February 18, 2015
South Burnett pensioners will be able to get a 50 per cent discount on dog registration fees from July 11, providing their dogs are desexed and microchipped.
The South Burnett Regional Council voted to introduce the discount at today’s general council meeting.
Cr Kathy Duff, who moved the motion, said it was difficult to estimate how much the discount would cost because council officers had no data on how many pensioners currently owned desexed and microchipped dogs.
But she believed the total cost was unlikely to be much more than $1600 a year.
The decision to give the discount provoked some discussion.
Cr Ros Heit said she was opposed to the idea because Council was already losing money on dog registrations.
“Right now it costs someone about $27 a year to register a desexed, microchipped dog,” she said.
“That’s about 50c a week. And in exchange we employ two full-time animal control officers who round up and return lost pets.”
Cr Heit said the discount amounted to a trivial amount for individuals, but added another cost burden to Council’s budget.
She was also concerned that ordinary ratepayers already heavily subsidise dog owners.
“Many of them are struggling with paying rates, and whenever we introduce a discount to one group then the rest of the South Burnett’s ratepayers have to pick up the tab.”
Cr Keith Campbell said he agreed the impact of the new discount was minimal, but thought the bigger message that microchipping and desexing pet dogs delivered big savings was important.
Cr Damien Tessmann said while he agreed with Cr Heit’s reasoning, he was inclined to support the new discount because the feedback he’d received was that most people would agree with the idea.
Cr Barry Green also agreed.
“I get lots of feedback on this every time the bills go out, and our neighbouring councils already do this,” he said.
“Not all Council services can pay their way and I think we have to accept that animal management is one of them.
“I have to support this on behalf of my community.”
Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said pets played an important role in many pensioners’ lives and if Council could make the burden of pet registration easier on them, it should.
However, he believed the Federal Government really should do more for pensioners.
“The Federal Government gets taxes from people all their lives and should be supporting them with discounts in their retirement rather than throwing the cost back on councils,” he said.
The motion to approve the new discount was carried 6 to 1, with Cr Heit opposed.
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