At their council meeting on Tuesday night, councillors discussed the three options laid out in the agenda for tighter controls on the breeding of dogs.
Murray River Council mayor Chris Bilkey said because of the changing laws in Victoria, the council had seen more dog breeding facility applications come to NSW.
“With this comes a considerable amount of objections from a range of people from both sides of the river, particularly those concerned about how these facilities are run and ensuring they are run properly,” he said.
“The legislation in NSW lags behind Victoria so our officers came up with the three proposals on how we might respond.
“We had proposals ranging from banning these facilities altogether right through to doing nothing.”
The councillors decided to combine two of the options that were proposed to them.
“We chose the option that would allow us to amend our Local Environment Plan and Development Control Plan which would allow the council to tighten up our own compliance requirements in relation to the facilities and somewhat bring them into line with Victorian regulations,” Cr Bilkey said.
“Secondly, we wanted to urgently seek action on the part of the State Government to accelerate it's program to legislate for these types of establishments.”
Cr Bilkey said the changes would not affect the current developments in the region.
“We can't make the changes retrospective for the plans we have already approved, but we can encourage the state, that has the responsibility for oversight on plans such as these, to become more active in monitoring them,” he said.
“We don't want to have an outbreak of so-called ‘puppy farms’ or essentially factories that produce pups in our footprint.”
While it may not be a full ban, NSW Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst said it was a good start.
“Implementing amendments to include caps on breeding dog numbers and caps on the amount of litters a breeding dog can have, is a step in the right direction for improving the lives of dogs in the Murray River Council area,” she said.
“We already know of two new developments that will be built near Moama, without urgent action there will likely be even more.”
Ms Hurst has continued to work to bring tighter legislations into NSW that would put a stop to "puppy farms".
“I am currently in the process of drafting legislation that will ensure our laws are as effective at protecting dogs as they are across the border and with councils facing an influx of puppy farm operators moving in, a state ban is urgently needed,” she said.
“Over 26,000 people have now signed my petition to ban puppy farming in NSW. It is clear that this is a significant community issue that demands urgent action.”
If you would like to sign Ms Hurst's petition, you can find it here.
