The City of Canning became one of the state’s first ‘pro-life’ local governments for cats and dogs after councillors unanimously agreed to investigate the policy change at their August 16 ordinary meeting of council.
City officers now have until October to draft a policy to outline the city’s preference to rehoming dogs and cats rather than euthanising them.
Councillors also requested the city enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Dogs Refuge Home in Shenton Park and the Animal Protection Society in Southern River that they be the city’s preferred rehoming agencies.
Canning councillor and former Dogs Refuge Home chief executive Patrick Hall brought the item before councillors.
He said with 150,000 dogs being euthanised in Australia every year it was important something was done.
“We had no real policy around that whole issue, the rehoming of dogs is a major mitigation strategy for euthanasia and that reduces that kill rate,” he said.
“A pro-life policy is about protecting the welfare of animals.
“It’s intentionally called pro-life because the language is really important.
“Pro-life speaks about life and euthanasia speaks about death, this is about preserving life and that’s the philosophy behind this.”
He said local government was the biggest battleground in animal welfare and he was pleased that councillors agreed to look at the policy.
“Reform in the animal welfare sector, I think the battleground is local government,” he said.
“I think in some way this aligns the values of the community with the values of the council.”
Shenton Park Dogs Refuge Home chief executive Judy Flanagan and Animal Protection Society president Clare Mills both welcomed the move.
Ms Flanagan said they already worked with the city to try and rehome dogs but a pro-life policy was a good move.
“Australia has one of the highest euthanasia rates in relation to dogs in the world particularly in comparison to Europe and rehoming isn’t easy,” she said.
“I think it’s a significant step, one we’d love to see more widely around Australia and to be honest I think it is the way the animal welfare sector is generally heading.”
Ms Mills said many dogs are put down that would have made great family pets.
“It can only benefit the dogs of course because so many of them are put to sleep when they are able to be homed,” she said.
Canning councillors were expected to consider the draft policy at the October ordinary council meeting.
