REDLAND City Council is being swamped with gripes about domestic pets, with 4450 complaints in the past financial year, mostly regarding dogs.
Of these, barking dogs topped the list, with council receiving 1252 requests for action on noisy pets.
A further 708 residents asked council to collect straying dogs and 337 reported aggressive and or dog attacks. A further 276 dogs left to roam by owners were reported.
A total of 549 queries related to cats.
Not all queries on pets were complaints, with some people simply asking for help with a stray.
Council has been under the pump over animal issues, particularly people letting their pets run on footpaths, conservation and sports reserves.
Last month it moved to contain a conservation issue on North Stradbroke Island by training up more staff to tackle owners who let pets roam.
Mayor Karen Williams said animal-related requests were high on the list of council services.
“We will also be looking at some other innovation and data capture in the near future that will be help understand the behaviour of pets across our city,” she said.
If an animal was annoying people, the first step should be to speak with the pet’s owner.
“After all, if your neighbour’s dog barks in their absence, it’s quite likely they are unaware of the issue and by speaking to them about it you could actually be bringing their attention to the fact that it occurs,” Cr Williams said.
“I suspect some people can be reluctant to approach their neighbours and others about the behaviour of their pets, which is understandable and of course council is here to help as much as we can.”
Redland domestic pet issues are not simply associated with population increase, with figures showing a 28 per cent rise in animal-related requests compared with five years ago.
The Redland population has increased by six per cent from 138,666 people in 2011 to 147,010 in 2016.
During the 2010/2011 financial year, 3530 requests for service were received, 1020 less than the number received in the past financial year.
During the 2005/2006 financial year, 3425 requests for service were received.
Most complaints were from home owners about neighbour's pets although statistics show that 708 calls were from people reporting a dog loose in a park or on a footpath.
