Sources:
NSW Department of Primary Industries website |
NSW Government Division of Local Government |
Greyhound Racing NSW
Acts:
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979 (PDF available at link / Last amended Jul-2013)
Note this Act does not apply to the use and handling of police dogs by police officers, or drug detection dogs by officers of the Department of Corrective Services, in the course of their duties, as part Part 3, Section 35A.
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Regulation 2012 (Last amended Jun-2013)
Companion Animal Act 1998 (PDF available at link / Last amended Jan-2012)
Greyhound Racing Act 2009 No 19 (Last amended Jan-2012)
Codes of practice:
Code of practice for the care and training of assistance dogs in correctional centres (Click to visit website)
Code of practice for the care and management of farm (working) dogs (Click to visit website)
NSW Code of Practice No 9 – Security Dogs (Click to visit website)
Animal Welfare Code of Practice – Breeding dogs and cats (PDF available at link)
Greyhound Racing NSW Mandatory Code of Practice – For the keeping of greyhounds in training (PDF / Background)
Registration & microchipping:
Greyhounds registered in accordance with the rules under the Greyhound Racing Act 2009 (“registered racing greyhounds”) are exempt from the identification and lifetime registration requirements of the Companion Animals Act 1998. The microchipping of registered racing greyhounds is therefore considered to be “voluntary”.
Livestock working dog If your livestock working dog is ordinarily kept in the Western Division of NSW that does not fall within a local government area or on land rated as farmland, it does not have to be microchipped or registered. You will not have to pay to register your livestock working dog. All other livestock working dogs have to be microchipped and registered, however, no fee is payable to register a livestock working dog. A livestock working dog that has been declared as a nuisance dog, a restricted dog or a declared dangerous dog, must be microchipped and registered with your local council. Dogs in rural communities brochure.
Assistance dogs Must be microchipped and lifetime-registered but there is no registration fee payable. The Companion Animals Act 1998 defines an assistance animal as an animal referred to in section 9 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 of the Commonwealth. That section refers to a guide dog, a dog trained to assist a person in activities where hearing is required and any other animal trained to assist a person to alleviate the effect of a disability. It does not include therapy dogs at this time. For the purposes of registering an animal as an assistance animal in NSW, recognised training organisations include the NSW Guide Dogs Association, Assistance Dogs for Independence, Assistance Dogs Australia and Lions Hearing Dogs Inc. An animal that has been trained or educated by any other organisation, or its owner, is not considered to be an assistance animal for the purposes of registration under the Companion Animals Act 1998. A genuine assistance animal will be desexed. It will have papers and/or an identification disc indicating that it is an assistance animal and the disability that it is being, or has been trained, to assist.
All other dogs must be microchipped, prior to sale/transfer and by 12 weeks of age and registered by six months of age.
Desexing: Recommended before six months of age, but not mandatory.
Electronic collars/devices: Not permitted. Section 16 of the Act, Section 13 and Schedule 1 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (General) Regulation 1996 and Schedule 1 make the use of electric dog collars illegal. One exception to this rule is electric collars associated with canine invisible boundaries. These are not illegal provided the canine invisible boundary is used to confine dogs, but only used inside a fence through which dogs cannot pass and that is not less than 1.5 metres high.
Tail docking: Not permitted Further information
Identification: All dogs, except livestock working dogs, are required to wear a collar and tag showing dog’s name and you address or contact number when, outside its own property.