2015-12-07
Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) — My question is for the Minister for Agriculture and it is in regard to the Lost Dogs Home in North Melbourne. Just over eight months ago the minister's department completed an investigation into euthanasia rates and animal welfare at the Lost Dogs Home. The report found that the euthanasia rate had been declining over the previous six years but accommodation needed improvement. The department ordered the Lost Dogs Home to improve its reporting and report to the minister every six months.
The minister would be aware of recent reports in the media about conditions at the Lost Dogs Home, raised by former and current staff and board members, including dogs not being walked, programs being cut, the use of sedatives and ongoing accommodation issues. My question is: what action has the minister or her department taken in regard to these issues?
Ms PULFORD (Minister for Agriculture) — I thank Ms Pennicuik for her interest in this matter. As Ms Pennicuik indicated and as members would perhaps recall from comments made earlier this year, there was widespread community concern about what was described by most correspondents to me at the time as an unacceptably high euthanasia rate. The Lost Dogs Home is a domestic animal organisation whose operations are overseen by the Melbourne City Council. Some complaints came to the council and there were a great many people who signed petitions. In particular there was a very active online campaign to bring this matter to my attention.
My department has the capacity to conduct inspections to ensure compliance with the code of conduct, and that was undertaken. There were a number of areas where the Lost Dogs Home was required to make improvements to conditions and a number of other areas that the investigation found were acceptable and fully compliant with the code. There have been in the last couple of weeks further media reports along similar lines. There have been similar concerns around welfare standards at the Lost Dogs Home. I have sought advice from the department about this and my office has been in contact with the person who is now leading this organisation. There has been considerable change in the leadership and management of the Lost Dogs Home since these matters were first raised earlier this year.
There have been some challenges in properly understanding the sequence of these events and the times that different complaints have been made, but it is absolutely my expectation that any organisation will be compliant with the code. I know the Lost Dogs Home has experienced some pretty significant reputational damage, which I understand it is working very hard to overcome.
Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) — Has the minister received the first six-monthly report, what was in it and is that the extent of the monitoring that is being undertaken by the minister and her department of the Lost Dogs Home? We all support the Lost Dogs Home to be a successful organisation, but I am just wondering what was in the first six-month report and what other ongoing monitoring the minister is undertaking to make sure the Lost Dogs Home is successful.
Ms PULFORD (Minister for Agriculture) — I thank Ms Pennicuik for her supplementary question. The ongoing monitoring and requirement to ensure confidence that the code is being complied with actually sits with the Melbourne City Council, and it was as a consequence of discussions with the Lost Dogs Home earlier in the year and indeed that investigation when it was agreed that it would provide a six-monthly report to me. The matters that have been raised in the last couple of weeks in some respects are different to the matters that were raised initially. The initial public interest in this was particularly around the euthanasia rates. This is much more about conditions and overmedicating in particular.
In response to the first part of Ms Pennicuik's supplementary question, I have not received that report, but when I do certainly I will share its contents with an interested public and an interested Parliament.