Council understands pets play an important part in many people’s lives. They offer companionship, contribute to wellbeing and are part of the family. However, we also know that some people may choose not to have pets of their own and prefer to enjoy places that are pet free.

To make sure our communities and pets can live harmoniously and safely together and to protect our natural environment, we are developing our first Animal Management Plan. This plan will guide animal management services in our region.

Goal and focus areas

Our goal for the Animal Management Plan is to create a community that understands and respects the value of responsible pet ownership. To achieve our goal we’ll be focusing on the following areas.

This focus area places education at the core to empower our communities to make good decisions in the keeping of their pets to create a safe and harmonious community where pet and non-pet owners recognise each other’s needs. This may include initiatives and education programs to:

  • help pet owners understand their responsibilities
  • help reduce neighbourhood pet nuisances
  • encourage self-regulation by pet owners to minimise enforcement

This focus area improves liveability by providing safe, accessible and sustainable places where the community lives in harmony. A region where community safety risks are managed to allow people to enjoy our vibrant lifestyle. This may include initiatives such as:

  • Inspection programs for dangerous and menacing dogs
  • Proactive patrols of public places
  • Strong safety focus through legislative enforcement
  • Process for responding to dog attacks

This focus area engages our customers in a responsive and customer-focused approach to deliver services that are transparent, fair and accountable to build trust. Opportunities will be explored to integrate innovative solutions that improve service delivery to support responsible pet ownership.

This focus area aims to better connect with the region’s key industry groups to build trusted relationships that support positive animal management outcomes. This may include working collaboratively to deliver education programs and events, animal care, animal rehoming and other project initiatives.

The Animal Management Plan is guided by the Animal Management (Cats and Dogs) Act 2008 and Moreton Bay Regional Council’s Local Law and Subordinate Local Law No. 2 (Animal Management) 2011.

Community Engagement

We asked our communities for feedback in late 2021 to help inform the development of the Animal Management Plan. Thank you to the 700+ community members who took the time to complete the survey. You can read a summary of the feedback collected through the survey here.

Next steps

Our next step is to draft the Animal Management Plan using community’s feedback, input from key stakeholders, our research and best practice. Once the draft plan is ready, we will update the community.

If you want to stay informed and receive updates about the project, please register using the +Follow button at the top of the page.