ensures that local government have sufficient staff to audit Domestic Creature Businesses, such equally:

pets shops
breeding facilities
boarding kennels
catteries
training establishments
shelters and pounds.

Auditing for compliance with the relevant mandatory codes of practice under the Domestic Animals Act 1994 provides both consumer protection and brute welfare assurances for the community.

Dangerous and restricted brood dog management

Your registration fees cover the costs of staff to enforce the command of unsafe, menacing and restricted breed dogs to ensure that owners are compliant with the legislation and ensure these dogs do not pose a threat to the community.

In improver, the registration fee covers the cost of the Victorian Declared Canis familiaris Annals — a database that tracks and records all:

declared unsafe dogs
menacing dogs
guard dogs
restricted brood dogs.

Domestic dog seize with teeth and dog set on education programs

Registration fees for dogs and cats in the community contribute to the following canis familiaris bite prevention programs:

'Nosotros are Family' is a community education plan provided costless of accuse to expectant and new parents preparing or introducing a new family fellow member to a home with pets. The program provides learning tools for education sessions inside antenatal and maternal and kid health programs and data booklets and guides. The 'We are Family' Program offers components of the 'Living safely with dogs' program to families with infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
'Responsible Pet Buying and Living Safely with Dogs' programs provide free pet education visits to more than than 2600 chief and preschools in Victoria each yr. The program includes a visit from a trained pet educator and their domestic dog, costless curriculum activities, on-line games for children, parent training sessions and information booklets. The program teaches prophylactic around dogs and responsible pet ownership.
Gratuitous community dog seize with teeth prevention educational activity resources.

Emergency fauna welfare

Evacuation and relief centres

Your local council needs to know the number of dogs and cats within its municipality to ensure acceptable evacuation and relief centres with enough resource are provided for everyone who may demand to seek refuge with their animals.

Local councils also provide registration numbers of dogs and cats to supporting agencies and not-for-profit beast welfare agencies such as the RSPCA and Animal Aid. This is so they tin can provide assistance items similar:

cages
nutrient
bedding
bowls
leads
kitty litter
animal intendance staff
veterinary back up.

Identifying locations where animals may accept been left behind

Local council can likewise use registration information to identify homes where animals may have been left stranded in an evacuation. If yous do not register your animals, in the consequence of an emergency — no 1 will know they are there.

Registration could be the divergence between your animal being evacuated and cared for or non.

Exotic affliction and biosecurity

The Country Government uses pet registration data for responding to exotic affliction threats that affect cats and dogs. In the upshot of a disease outbreak, without proper noesis of the location of cats and dogs, the State Authorities does not know who to contact to prevent the spread or effectively program the eradication of the disease.

Research

The State Government uses pet registration fees every bit a source of funding for research into dog and true cat welfare. These research programs provide the government and the full general public with valid and reliable information to maximise the welfare of our pets.