REDLAND City councillors have voted against a proposal to allow residents to own four dogs.
In a place where koalas are only just hanging on to remnant vegetation, it was the only decision council could reasonably take.
The draft laws went out for consultation seven months ago and reaped about 100 submissions, most of which opposed the change.
The size of the response shows that there are plenty of Redlanders who care about their koalas and other wildlife.
Humans have a tremendous impact on wildlife and the environment generally. You do not have to drive too far to see dead possums, birds, wallabies and so on strewn along roadsides. This is the impact from cars and the impact from pets is huge.
Cats are natural killers and their instinct to hunt is well ingrained. Dogs are possibly not quite so bad because more of them are constrained than cats.
But the impact of just one aggressive dog which is not constrained at night can be enormous. Wildlife carers have recounted multiple koala deaths from individual dogs whose owners refuse to contain them on private property.
Cr Julie Talty argued the case for an increase in dog ownership on larger properties, in effect to what amounts to a small pack. This is hardly a sound position given it is usually larger properties that have trees and undergrowth that may sustain wildlife that the community and council broadly seeks to protect.
It would have been at odds with its own policies if council had gone against this basic premise of protecting wildlife where possible.
As we have written before, animal control is a vexed and difficult issue for all local authorities. Much angst arises because some people believe their rights as a land holder and animal owner must have primacy over neighbours’ amenity and certainly over the safety of wildlife.
Others simply do not care.
Redland council has had a range of domestic pet and wildlife issues to tangle with for at least the past three years.
These have ranged from major and long-running canine attacks on wildlife on North Stradbroke Island to complaints about dogs off-leash on footpaths and in parks and conservation areas.
Councillors should be congratulated for the position they took.
