Dog Attacks

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:37): I rise to speak on something that some may view, initially, as a little trivial, but I do not believe it is trivial because the consequences of it being unchecked can be significant in the community. I talk about this matter from some unfortunate personal experience pertaining to a lack of responsible dog ownership in the community.

I am a dog owner myself, and a proud dog owner, I might say. I have a beautiful little cocker spaniel. His name is Watson, and he is a terrific part of our family. On a number of occasions, he has been set upon by other dogs that have been off lead. There are, in my view, far too many serious dog attacks, and they are almost always a result of those dogs being off lead. Sometimes, of course, these attacks can be quite serious, resulting in significant injury. There are even, as no doubt members are aware, occasions when it can actually result in a fatality.

I decided to have a look at some of the detail on this and I discovered that the Dog and Cat Management Board revealed that there were some 2,256 incidents of dog attacks or 'harassments', as they are categorised, reported to local councils across our state in the last financial year alone. They suggested to me that from that register their estimate is that councils are notified of only approximately one in five such incidents.

If you are doing some rough numbers on that, it is 10,000 or 11,000 incidents per year across South Australia where somebody reaches the category of 'harassment', however that is defined, by a dog, and as I say it is typically off-lead dogs. To put this into perspective, there are conservatively on average at least six incidents of significant dog aggression or actual attacks that occur every single day in South Australia.

The attack register I referred to enables victims to detail the circumstances under which the attacks occurred, and it appears that far too many involve dogs that were either off leash or well beyond the control of their handlers. It is evident that many South Australian dog owners are either unaware of their responsibilities under our current laws or deliberately choose to ignore them, risking the safety of other people and their pets. It is important to note that owners and handlers are required under law to keep dogs on leashes not exceeding two metres in length in all public places, as well as in private places in the absence of the express consent of occupiers that they may be off leash.

They must also be on leash when walking on public roads and footpaths unless signposts indicate otherwise. Of course, there are certain areas where dogs can appropriately be off leash. There are certain times in certain areas where they can be off leash and the councils have designated those spaces, and I support that. I am not saying that dogs should be on lead at all times but it is important that public safety is maintained, the safety of other dogs and the safety, most importantly, of other people.

The term that is used with respect to dog handlers is that their dog should be under 'effective control at all times'. That means that they reliably respond to commands and they obey those commands, and are also in close proximity to their owner or the handler of the dog. If a dog is not deemed to be under effective control it is required to be kept on leash even in those spaces where a leash is not necessarily required at all times.

The Australian government's Institute of Health and Welfare stated that in the 2013-14 year almost 4,000 Australians were hospitalised due to dog-related injuries. The majority of these victims were aged between birth and nine years old, with 74 per cent suffering injuries to the head. These are horrific statistics, particularly due to the susceptibility of babies and children sustaining life-threatening or fatal injuries which unfortunately, as per the statistics that I have just quoted, occur way too often.

Most dog lovers would regard their pet as being under control and that they are unlikely to respond in the way that would contravene our legislation. However, my personal experience is that when walking our pet cocker spaniel not far from our home down at the River Torrens, he was set upon by a very unlikely, I would have thought, breed of animal—it was a Labrador and they are very unlikely to set upon another dog. However, this Labrador was walking off lead next to his owner and then quite unpredictably, and without anything to indicate otherwise, it just took off and essentially tried to take on Watson and essentially kill him—I think that was the intention—it was very, very violent. I am pleased for members to hear that Watson is okay but it was a nasty incident, and I urge all dog owners to take care of their animals and keep them on lead when they can.